Advice please on leg injury and cartrophen

sky2

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Hi all,

I'm more of a lurker than a regular poster but wondering if anyone can give me some advice.

My horse suffered an injury from a freak accident in the field just over 4 weeks ago. She was seen at Leahurst for an eye injury which has healed, the cuts on her leg were considered superficial and have been healing well. She came back home and they said the leg would take a few weeks to return back to normal size as it had been bashed, a bit like how our leg would.

On check up with my vet this week they scanned her leg to check for tendon damage, and have said she has bruised the tendon, no strains, pulls, tears. She will be on 20 mins hacking a day building up 5 mins a week. All fine, he then recommended carthrophen injections that would help the tendon so he gave her one of those and she's meant to have 1 every week for 4 weeks. But since looking into these I can't find much info on it's use or benefit on soft tissue injurys only arthritis which she hasn't got, no signs on x rays. He also said that he'd say the horse has 95% chance of returning back to normal workload and he'd be surprised if she didn't. I have a niggling feel that as she's insured they are doing more than she needs, great if it will help and insurance pays but I also don't want to run up my claim limit on unnecessary injections. Is it worth me getting a second opinion, would that affect my insurance? Does anyone have any experience of a tendon being bashed/bruised with no strain/pull or tear and returning back to work? Apologies for all the questions but I just have a niggling doubt with the vet atm.
 

Magnetic Sparrow

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Interesting. My mare has recently been diagnosed with arthritis. I asked my vet if Cartrophen was an option and he basically told me it was useless for arthritis and that it was of value when ligaments and tendons were involved. My vet has respect from people I respect, so I think he's probably accurate.
 

piglet2001

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I have found it useful for both arthritis and soft tissue injury. I would say it is better than supplements but obviously not as effective as targeted medication into joints, tendons etc.

Like all these things what works for some won’t for others.

On an insured horse I would go for it! On an uninsured horse try it and see. It is easy to inject yourself, so easy to reduce costs this way. You could also shop around online for the cheapest price.
 

Louby

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Hi, my horse has just finished a course of 7, one every 4 days for ligament damage. We will be rescanning in a few weeks so Im afraid I cant say whether its helped or not. She is insured so Im happy for her to have anything that will hopefully help her.
 

AFB

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My horse had a minor check ligament strain about 8 years ago, he was young and insured so we went all out and threw what we could at technically a very minor injury. He had a 4 week course of cartrophen and has had no issues on that leg since.

Obviously we have nothing to compare to so I can't say it definitely helped.

He did however develop a dislike of needles for a couple of years as he expected every one to be as hefty as the cartrophen needles. Once he realised annual vacc's weren't done using those he chilled out again!
 

sky2

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@AFB That's my other worry, horse is a rescue so don't really want her being injected a lot if she doesn't need it. I'm wondering if she really needs the Cartrophen for a bruised tendon, no strain, tear or pull. She is insured but would rather spend the money on something more targeted to tendons.
 

teddypops

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Interesting. My mare has recently been diagnosed with arthritis. I asked my vet if Cartrophen was an option and he basically told me it was useless for arthritis and that it was of value when ligaments and tendons were involved. My vet has respect from people I respect, so I think he's probably accurate.
It works well for arthritis in some horses.
 
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