Annular ligament woes

[gregory123]

My 16.2 13 year old ID was diagnosed with annular ligament thickening on 26th Jan by ultrasound (right hind). Has been on box rest since. Did two weeks of bute, stopped bute, swelling increased a fair bit, so back on bute again for 10 days. 4 weeks of box rest to go...

The swelling seems to be getting slowly and steadily worse above the ligament and in the tendon sheath. It’s not dramatic but definitely not responding well. We’ve got steroid gel too now.

I wanted to know what people’s experiences are of this injury. Prognosis etc. I think we are heading towards the operation to cut annular ligament. His job is hunting - not sure if that’s looking likely again. He’s insured (but not for enough to cover the whole op - gaaah). And also did I mention completely vet and needle phobic.

 

[w1bbler]

Have a look at Lowton equine rehabilitation on Facebook. Uses some magic machine & sorted a horse with some sort of annular ligament issue. Worth researching?

 

[ester]

identified as an issue at 24, all chronic, lame side about 3x normal thickness (opposite side to his spavin, should have got that jabbed sooner than I did in hindsight), other side enlarged about 2x, injected with steroids, some improvement retired to hacking on flatter ground for a year or so (not the rolling hills of wiltshire) then fully retired as generally sore/not himself.

I'd have operated if younger (but not insured, didn't owe me any more miles etc), and if you search the forum there are quite a lot of examples of them being done about his age which I think when I looked were generally positive.

 

[meleeka]

Mine had the op. Recovery should be straightforward, although in my case a bone chip complicated things. Rehab was hand walking for what seemed like forever. That was around 9 years ago now (when he was 13) and he’s never had a problem since. I was given the option of 6 months field rest, but If it’s that important for yours to be sound I’d seriously consider the op.

 

[AandK]

Mine had the op age 18 (he is now 24), his AL thickening was secondary to a tear in the distal sesamoidian ligament (the latter was only found in the pre op checks). Options were to medicate and rest for 6 months or to operate. I chose the latter as the prognosis was good and I worried that leaving it would cause further issues. He had 2 weeks box rest until the stitches were taken out, then 6 weeks pen rest with increasing hand walking, starting at 5 min a day, 30 min by week 6. If it was just AL, then I would have been able to carry on increasing the work, but due to the other ligament injury (he had PRP for that) he then had 3 months field rest. He made a full return to work, which was low level eventing.

 

[The Bouncing Bog Trotter]

My former mare was operated on in her teens and has made a near full recovery, she went back to riding club level competing but I put our eventing plans on permanent hold as she was too precious to risk further damage. She is still going strong at 20 and is loving her hacking.

 

[gregory123]

Thanks for your replies. Sounds positive. Think I will give it a go, if the vets suggest at the rescan. Poor, poor vets. He is usually lovely to handle but when vets arrive he turns into a panicking 650kg psycho. Will use these weeks on box rest to try and syringe train him at least.

 

[Zoeypxo]

Hi did you do the surgery? A friends horse had this done 6 weeks ago and he is still lame so wondering other peoples outcomes

 

[paddi22]

I got given one who had the annular op with his last owner and kept going lame, she tried a lot of remedial shoeing as well. So she felt she hit a wall with him recovering so we ended up with him. He was put in a the field for a year, we took the shoes off and he came sound. I started to handwalking and do in-hand stuff. I took him for a scan to check tendon and they said the had thickening around where they had cut, and also had a deeper tendon tear issue the first vet team hadn't spotted, they had just concentrated on the annular ligament.

I kept the shows off him, he stayed sound and is competing in dressage. But I really mind him - I don't rise on bad surfaces or very uneven ground. I don't turn him out in poached fields in winter.

As regards rehab, we had a lot of issues to fix after he came sound. his balance was totally off in his body, from taking pressure off the bad leg. So his opposite pelvis has actually caused us more issues than the tendon. His range of motion in the one leg isn't as good as the other, so we had to try and even that. And we had to do a lot of work for him to take weight behind and take the pressure off his bad front tendon.

He has stayed sound in fairly intense dressage training, and we even pop the odd cross pole and have a canter in the field. But I am not sure the leg would stand up. I don't know if he will cope with the pressure of medium or extended trot, we are are only starting that now. I have sometimes been tempted to see what the leg could hold up too, but id never forgive myself if it went again.

He has stayed sound all the time, but my gut says it's the rehab work we put and taking the shoes off that helped him.

 

[Marigold4]

Hi did you do the surgery? A friends horse had this done 6 weeks ago and he is still lame so wondering other peoples outcomes

I had this surgery for my mare about 8 years ago and she never came fully sound again. My new vet says he never recommends it as it seldom produces results. I did rehab x3 and then retired her.

 

[SEL]

I made the decision not to go down the surgical route recommended by the vets with one of mine. I had a very experienced bodyworker out who looked at the associated kissing spine and hoof X rays and said she felt the right hind was compensating for issues higher up (both hind feet are wonky - probably old pelvic injury) and it was impossible to tell how that would effect the long term impact. My farrier separately said something similar.

I ran that past the vet and hit a brick wall disappointingly. It was almost like having spotted the thickened ligament the blinkers went on as regards the pony's conformation and movement

She's in special shoes, a happy hacker and I'm doing a fair amount of groundwork focussing on the KS with the aim of strengthening her core.

Do you know if your friends horse has anything else going on in its body?

 

[Zoeypxo]

I made the decision not to go down the surgical route recommended by the vets with one of mine. I had a very experienced bodyworker out who looked at the associated kissing spine and hoof X rays and said she felt the right hind was compensating for issues higher up (both hind feet are wonky - probably old pelvic injury) and it was impossible to tell how that would effect the long term impact. My farrier separately said something similar.

I ran that past the vet and hit a brick wall disappointingly. It was almost like having spotted the thickened ligament the blinkers went on as regards the pony's conformation and movement

She's in special shoes, a happy hacker and I'm doing a fair amount of groundwork focussing on the KS with the aim of strengthening her core.

Do you know if your friends horse has anything else going on in its body?

lamnitis last year, psd left fore in January, fetlock and hock arthritis RH injected with steroid at same time as op, also the same leg as the ligament surgery (rh). So a few bits wrong with him but the vet said prognosis was good

 

[AandK]

Mine was done in 2015, his injury was secondary so he had PRP in the primary injury at the time of the op. He made a full return to low level Eventing.

 

[spotty_pony]

My 16.2 13 year old ID was diagnosed with annular ligament thickening on 26th Jan by ultrasound (right hind). Has been on box rest since. Did two weeks of bute, stopped bute, swelling increased a fair bit, so back on bute again for 10 days. 4 weeks of box rest to go...

The swelling seems to be getting slowly and steadily worse above the ligament and in the tendon sheath. It’s not dramatic but definitely not responding well. We’ve got steroid gel too now.

I wanted to know what people’s experiences are of this injury. Prognosis etc. I think we are heading towards the operation to cut annular ligament. His job is hunting - not sure if that’s looking likely again. He’s insured (but not for enough to cover the whole op - gaaah). And also did I mention completely vet and needle phobic.

My boy sprained his back in 2018 out hunting. He was very lame at the beginning, but ultrasound showed only a slight sprain but also signs of thickening. He was 18 then, so I decided to have it steroid injected to settle it down, and then he had about a week’s box rest with cold hosing and then was turned out in a small paddock and brought back into work. There is a hard lump now where there is scar tissue but it doesn’t affect him at all. He wears brushing boots when ridden to prevent him from knocking it. I was offered the operation but decided against it at his age. Vet said it was very likely the other one would also go at some point and need operating on too. I wasn’t told to stop hunting, etc but due to his age I became a lot more picky with the ground and which days I went on. He is 23 now, hunted last winter and is still enjoying his hacking now. We may go autumn hunting too if the ground softens up at all.

How old is he? I wouldn’t write off his hunting career yet.

 

[gregory123]

He had the op last March so nearly 18 months ago now. Also had debridement of torn manica but no DDFT tear. He came sound after an uneventful rehab and was back in full work by September 21. He has been autumn hunting, hunting, to the beach, pleasure rides and we’ve done a fair bit of showing this summer too. I’m pleased I went for it as although he doesn’t move with the same lovely paces he had, he’s sound.

I am really careful with how he is worked for the most part. We do hardly any schooling / circles and I avoid twisting the joint. I do quite a lot of road work and think this helped with the rehab to work the tendons/ligaments without twisting. I didn’t hunt in very boggy or trappy ground and am picky about the days. He is very strong so I bit up, so I can control the front end. Fingers crossed for another season. Hope he’s still going like yours at 22!

 

[Chuffy99]

I’ve had two, 13.2 and 11.0 operated on and both came right and had many 15+ years of hectic pc life afterwards with no issues, both ended up at 30