Bilateral hind suspensory branch injury - 5 months in, very swollen tendon sheaths... anyone had a similar experience they could share?

[Gracie George]

Has anyone had an experience with a torn hind suspensory injury with legs that are still looking very swollen with heat in them 5 months in? Vet initially said 6 months rest. Horse has been scanned initially and again at 3 months and vet said we are going in the right direction but very slowly. In reality i think we are looking at at least one year of rest, but i am also starting to wonder if my horse will ever be able to come back into work - he is rising 13 years. (We do some dressage, hacking and low level jumping up to 90/100cm - vet said he may not jump again). We have had shockwave x 6 sessions, indiba x 8 sessions, the arc equine goes on most evenings, magnetic bands are on during the day, we have done 3 months of rest in a very small paddock but horse is fairly highly strung and does pace and throw some moves in the field from time to time. He would not cope with box rest. Would love to hear other people's experiences and how your horses injury progressed and if anyone has had the same experience with any success in eventually getting their horse sound and back under saddle. Trying to manage my expectations and prepare for the worst! Thank you

 

[ycbm]

I don't have experience of this being a one leg problem, and it does sound like a difficult case. Do the other legs scan as perfect GG? If you don't know, I would scan at least the other hind before coming to any conclusions.
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[Gracie George]

Thank you

I don't have experience of this being a one leg problem, and it does sound like a difficult case. Do the other legs scan as perfect GG? If you don't know, I would scan at least the other hind before coming to any conclusions.
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Yes it is both hinds - one worse than the other but both affected - thank you

 

[ycbm]

Thank you

Yes it is both hinds - one worse than the other but both affected - thank you

I would think that drastically affects your prognosis and I would also be questioning whether the horse has DSLD if that hasn't been considered yet. Sorry you have to deal with this.
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[Gracie George]

Thank you for your thoughts - i think my vet feels it is too early to say about DSLD and is keen to give him more time

 

[nutjob]

One of mine had hind suspensory problems and classic symptoms of dsld. On ultrasound the vet comment was that the ligaments were completely disrupted. There was no obvious injury site for either, the appearance was just abnormal. If yours has obvious injury sites despite it being in both hinds then I would guess less likely to be dsld.

My current horse has a front suspensory injury, recovery took at least a year as it was reinjured during the rehab. Mine was ridden during this time but mostly only in walk. IME, a long recovery is needed, mine no longer jumps, my vet said he should be able to but now he's lame with mild arthritis in the fetlock .

 

[Gracie George]

One of mine had hind suspensory problems and classic symptoms of dsld. On ultrasound the vet comment was that the ligaments were completely disrupted. There was no obvious injury site for either, the appearance was just abnormal. If yours has obvious injury sites despite it being in both hinds then I would guess less likely to be dsld.

My current horse has a front suspensory injury, recovery took at least a year as it was reinjured during the rehab. Mine was ridden during this time but mostly only in walk. IME, a long recovery is needed, mine no longer jumps, my vet said he should be able to but now he's lame with mild arthritis in the fetlock .

Thank you so much for sharing your experience, sounds like having a year off is fairly normal then. So sorry to hear about the arthritis - is that in the same leg as the suspensory injury? And how old is your horse?

 

[nutjob]

He's 13 this year, I guess he was 11 when he first showed signs of something wrong. He was a little difficult to diagnose because he was only mildly lame and it was intermittent. There was no heat or swelling and he was usually sound at the vets but the ultrasound scan showed a significant tear. The arthritis is in the same leg, he's had arthramid but isn't 100% yet.

I don't think a year is that unusual. Mine also did a small area turnout rather than box rest, which made it less stressful for both of us. He did reinjure it but it's hard to know what to do for the best, he could have done more damage constantly circling in the box.

Good luck with yours, if he's showing improvement then it's worth persevering, resting my horse with dsld did no good at all and he got rapidly worse.