"I have a very handsome 20 yr old Quarab gelding, who was my first horse, and is showing signs of his age. He has dropping fetlocks, which forced us to put him into a semi-retired life style. At first they wern't that bad, but now as he gets older they are dropped a lot, and basically touch the ground when he moves.
His back legs are the worst..."
.
DSLD-ESPA discussion of 22 y/o Arab broodmare with dropped fetlocks. Owner would like to ride this mare. Other horses with this condition are discussed and some owners provide photos. Click here for thread
Esmeralda is a Paso, a Peruvian breed of horse with a smooth swaying gait. They are charming animals, but their breed is prone to DSLD, a disease where little tears form in the ligaments, but do not repair with the same elasticity as before. Eventually a horse with DSLD cannot walk or stand. They are in constant pain. There is no cure.
my gelding (quarter horse) who I put down almost exactly one year ago. He was diagnosed with DSLD about 7 months before he died. Notice his low rear fetlocks. He had been having hard to identify hind end lameness, and back pain when the vet diagnosed him. We stopped ridding, put on corrective shoes and made him comfortable. He started laying down a lot and had a hard time keeping on weight. Just 4 week after I bought a new horse to ride, my gelding presented with colic. No impaction, no gas bubble, but it sure looked like colic. After 48hrs 4 vet calls (two tubings), fluids, blood work and no improvement it was obvious he was dying. The vet said they suspected it was some sort of organ failure, not colic.Obviously, we need more education regarding DSLD-ESPA. False colic is but one of the myriad of symptoms we see as the horse breaks down. It bears repeating. DSLD-ESPA is a systemic connective tissue disease that can affect the legs, but it is NOT a leg disease. Breakdown of the suspensory ligaments is an outward symptom of the chaos that starts in many parts of the animal's connective tissues and progresses through acute degeneration and phases of relative stability. Necropsy results have shown that horses are affected in tendons, ligaments, eyes, aorta, internal organs, and skin.
The day we put Marimba to sleep, I woke up thinking about Tina, my dog, who missed her 16th birthday by two weeks. I rescued her at six weeks old, and she had been with me ever since. It was the first time I had been faced with making *that* kind of decision. I found it odd that upon waking, Tina was the one in my thoughts instead of Marimba, but there she was.
Goodbyes are never easy, especially when they are final. Worse yet is the goodbye we must say when we made the decision. I made the choice not to end her life, but to end her pain. We like to think they'll be better off. We say goodbye dear friend. I love you. I will miss you. But whether or not they understand us, we don't know. There's regret, a very heavy heart, and a void left where there was once joy.
Marimba's final moments were spent here at home with me and my husband saying Goodbye. My vet offered to load Marimba on the trailer, take her away, and euthanize her at the clinic. But I couldn't bear the thought of her final moments being afraid in an unfamiliar place with strangers. It is important to say goodbye. And so we did.
Death is Nothing at All
by Henry Scott Holland (1847-1918)
Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
I am I, and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other,
that we still are.
Call me by my old familiar name.
Speak to me in the easy way
which you always used.
Put no difference in your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed
at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word
that it always was.
Let it be spoken without affect,
without the trace of a shadow on it.
Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same that it ever was.
There is absolutely unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind
because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you,
for an interval,
somewhere very near,
just around the corner.
All is well.
In fact, Dr. Gus Cothran is hot on the trail of genes that may be linked with DSLD and is focusing on areas where genetic changes have been described in association with human diseases that bear a strong resemblance to equine DSLD, such as the Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.
Ehlers-Danlos is actually a constellation of several different types of connective tissue disorders, with different genetic changes, so pinning this down could take some time if the situation in horses is similar. There are many clinical similarities between E-D and DSLD. In addition to the abnormal ligaments and tendons, human patients may have changes in their intestinal-tract walls, which leads to bouts of abdominal pain, eye changes, arterial changes and odd progeria (premature aging) or very loose skin. The hope is that the genetic work will eventually lead to a diagnostic test for DSLD. For the moment, most involved with this disease feel very strongly that affected horses should not be bred.
More Paso Fino owners have been showing up on the D/E (shortening
DSLD/ESPA for equine systemic proteoglycan accumulation) yahoo list
lately with positive cases. Along with a lot of other breeds. Latest
one a Percheron/Morgan cross. There is currently a DSLD positive Paso
Fino at a rescue here in WAshington state who's 38 yrs old! I was
amazed the old fellow's still around.
Just to add re symptoms:
early symptoms often are vague- slight 'offness' in gait, fetlock
swelling that might come and go, resistance to work in a horse that's
normally a forward mover. Fetlocks don't always drop, a good number of
horses remain pretty upright or even contract up. One of my Peruvian
cases dropped, the other's angles actually contracted over time. And a
lot of evidence now that tendons are affected as much and sometimes
more than suspensories. My gelding also had very loose skin, something
some but not all seem to show. Latest thinking of researcher Dr.
Jaroslava Halper at Univeristy of Georgia is that it's systemic
connective tissue disease similar to Marfans disease in humans. It has
to progress to a certain point before it can be identified in the legs
through the current diagnostic protocol, which can befound at the link
posted or also at Dr. Mero's site, dsld.org. The protocol includes flex
tests and ultrasounds by a vet who needs to know where and how to do
the measurements.
Coon footed horse/DSLD put down?
I have a coon footed pony thats hind legs have dropped so far, he has completely straight legs now(not even an angle at the hock). He is 4 yrs old and is on stall rest. The vet gave him 5 months before he will be in so much pain he will have to be euthanized.
I Dont see the point in keeping him around for five months just to be in pain. Maybe if there was a good outcome but sense theres not is there really a point?
I think it would be best to put him to sleep now and not have him suffer at all...but a certain someone is saying it would be extremely selfish to do that.
Is it selfish to put him down before he is in pain or goes crazy from being stuck in a stall? I thought it would be doing him a favor.Additional Details
My vet gave him 5 months before his pasterns would be hitting the ground and he would be in a lot of pain. Right now his hocks are hurting him doe to the straightness in his legs.
From the Horse.com Forum
13 y/o Peruvian Paso
http://forum.horse.com/tm.asp?m=767749&mpage=1I am wondering if anyone has experience with dsld horses. I have a Peruvian Paso mare that is around 13 years old and has been having some issues. She started about 5 years ago and then stabilized with a barefoot natural trim. It seems as if things have been progressing and she is having more troubles walking with her hinds- very dropped fetlocks and tight muscles, walking wide, ect. I have the vet coming out today, but wondering if anyone had any other ideas.
Degenerative Suspensory Ligament Desmitis (DSLD) Can Affect Andalusians
IALHA member Peggy Meeker had never heard of Degenerative Suspensory Ligament Desmitis (DSLD) before she bought her Andalusian gelding RBF Banador 13 years ago. Since that time, though, she has become all too familiar with the disease. She decided to share her story in hope that it might be of help to others who find themselves facing similar situations.
Later, when the stumbling continued, Peggy decided to investigate further. She noted that the left hind pastern looked very different from the right hind pastern. Because DSLD is a degenerative condition, this ‘looking different’ became increasingly noticeable over time. Peggy’s vet eventually diagnosed Banador with DSLD after sonograms and x-rays.
From: http://www.freewebs.com/userl-tidewater/tidewatershorses.htm
Lady and Freckles (Two registered TBs). 
I don't have anything else new to post about, so here's a link to a Question posted on Yahoo Answers from the young owner of an Arab cross asking people to look at pictures of her gelding and tell her if her horse has DSLD. I tried to post an answer (even though the question is a couple of months old); however, Yahoo won't let me post or even vote. Don't know why. So if you have a Yahoo account, please try to post an answer directing the owner over to the DSLD-Equine forum for answers. And don't be too shocked at some of the answers posted in response to her question.
Interesting article on suspensory ligament injuries. Note the last sentence in the quote below. I wonder if any of the nonresponsive horses were examined for DSLD/ESPA according to Dr Mero's protocols.
High Suspensory Ligament Injuries in Horses: "While shock wave therapy is able to help most of the non-resolving cases, there are specifically difficult situations. First, older horses seem not to respond as well to therapy and in my experience seem prone to re-injury. Second, horses with hind limb high suspensory injuries are often career threatening. While the horse can return to a reasonable degree of athleticism it is often at a lower level than where they were at the time of injury. And finally, horses with progressive chronic dropping of the fetlock are often not responsive to therapy."
Hmmm, a couple more links:
http://www.bluebonnetequine.org/about/contact.htm
http://www.topix.net/forum/city/eubank-ky/T0D2905NHMTM83DHU/p2 (scroll down to last post)
Could this be a trend? Note on the equine rescue website it states:
Crimson was donated after developing Degenerative Suspensory Ligament Desmitis (DSLD).
And here's a quote from the second link:
The breeders in Peru would cull horses that had any defects by shooting them. They would not sell them or even give them away because they did not want these faults in either gait, confirmation, or temperament passed down. Breeders in this country get rid of their culls in a different way, they sell them to some unsuspecting person. At one time I thought the Peruvian Pasos were probably the safest horse to buy. I have changed my mind completely though since DSLD is very common in the Peruvians now.
for comments like this one found in this forum. Scroll about halfway down the page. Look at the picture with the caption It was painful to see this poor Peruvian
on the Fugly Horse blog. Click and scroll down to read/view picture.
 |
|  |
