Check Ligament Injury/Cutting!!!

FabulousFlynn'sMum

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Hi folks,

Just wondered if anyone has experienced this procedure before as I hadn't, before today, even heard of it!

Right i'll try and cut a long story short!

My 17hh 15 year old ID mare went lame Spring last year with what ended up being scanned as a check ligament injury, she was rested, I gave her a course of Adequan injections and by autumn/early winter she was sound and back in gentle work. Fast forward to about 6 weeks ago and she went slightly lame again, very on and off lameness which improves as she warms up in walk but is quite noticeable in trot, check ligament seems quite puffy again so hubby and I decided just to give her a year off and see what happens (ive got my hands full with a youngster and another horse anyway so it wouldnt have been a great hardship giving her a year off if necessary).

Now today, I was up at the vets surgery collecting some cream for another horse and got talking to the vet who scanned and treated my mare last year, I just mentioned in passing that she was lame again with what seemed to be the check ligament again. Now, he then said well why dont you bring her back up and we'll scan it again to make sure that thats the case and if so i'll just cut the ligament as they dont need it anyway!!!!! My jaw at this point dropped to the floor and I asked him to explain further, he then said, horses dont really need their check ligament and when an old injury becomes thickened it can cause the horse to go lame again so in these cases they cut the check ligament and voila, the horse becomes sound!

Really sorry folks for the long post but I just felt this seems too good to be true!, obviously I was more than happy to see how she got on with a year off but naturally if this procedure works and is as simple as he made it sound then I would be interested in having it done so she can come back into work?

So guys, has anyone heard of, or experienced, this procedure on any of their horses?

Thankies again, luv Jayne xx
 

Izzwizz

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I have heard of and Im not 100% sure, of an annular ligament being cut. Have you tried Googling it to see what you can find? I think I read about an annular ligament being cut as it was obstructing a tendon. Im really not sure about a check ligament though. I helped bring a horse back into work last year who injured his check ligament and he is still sound now.

Sorry not a lot of help but I think that there are some things a horse can do without as in ligaments. Good luck with your info search.
 

Meg2

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I remember reading something about this in a veterinary manual, cant remember which one .
If my memory serves me well , the check ligament is a branch of the deep digital flexor tendon and when it, ie the check ligament, is healing, adhesions can form restricting the function of the DDFT, so by cutting it perhaps your vet wants to release these adhesions to allow the DDFT to do its job.
I would talk to him some more if I was you, to understand exactly what he is proposing.
Good luck!
 
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