22 year old horse check/suspension hind leg injury

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Flyingsolo

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My 22 year old ex riding school horse (so done quite a few miles in life) is 5 weeks in on a right hind leg check and suspensory ligament injury sadly.

Initial symptoms were localised swelling around his fetlock, back of canon area and down through the pastern. I kept him in as soon as I noticed the swelling and can likely pinpoint when he did the damage. I cold hosed and rested for 2 weeks and then got the leg scanned and X-rays which confirmed the check and suspensory damage. Check ligament shows damage part way down so not a branch injury(?)

When the vet scanned, I’d been cold hosing and buting for the full 2-2.5 weeks and swelling seemed to have gone down. I was advised to do controlled walking exercise 20-30 mins a few times per week. Over the last couple of weeks I have slowly built up to 20 ish minutes and all has been well. However, a few days ago, after a 20-30 minute very slow controlled in hand walk, he looked sore and by the next morning his leg had swelled again.

He has been rested again with no hand walking. I’m so disappointed. I’ve liased with vet and I now have to put him back to no exercise whatsoever for the next month 🙁

Can I hear experiences, good and bad just so I can get a good idea of perhaps what future I am looking at with an older horse. I love him dearly and he is my only riding horse so I’m feeling pretty down about things 😞

Thanks for your help
 
Has he been tested for Cushing’s? Recurring soft tissue injuries seem to be more common in untreated/uncontrolled PPID.

I retired mine at 21 due to check and sdft damage. Redid the check - twice - but was happy in retirement and died at 32 of unrelated issues.
 
Sorry to hear this. At his age and mileage, healing is slower. This setback is common. These injuries need months, not weeks, of strict rest. The no-exercise month is crucial.

Future is guardedly hopeful for a happy field sound retirement. Returning to ridden work is possible but a long road. Be prepared for a very long, patient rehab with likely some arthritis management long-term. It's a tough injury at any age.
 
Going against the grain - my adice would be to tur him away for at least 6 months. I do not believe in box rest - the physical results [ loss of muscle everywhere for 1 thing] , confinement is so bad for their minds , as we know .Yet still vets advice box rest. Ligaments and tendons get little enough blood flow , but lack of movement must surely hamper healing . 4 years my horse did a check ligament , but came back sound after months in our 22 acre field during the day [ in at night]. Her companion , having recently slightly torn her DDFT , is now on a similar regime. At no point did our vet argue with us as to how to proceed- knowing we would turn away rather than confine - but box rest remains a standard thing , sadly.
 
My experience of suspensory ligament issues is not good. They do need a long time to heal. I don't box rest mine but do turn them out in a restricted / flat area. There are a number of veterinary options like PRP, shockwave if your vet advises it. I tried shockwave on one of mine but he injured another suspensory on the diagonal leg and finished up being euthanised (not OK even to keep as a pet), he had also previously injured a sdft so 3 injuries in total. One of my current horses was intermittently lame for about 2 years, even after the suspensory scanned as healed. He's in work now but younger than yours and I've spent a huge amount of money to try to get him right and investigating if there were any other issues, including an mri.

You are in for the long haul with this and at the age of the horse don't hope for too much, good luck.
 
Mine snapped his at 24, months of rehab but back in work now and hacked out 4 times a week (he is 28). Probably a year of building him up again. I kept him out in a small paddock with his Exmoor mate who stands no nonsense as I thought box rest would be no good for him given his age. He also had ultrasound treatment as I had him on accident insurance at the time. Fingers crossed for you, I hope he comes right.
 
Mine did a fore check ligament - he was on pen rest and I built up quite quickly to 40min in hand walking every day. I think it was about 6m we did that before he went out on restricted grazing.. and in a pen two days later fractured his pedal bone (goodness knows how) so had a further 2m hand walking. 4 years on he’s completely sound although now retired as he’s 29! He needed the walking to keep his joints moving, and came out it looking really good. If it wasn’t for his age and hints he doesn’t fancy being ridden (and he’s a spooky so and so so it wouldn’t be fun getting him back out hacking), I’d have no hesitation getting back on him - he can still tank round the field like a loony when he’s in the mood
 
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