Collateral Ligament Damage?

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Fattie_Hattie

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Just wondering if anyone can shed any light on the matter as my girly went for an MRI on Monday and we have FINALLY found the reaon for her lamesness after 4 months.

Basically just wondering if anyone has had a horse with this or knows anything about it really
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Any info is appreciated
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xx
 
depends what the mri found? collateral liga ment is soft tissue damage so might recover with box rest or restricted turnout? might respond to drug treatment! your vet and farrier are your best source of information re treatment and prognosis!! best wishes. mine had collateral ligament lameness a couple of years ago, now fine after rest and taking the breakover of feet right back. your vet and farrier are your best source as each case is very very individual. keep smiling................
 
Ive had 2 with collateral ligament damage.

Jerry's was in both front feet and was too severe for him to ever event again, he is currently retired to a field, but should maybe return as a hack next year if I can find someone game enough

Blaze just had very mild damage in one foot, and has had 6 months box rest, is now sound and begining to start walk and trot work in straight lines for 2 months, then reasses. He will hopefully return to eventing, but it is quite a tricky injury, so fingers crossed!


I have always been told that with any ligament damage, esp things in the feet like collateral ligaments, it is at least 6 months but sometimes more like 9!
 
I know a horse who had this damage, he had a pot on for a short time to keep things in a certain position. Seem to think he had irap treatment too, think Ive got it right. Anyway, after box rest and hand walking hes now sound. Speak to your vet again, you paid towards the MRI if its like my situation and you deserve to know even if it means asking 100 times. I know what its like when it can go over your head a bit. My mare has a tear in her DDFT which was finally diagnosed after an MRI after a long time of guesswork.
Soft tissue takes a long time to heal, worse than a break Im told,
takes a lot of patience so hang in there. We have been at it since April with getting to the bottom of my girls lameness.
 
Sorry to hear this. Having lost one to this and having retired another at 11 after fighting on and off lameness since he was 8 I know the heartbreak.

First of all shoeing and enough box rest are cruicial. If you dont have an expert lameness vet then get an opinion from someone like Sue Dyson. IRAP may be worth looking at as are coffin joint injections, joint suppliments and basically anything your insurance will pay for that might make a difference. The prognosis seems to improve yearly - treatments are comming out all the time. Some horses do better than others. However it is not a good diagnosis and has a long term poor outcome for a competing horse. If you search on here there are lots of posts on it. The other crucial thing is a good rehab program.

Good luck and if you find something that works for you stick with it. - and let us all know!
 
Thank everyone
She has had a coffin joint steroid which made the lameness 50% better and after the mri it was confirmed about the Collateral ligament even though the vet though it might have been the DDFT.
The vet has offered shockwave treatment even though it isnt proven to work he said it might help.
She is being shod by a farrier who has delt with the problem on 3 occasions all with different horses and all who has come sound after box rest and the right shoeing.
So finger crossed she'll be okay, she is only 6 hopefully this isnt the end of her career
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(First worth noting I'm misst's daughter - see her post above)
Definitely give the shockwave a go. With Jesper we tried it and I think it made a difference as he did return to work sound in the short term. A good farrier can also make all the difference. Make sure you bring back in to work very slowly as the damage can reoccur very easily. The good news is you have age on your side. Good luck.
 
Ok, this might be long - sorry!

My 4 year old has collateral ligament damage to both his coffin joints, the right fore is worse than the left as it is lateral and medial. We first noticed this in July and he went in for lameness work ups. Blocking the coffin joints did improve the lameness but to be on the safe side we decided to MRI, this is where they confirmed their suspicions.

He has been on box rest since August, had the odd week out in August but more or less since then has been box rested. The MRI was done in Sept and had to wait for 2/3 weeks for the results.

He started IRAP and Shockwave in October, IRAP injections into the coffin joint of both fronts, weekly for 5 weeks and he had 3 lots of shockwave, 2 weeks a part. One other problem I had was that my horse door kicks and scrapes the ground, this was not helping his healing.

I then bought a machine to stop door kicking and over the last month the improvement has been amazing. Due to the severity of his condition and the weather!! I have decided to keep him in until the New Year and re-evaluate with the vets, but we are planning on walking him out in Jan. I will leave it as long as I possibly can as I really do feel that rest is the best action for him. The box rest was not even to be led out of stable and tied up - it was stay 24/7 in the box.

He has also had remedial shoeing, which someone has already mentioned. He is also on the supplement cosequin - expensive but well worth it, if he gets better.

One thing I was told by my farrier is that a lot of the horses that have this condition are on rubber matting, he says it is very bad for them as the foot sticks to the rubber and they can twist the foot, I was advised to make sure I had bedding covering the mats and again this has worked. I am being over cautious with him though as he is my dream horse and am hoping to take him county level showing! My other horse has half a bed on matting and seems fine too
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