Collateral ligament damage........any ideas?

Horseowner123

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Hi all,

I am posting with the hope of getting some success stories from you all after the most horrific couple of days :(

Firstly my old boy was put down yesterday after owning him for 18 years and then we have been told my competition horse needs times off.....a lot of time off:(

My comp horse went for an MRI on his right fore and hind and the findings are as follows:

* fore - slight fluid next the navicular bursa, vet has suggested medicating this area and doesn't see much issue with this rectifying itself and becoming sound
* hind - collateral ligament damage from wear and tear, to what extent we are not sure yet - have suggest either rest, medicate the area but would advise surgery to find the exact damage and go from there.

My questions are:

* Does anyone have experience with this?
* Did you rest, medicate or go straight to surgery?
* How long was the box rest?
* How long was the receovery?
* Did you ever get back to the level you were previously at?

I am trying to remain positive but unfortunately this is dwindling so I could do with some inspiration but similarly I do not want to build false hope so truthful experiences welcome.

Many thanks

Casey

Read more at https://forums.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/the-tack-room.79/post-thread#cQWOckUSGLuZkovW.99
 

ester

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Shoes off, barefoot rehab.

Have a nosey round the rockley farm blog.

(I didn't MRI mine but he indicated collateral ligament damage in left fore at 19).
 

Horseowner123

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I couldn't get on to the blog, I'll try again.

He doesn't have shoes on his hinds but will look at the barefoot rehab. Thank you

What was your outcome?
 

ester

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he is 26 and been sound on that leg ever since

he's a bit creaky now but was in full work and hunting until 24 (hind annular ligaments and spavin curtailed that).

If he is unshod on the hinds it would be really interesting to see what they look like, and assess his landing from the front and from the side.

The blog is just a fairly nice way of starting to read round the subject and Nic can be very helpful.
Are you on facebook?
 

ester

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So, some of the fb pages around this topic are a bit ermm full on?

The barefoot for whole horse health page generally behaves and is run by a trimmer lucy priory who used to post a fair bit on here a few years back.
hoof rehab help is run by and can be quite helpful too.

On mine he blocked to palmar hoof and then mostly to coffin joint, he came out with a coffin joint DJD diagnosis as no sign of degradation on the xray. Given that he's not had any other issues with it I don't think DJD was correct.
He had flat pedal bones in both, but was only lame in one so that wasn't indicative.
On footage he was landing badly laterally on the affected hoof (straight with the other one). He was injected and remedially shod and had a short term improvement when in walk work only. I was aware of people removing shoes so after 2 cycles of shoeing which led to hoof looking much better from the outside but obviously not better on the inside I took them off and spent about 6 months rehabbing - I did take it very slow as figured at 19 we getting it right the first time was better.
 

whiteflower

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Another one that's had experience with collateral lig but again a front not hind. We removed shoes and have a year off turned away with regular 6 weeks checks/balance/trim of necessary by a remedial farrier. Horse came sound after 6 weeks of removing shoes and has now stayed sound unshod for two years and counting. I understand yours is slightly different being behind but with the issues you have Infront it may well be linked due to compensation. I removed the front shoes and turned away then started to condition the feet (I did this by allowing access to a hardstanding area rather than in hand walking) and then gradually brought back into work under saddle.
Although it sounds all doom and gloom I would rather have feet issues than some other issues as I have seen for my self on numerous occasions the ability of the feet to adapt and make themselves optimal to support what's going on inside. Good luck
 

scats

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I had one do extensive damage to a collateral ligament in front. He never came fully sound, but in all fairness, he developed ringbone and sidebone aswell so the soundness issues may well have been because of this. He was hacking sound but he was an idiot so hacking wasn’t really an option.
 

SusieT

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How old is he? I would ask the surgeons - Why doesn't the MRI show full extent of damage? What advantage will surgery have? What is the success rate with conservative v surgical treatment?
 

lannerch

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My boy has suffered damage to both collateral ligaments in the front though not the back , not at the same time both separate injuries. He had Irap in one as he also had hind suspensory ligament damage in both hinds which probably contributed to the injury , and the other prp which was about 4 years after the first.

Both cases he also had a full rehab program which was about 8 months in length. He returned to his Eventing career after both at the same level he was before.

He does have navicular now which we manage , but he still events , I have to be careful not to run him on hard ground, or very deep ground ( because of his previous suspensory injury ) . And he also had remedial shoeing .

I think rehab is the most important part of recovery with or without any operation and cannot be rushed. Good luck
 
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