digital pulse

[Dummer&Drummer]

ithought it would be a good idea to get to know my pony a bit better now i am not in a school environment

i thought it would be a good idea to get to know his pulse in his feet as i have been told that a digital pulse is an earlier sign that can tell you your horse is about to go footy etc

i sort of know it is at the side/back of the legs where it goes in just below the ankles at the front?

i could not find it yesterday :D although this could be a good thing right, or i am just not looking in the right place :)

[becs]

Let's hope Pinks Lady reads this - I'm pretty sure it was her that posted a brill diagram of where to grope, ages ago. Helped us find ours!

Sort of an H shape from the back - probably find such info in horsey text books too.

Sorry I can't help more.

[capalldubh]

Prob a good thing you can't find one!

I found one (several in fact) for the first time a few weeks ago - not a nice thing to discover. Footiness did indeed follow (just about better now).

I put my fingers on the fetlock joint, then just slide down the ankle very slightly. To each side, I can feel a little groove (I guess where the tendons run?) and just about there, if you are very patient and the horse doesn't move, you can feel a faint pulse.

If raised, it is much easier to find. Jackson's was not fast or "bounding" (though I'm still not too sure how that would feel), but I could feel it and I can't normally.

The vet previously said she checks actually on the fetlock joint, but I can never find this one for some reason.

More guidance, PL, please :)

[Dummer&Drummer]

yes please PL
and can we use words like leg and ankle and not fetlock etc :rolleyes: :)

[Mehitabel]

the trouble is, fetlock is precise - ankle could mean a number of places. it's worth learning the main points of the horse, then you can be much more precise about things like this when the horse isn't in front of you.

here's one for the whole body - http://www.crofter.com/images/2362w.gif
and i am trying to find one of just the lower leg. watch this space, will add if i find one.

a bounding pulse is unmistakeable once you've felt one - it really does hammer, like it would if you took yours having run up several flights of stairs.
some horses do have a digital pulse when at rest - you're quite right to want to know what is normal for him so you can see quickly when it changes.

[becs]

capalldubh's reply is just what our vet said last time she visited (memories flooding back now) - feel for the bundle of tendon one side and palpate (flat fingers) there.

[capalldubh]

D&D - I prefer leg and ankle myself - just that the vet tends to say fetlock joint and the tendon bundle thingy... So that's me trying to put it in vet speak ;)

This is an interesting thread - it's difficult when you know you need to check it as Mehitabel says to know what's normal, but you can't find any pulse. So does that mean there's no pulse or that you're looking in the wrong place?

I think based on last week, even if you don't normally find one, if there is a raised one and you grope in approximately the right place, you'll feel it.

Same story with "is this hoof hotter than the others?" - I often wondered, until one hoof actually was, then all became clear :o

[mogadoga]

I was told you cant feel it unless there is heat there etc causing lameness etc?

[andreaB]

in the instance that nothings wrong & you have a hairy horse it can be tricky to find esp when not sure what you are looking for as its not that strong in most horses

it can be easier to find if you try clipping the pastern area so that you can find the digital artery easily

[becs]

When my daughter did work experience with an equine vet, they said it's nearly impossible to feel in thick feathers.

[Pink's lady]

uch, don't ask me about pulses. I can never find them and should, in theory, know where I'm looking. I spent most of last week in Small Animal ICU trying, and failing, to find pulses for all the morning TPR's:o

THIS is the fabled diagram of the blood vessels of the lower limbs, drawn by my own fair hand (and Paint):D :p

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v715/Pinkslady/Editted%20photos%20etc/limbbloodvessels.jpg

This is the palmer/planter veiw (from the back) - the vessels (the medial and lateral digital arteries) can be felt if you lighty run your finger tips over the soft skin at the back of the pasterns just to either side if the mid-line. You will need to spend a while doing since the heartrate is fairly slow and you'll miss it is you're too fast.

[Dummer&Drummer]

thanks PL
so where the red lines are i may be able to find a faint pulse? (where is the pastern) - sorry just looked at Methabel's parts of horse picture.

is it at the sides below the bottom of the ankle that sticks out and above the heel (the bit that goes in)

[martini55]

The way I find it is I run my 2nd and 3rd finger down the back of the fetlock. As I do that I move my fingers to the left and right (not very much), sort of like strumming I guess. As you get down to where the digital pulse is you'll feel something go 'ping' and if you press really hard round about there you can normally find it. It's really faint and hard to find unless there is something wrong IME. I have no idea what it is that goes ping, PL will probably be able to explain what that is. Sorry I'm not the best at explaining things!

[Pink's lady]

The red lins are the arteries, so yes, you'll find a pulse in them.

is it at the sides below the bottom of the ankle that sticks out and above the heel (the bit that goes in)

eh, you need to be a bit more specific. You mean the fetlock as the 'ankle'? The place your checking is the back of the bone between the fetlock and the coronary band. - the bit where mud fever loves to live.

martini - the bit going 'ping' is the artery - they have a little bit of movement - when you run it under your fingers you drag if with you until it can't go any further and it pings back.

[Dummer&Drummer]

between the fetlock and the wall of the hoof - that part the part in the middle but either side at the back

is this the same place i am describing (sorry) :)

really sorry for this description, but it is what i can relate to - picture in my head lol

from the BACK you have the back of the horses knee then towards the bottom before the back of the hoof you have that sticky out bone, then it dips in and then you have the back of the hoof

i mean the dippy in bit at the back is the pulse there on the sides :rolleyes: did anyone follow that technical wording :eek: :)

[Jessey]

I can try to translate :D
Start at the knee - thats pretty obvious - still called the knee :D
Then you have the shin - the cannon :D
Then the ankle joint - the fetlock joint :D
Then the short bone above the foot - the pastern :D
Then the top of the foot/wall where the fur stops - coronet :D
Then obviously the foot below that :D

the pulse is found, a bit to the side in the dippy in bit, you will feel a bit of a dippy in noth that 3 finger tips will sort of slot into, then you should be able to feel the pulse but you might have to wiggle about a bit to find it - they are all different :D

[Dummer&Drummer]

that is it, that is where the dippy bit is and now i have to go and play and feel a baboom baboom, or hopefully not should i say :D and get right in the hair yes and play around there, should be very faint and slow or maybe not at all to the untrained Mrs Hand

methabel - you need to alter your picture to include dippy bit in parts of the horse and also thanks PL :) X

[capalldubh]

Yup, dippy in bit - I would say thinnest part of the leg on my boy, just immediately above where hair stops (yes we have no feathers :) ). The leg there is round, and you can just about wrap your hand around it. Bit like your own wrist, you can feel things running down that aren't bones, along little grooves on the outside and inside of it.

That's where I felt the bad nasty pulse - but now I can't find it again no matter how hard I try - and this is making me very happy :D (we now think it was bruised soles due to mad behaviour in field with flat feet newly rid of shoes).

Thanks, PL - I am always happiest with a diagram and yours made me more confident I was feeling in the right place (and that there is more than one place to look - the vet seems to look higher up, just below where your artery branches).

[Chip]

I tried many times to find the digital pulse - and failed:confused: In the end, I asked my farrier to SHOW me exactly where to feel. Thanks for the diagram though PL, that's a great help - even now :blush:;)

[Dummer&Drummer]

i had a go last night and i could not feel one in the left foot but i could find 'maybe' a very very very mild slow intermittent one in the right....not sure if this is good or not :rolleyes: nothing to worry about though. ill keep trying - good to get to know this :)

isnt it hard as when i reach down and put my head down, the blood rushes to my head and i start pounding, so that is maybe what i felt :D

[Pink's lady]

between the fetlock and the wall of the hoof - that part the part in the middle but either side at the back

is this the same place i am describing (sorry)

really sorry for this description, but it is what i can relate to - picture in my head lol

from the BACK you have the back of the horses knee then towards the bottom before the back of the hoof you have that sticky out bone, then it dips in and then you have the back of the hoof

i mean the dippy in bit at the back is the pulse there on the sides did anyone follow that technical wording

Now I am really confused:o Sounds like you're got it though. You should be able to feel a pulse all the time - I'd be seriously worried if the horses didn't have a pulse! It's only when it's 'bounding' that there's a problem.

[mogadoga]

Ahhh, ive felt a DP before, but with a lamanitic pony, both mild and harsh. But thought you couldnt feel it if they were in perfect health.....But i suppose thaqts like saying we cant find OUR pulse unless we are ill. *now thinking logical :D*