Tash88
Well-Known Member
My horse had an arthroscopy on both stifles on Tuesday morning and came home yesterday, with instructions for 6 weeks box rest then 6 months paddock rest and an area of 20 x 40m recommended.
I was there to watch the procedure and the vet spoke to me afterwards. He said that my horse has a 70-80% chance of being sound enough to return to work. Before the surgery he was 3/10 lame on the left and 4/10 lame on the right after flexion tests.
The arthroscopy was relatively straightforward, there was some cartilage that had to be removed but the main problem is a 3mm hole in the cartilage on the left side which needs to heal. There was no damage to the miniscus or surrounding muscle tissues on either side. My horse has a diagnosis of chondromalacia; he is 8y/o and has been backed for about 2 years and hasn't done an awful lot (just hacking and basic schooling with a couple of local showing shows), so is relatively 'low mileage'.
Having never experienced this before, I was wondering if any of you had advice for what I could do to help with my horse's rehab, particularly the cartilage repair? Have you tried anything which works, like magnet therapy or similar?
I don't want to speed anything up and my horse will be having all the time off he needs, I just want to give him the best possible chance. My vet mentioned steroid injections once he comes back into work but other than that just said rest was the only thing he needed, as the damage wasn't significant enough for IRAP injections or anything like that.
Any advice much appreciated and thanks in advance.
Tash x
I was there to watch the procedure and the vet spoke to me afterwards. He said that my horse has a 70-80% chance of being sound enough to return to work. Before the surgery he was 3/10 lame on the left and 4/10 lame on the right after flexion tests.
The arthroscopy was relatively straightforward, there was some cartilage that had to be removed but the main problem is a 3mm hole in the cartilage on the left side which needs to heal. There was no damage to the miniscus or surrounding muscle tissues on either side. My horse has a diagnosis of chondromalacia; he is 8y/o and has been backed for about 2 years and hasn't done an awful lot (just hacking and basic schooling with a couple of local showing shows), so is relatively 'low mileage'.
Having never experienced this before, I was wondering if any of you had advice for what I could do to help with my horse's rehab, particularly the cartilage repair? Have you tried anything which works, like magnet therapy or similar?
I don't want to speed anything up and my horse will be having all the time off he needs, I just want to give him the best possible chance. My vet mentioned steroid injections once he comes back into work but other than that just said rest was the only thing he needed, as the damage wasn't significant enough for IRAP injections or anything like that.
Any advice much appreciated and thanks in advance.
Tash x