Advice on stifle injury

[siennamiller]

So, some of you may have seen. Z fell off the ramp and hurt her stifle. The vet came this morning, and thinks that she has either fractured her patella, or torn her ligament badly.
Does anyone have any experience of horses having the tear in a ligament the, with a recovery.
My concerns are, she's an older horse, and is very badly put together, and I Was already struggling with keeping on top of various muscle tweaks etc ( she has regular Bowen treatment),
She's not a good box rest patient, she weaves and gets stressed, plus I am on a private yard so the owners will have to leave one of theirs in every day....
We are having a stressful time at the moment, my horse is my me time. Where I get away from it all.
I enjoy competing, and I don't own a horse to hack, no judgement on people that do, it's just not what I like to do....

 

[Slightlyconfused]

One if mine tore a ligament in his stifle. He had small paddock rest and and PRP and shockwave. Three months he was in light ridden work and three months after that he was in trot work etc. he has come back fine, it locks up every now and again but danilon and a bit of rest help. If you want anymore info feel free to ask.

 

[siennamiller]

Thanks sc. trouble if, with her age, I'm. to sure it'll work

 

[JennBags]

I'm so sorry, what rotten luck

I had one that tore his meniscus ligament, I'm afraid he didn't recover so after a year with no improvement I had to have him pts, he was only 10. However if they are a quiet type who can cope with box rest/hand - walking, and are quiet in the field too, there's a much better chance of recovery. With my horses part6iculat injury, it's about 70:30 who don't recover.

Feel free to PM me if you need any help/support x

 

[meesha]

My 12 year old has torn his meniscus he has had ultrasound to diagnose then steroid injection and draining. No box rest and normal turnout (did the injury while on restricted turnout after another injury so thought best not to restrict) he is 6 months post tear and it seems to be settling and he may make a light hack but I have decided to retire him as he will be very very unlikely to hunt/jump again. Bought another to take mind off it but was easy decision as I have own land. Fingers crossed for you.

 

[siennamiller]

Unfortunately she is not sensible on box rest, she weaves and gets quite het up .

 

[debsflo]

We had daughters stressy mare on small paddock rest for tear to meniscus which she found easier. long slow rehab but as workload increased we had her pts sadly. Been told stifles are tricky but hopefully yours will be better.

 

[ilvpippa]

My girl had stifle surgery last July for a tear in her meniscus amongst other damage. She did box rest fine, obviously hand walking was interesting... however she was sound when we trotted her up and she went out. 5 months later we were introducing canter & she unfortunatly went lame again. She went to rossdales, and she was found to have a huge bone cyst plus arthritis in her sacroiliac joing from prolonged box res think 6 - 8 months my girl was in! from what they believe is a damaged cruciate ligment. However as she was on light work anyway, she is currently hacking once/twice a week and is on no bute unless she has one after being ridden.

It is a long road if your not interested in a horse that you will only to be able to hack (Mine is only 13) however she loves hacking as do I, so at the minute she's doing great - she doesn't always look the most sound but gallops around the field often enough!

 

[Celtic Fringe]

Old cob had keyhole surgery on his stifle when he was around 18 (we don't know his actual age). His injury wasn't as severe as Z's as he 'only' had damaged cartilage. He does NOT do box rest so he was turned out in a small paddock, around the size of a tennis court, next to the main herd. He tolerated this for around 12 weeks, but was very bored by the end and kept nipping me every time I went in - his way of telling me he'd had enough. We took it slow and steady and he came back into full work. He had his surgery at Liphook and they have recently been doing long term follow-up of stifle injury cases. It might be worth contacting them to see if they can advise on long term prognosis.

 

[siennamiller]

Ok, that's useful, will do that tomorrow.
Thanks cf

 

[Slightlyconfused]

We didn't do box rest because he kept locking up so he needed to be put walking around but not in a huge feild so we fences off a flat quarter of it. The main thing is when you start rehab make sure they are working from behind even in inhand walking to get the muscles to help support the stifle.