Stifle op and sleeping standing up

[midimoos]

I am curious, people have said that a horse is unable to sleep standing after the op but if this is true then how does the horse figure this out? Do they think they have locked their legs then fall asleep and suddenly fall over? Lol. I really don't understand the full effect of having the op and would like to know a little more as my boy is making me wonder if this might be necessary as picking out his feet is becoming an issue

[donnalex]

Hopefully they manage to get to sleep because their legs are locked. If their legs dont safely lock they probably dont relax enough to actually get to sleep and will learn to lie down to sleep out of tiredness and necessity. I wouldnt worry they are adaptable.

[calekio]

When maddi had the op last year she panicked me as she would go to sleep standing up.. Or trying.. But would sway from side to side.. I had to ask vet if it was normal and he said it was most likely her figuring out her legs wouldn't lock. After that she spent a lot of time laying down which made sense if she couldn't stand up and sleep.
A year on.. She doesn't lock... She will rest stood up but she is quite alert still and lays down a lot more than the others... She has a tale tale if she is tired but won't lay down say if horrible rain... She does the swaying side to side! Lol which then normally I'll bring her into a stable for a few hours to lay down and rest.
She did really have to figure out what her legs could and couldn't do.. When she first had it done and came off box rest.. She couldn't handle frozen rutted mud.. Made her sore.. But she also couldn't walk backwards.. And still can't easily.. And I do remember her falling over a few times when she tried to turn quickly or back up and she left her legs behind! Lol

[holi]

calekio I have pm'd you as I wanted to ask your opinion of the op

[calekio]

Received and replied

[izzy]

Calekio- I dont know what age maddi is but ifshe is old enough have you ridden since the op??If you have how has this affected her? thanks

My filly has locking stifle hoping she will grow out of it

[calekio]

She is 5 now Izzy.. we haven't ridden her but more for the fact she is very immature.. she looks like a weedy runty 2yr old! lol Lots of filling out to do now hopefully she has stopped growing upwards! lol

We gave her time to try and out grow it.. but she didn't and just got worse.. severel affected both hind legs every single step she took she would lock up, then release instantly causing a jerky movement which was painful.. stabling helped her a bit exercise made her worse! She was sold as a foal and developed it in that home but they didn't do anything to help it.. so when they returned her to me at 3yrs old she was locking badly.. also had uncontrolled sweet itch which ment she would often kick her belly with her hind legs which i'm sure didn't help.
We tried for 18 months with her getting worse and worse.. she was agressive to people due to the pain, she was unsocialable with people and horses and generally miserable... different pony after the operation..
My vet said she will be fine to do ridden work.. and we have every intention of breaking her once she has finishing maturing and filled out and developed some muscle. She careers round the field well, bucking, jumping, rearing.. you'd never know she had the problem to be honest unless you knew what you were looking at! lol

I've had others who've had locking stifles and they have outgrown it and gone on to have normal lives, being ridden with no issues, but they were never as bad as her... just occassionally use to lock and stay locked and we had to help them release the leg.