Anyone have experience with Annular Ligament damage?

[Trot_On_Dressage]

My partly backed youngster may have damaged his annular ligament

He came in very lame last Monday which hasn't improved on box rest and danalon. Was scanned but was unclear as there is a swelling around fetlock. X rayed today which showed no damage to sesamoids but also showed the swelling is more than it looks so we are suspecting he may have damaged his ligament. More box rest with a couple of 5min walks in hand and vet will come out again next week to try to rescan.

In the meantime I am going crazy with worry. If any of you have any experiences with this good or bad I would love to hear your stories.

My boy is an exceptional youngster and I had big hopes for him, not sure if this might put a downer on those dreams!!!

 

[Littlelegs]

Yes and its positive. My mare wrecked both her hind ones (along with her suspensories, tiny hair line fractures & other minor damage) following an incident involving idiots with air rifles & very hard ground while she was turned out, & a youngster she wouldn't leave. Hers were so obviously damaged that I could see it straight away. Her legs were so swollen still when the emergency vet got there he said me cold hosing for the 20 mins before he got there probably stopped them snapping. So not a mild case, the swelling from the suspensories wasn't even visible & the swelling felt like bone. The scan really only showed the amount of damage, not diagnosis. She did spend 12months off in total, mostly on box rest & later turnout in a tiny high fenced paddock. Lots of bandaging, cold hosing, dmso, ultrasound, cartrophen courses & shockwave therapy. Plus plenty of walks in hand & about 3 months in walking under saddle. And gallons of valerian as it was vital that at no time did she do more than walk. 12 months later the vet said he would be happy to give her the all clear to compete & hunt at any level same as before. Seen as she was late teens, I made the decision to have a sound horse for longer than one to compete till early 20s. But that was purely because of her age. Heavy schooling I avoid but at 23 can still fly round unaffil jumping courses. She is fine to do bs still but being 14.2 she needs the precision of perfect flatwork which I don't want to risk at her age. If she was a young horse though with years to go before arthritis I would be back out there though. And this was a horse that the vet initially said would be unlikely to be more than paddock sound again. And hers was complicated by equally damaged suspensories, which is really where the risk of re damaging her comes from. Sounds pretty serious in my case but don't want to scare you, just to show you that even the worse case scenario can have a good outcome, & yours luckily doesn't sound as bad. Can still pop a 5 bar gate in trot & even after staying in she has no signs of stiffness yet & has absolutely no signs of age excepting her teeth so it isn't something that has caused lasting damage. Fingers crossed it is a shorter recovery for your boy.

 

[Trot_On_Dressage]

Thank you little legs that has helped Glad to hear your girl made a good recovery.

Feel like 2012 is turning into a disastrous year, it started so well but has been on a downward spiral since Feb with one thing and another!