Pea's Physio Treatment

Pea had a visit from the physio today as he's been a bit stiff behind over the past week or two and I wanted a different opinion. Etti Cook is highly recommended where I live and she comes on a regular basis to the yard so it saves paying travelling costs. 

Etti took Pea's background and then saw him walk and trot up as well as turn on a tight circle. She agreed that he seemed slightly stiffer on one leg compared to the other but the stiffness was shown in both hind legs. As she felt along his back she noted that there was some tension, more so on the right side than the left, but she feels that it stems from his hind legs. When she picked his hind legs up to stretch them, he had a bit of a grumpy moment when she did it too much or too high which re-iterated the fact that his stiffness definitely stems from his hind legs. Last year, I had the vet out to Pea for his vaccinations and also got him checked then and he mentioned potential stiffness in his stifles. 

The plan is to gradually build his work back up again and do pole work in walk to get him to really use his hind quarters and lift them up which will help with his back. Hopefully the weather will warm up as well which will help but if he's not a great deal better by March then I'm going to get the vet out to have a better examination of his stifles as that is probably where the problem is. 

Fingers crossed it's not too serious but he should hopefully feel looser, he just needs to lift his hind legs more! 

Thanks for reading,

Laura xx