Final Words on Solidare and DSLD

Over the course of the spring I posted a couple of blog posts Degenerative Suspensory Ligament Desmitis and then
More on DSLD, Degenerative Suspensory Ligament Desmitis
about the illness known as DSLD. The motivation of my posts had very much to do with people's criticism of my breeding my mare, Solidare, who had dropped fetlocks. It's been clear from the start that dispite information to the contrary many people assume any horse with dropped fetlocks is a victim of that disease and therefore should not be considered a breeding horse. I had hoped more information might educate people so I put myself out there but pretty much things did not change. Most kept a tight lip, their beliefs to themselves and continued to believe that Solidare was a DSLD mare.

As a breeder I take my job very seriously and would never consider breeding an animal I thought would contribute harmful genes to the breed or maybe even worse yet, produce animals that would be unable to perform the purpose for which they have been bred because of a heritable disease. Not only can I not afford to make such a mistake, I believe it is unethical to engage in such practices. My belief about Solidare was based on my experience with the mare and had nothing to do with some thick layer of denial shielding me from the real truth.

I remember my first encounter with that accusation that I wouldn't see something right before my eyes because of denial. It was about the condition of my daughter, Lindsay, after her brain surgery. Those doctors in the rehabitilitation division of Seattle Children's discharged Lindsay when she was still in a wheel chair and required 24 hour a day care. My insistance that Lindsay had way more progress to make was met with closed minds on the part of the professionals. I was the one accused of being closed off and unwilling to see reality. Yet today, Lindsay is my number one help around this place. She has so far exceeded the expectations of any of those "experts" they don't even know what hit them.

I guess the current question about my beliefs would have to do with Solidare's condition and my supposed denial about that as well. Were Solidare's dropped fetlocks really due to the ill fated pregnancy so many years ago as I believe, or were they because of disease? The only way to answer that question would be examination after death. DSLD which has been renamed Equine Systemic Proteoglycan Accumulation can only be determined by visual inspection of affected organs and tissues. For a diagnosis of the disease it takes the presence of excessive amounts of proteoglycans in affected tissues. "Abnormal accumulation of proteoglycans between collagen and elastic fibers rather than specific collagen fibril abnormalities is the most prominent histological feature of DSLD"

Being a person who challenges my own thinking as a way to keep myself on track, I felt I should have this question answered despite my beliefs. With three daughters of Solidare's that I very much want to breed and now a colt who looks like he will be stallion quality, it's pretty darn important I not make a mistake. I'd made the decision early on when the time came, Solidare would be examined to be absolutely sure I was on the right page.

Unfortunately on Solidare's last day, I was a basket case and the thought of examining my mare for this disease was the farthest thing from my mind. It was NOT, however, the farthest thing from my vet's mind who knows me well enough to know what I would want. Solidare was carefully examined to the specific cause of her dropped fetlocks.

My vet found that Solidare's achilles tendon had migrated. Specifically the achilles tendon is the combined superficial and deep flexor tendon. Not only can trauma occur to cause issues with the legs but the tendon is susceptible to luxation where it comes out of normal track and runs over the calcaneus (this is the back bone that forms the hock). Although this situation indeed happened at the end of the pregnancy where Soldiare went well passed her due date and was over saturated with the hormones responsible for relaxing the pelvic area readying the birth canal for the passage of the foal, it is hard to know if the relaxation itself caused the problem or some external force on the tendon in it's relaxed state caused it. Either way it is considered to be an injury. The luxation (movement) of the tendon from it's normal track is the injury responsible for Solidare's dropped fetlocks.

In addition the tissues were examined and found to be normal and healthy showing no signs of the disease. Thus further supporting the fact the dropped fetlocks resulted not from disease to any tissue but from injury.

Fortunately, in this situation with Solidare, I was there to experience what had happened to my mare. Because I saw first hand the changes in the mare's body from the excess hormones I was able to understand how she ended up dropping in the fetlocks, as was my vet at the time. I think this is important because had it been different, Solidare might have never had another foal. Considering the quality of those foals I think that might be considered a loss to the breed as a whole as well as a loss to my breeding program.

I doubt that Solidare was an isolated case. It is safe to assume if she ended up in this situation from injury, others horses do as well. I would hope that people dealing with individuals with dropped fetlocks but have no idea how or when the situation developed might be opened minded to the possibility that DSLD is not always the only answer. It would be a shame to lose some individuals from the breeding pool for something that was "assumed" instead of something based on fact.

I've known for years that it is not uncommon to find old broodmares dropped in the fetlocks like Solidare. Following along the development of their produce has revealed no recurrence of this phenomenon. Mostly it's occurrence seems to manifest in mares who have had many foals or gone well over term. Some of those over term occurrences have been even more dramatic than dropped fetlocks. I have seen mares lose the strength in the straps to their backs causing them to drop dramatically. Just another example of what can happen when Mother Nature over does her job but important to know when you're a breeder trying to figure out what is good stock to breed and what is not.

NOTE: I didn't do this post to vindicate Solidare. In my mind she needed no vindication. I always knew she was a great mare. Nothing has changed. I did this for her foals, they deserve to be valued as the individuals that they are and not condemned based on misinformation and fear. They deserve the opportunity to contribute to this breed I love so much. I hope they get the opportunity to do that.


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