Check ligament strain (not tear, thank goodness!) - any advice?

[sportsmansB]

Took my lovely 14yo boy to the vet this morning after noticing a swelling at the top of his cannon bone on the near fore end of last week after cross country schooling
Turns out he has strained his check ligament- scan showed it quite a lot thicker than the other one, but no actual damage as such
Vet has recommended 6 weeks off - which takes us to the end of the season... crap news but good news that it wasn't a tendon or suspensory

He has 5 days of bute to try and bring the swelling down a bit, and she said he's OK to be turned out as long as he doesn't run around a lot - which he doesn't as he is too greedy for that
Re-scan next week as apparently the worst damage may not show up for 10-14 days after the original injury.

Anyone any further ideas for speeding up improvement?! He's not lame at all. Trotted up on the concrete at the vets sound as a pound and quite proud of himself - I think he thought he was back at an international!
I have infra red wraps and stuff but to be honest if hes allowed out in the field I'd rather he did that.
Any one who has had a small check ligament injury and how long it took to come back to work, and whether it re-occurred would also be helpful?

 

[Goldenstar]

I have dealt with lots of check ligament strains it’s a common injury in hunters .
They have all come right .
One I would do is really check that his lateral foot balance has not gone off .

 

[Birker2020]

I would ice as much as you can. You want to reduce inflammation and ice cupping/ice boots/cold hosing are some of the best treatment options for this type of injury. Ideally it should be done at the time of the injury. In my experience the faster you ice and repeatedly ice the faster/better the outcome.

 

[ycbm]

I have dealt with lots of check ligament strains it’s a common injury in hunters .
They have all come right .
One I would do is really check that his lateral foot balance has not gone off .

This. Had one, seen tons. All came right with no relapse. Average time to get back to work was about three months.

 

[sjdress]

My mare did her check ligament, but quite badly. Was lame and her leg was huge. We didn’t box rest her, as she is semi retired. Instead she was on a small area gradually extended as she became sounder. I decided that I wasn’t being worried about how long it would take for her to come right, as there was no rush to get her back into work, and went for the turn away option. The plan was to turn her away for a year but 5 1/2 months later and she is sound and we have started walk work. She had no other treatment (no shockwave, Infra red etc).

 

[mustardsmum]

I have dealt with lots of check ligament strains it’s a common injury in hunters .
They have all come right .
One I would do is really check that his lateral foot balance has not gone off .

Yep, would also seriously recommend this - my horse had a check lig injury, PRP treatment, box rest and started walking out in hand progressing to ridden and we recently started trotting each day. We then thought she had a foot abscess as she seemed sore, had pulses in foot and was pointing it. Several days of poulticing and farrier taking shoe off revealed nothing. (I thought some bedding had gone between her frog and sole - there is a thread in tack room about this...)But, then a week after shoeing we noticed her shoes were very worn on the outside, she was pointing her front foot again and just seemed sore turning. Vet came and xrayed her fronts and there is lateral imbalance - bless her, the vet said she had probably put up for this for some time and the check lig injury could probably be because of this. She does have tb feet, low heels and long toes but even with a great farrier who the vet said does an amazing job we still have a broken back hpa 😔, and she’s obviously footsore. Now trying to decide the best way forward..... Good luck with your horses recovery.