collateral ligament desmitis / sidebone

ellerslie83

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Hi,

I've got a 16hh 13 year old chunky Irish Cob who has was diagnosed with sidebone some years ago and was also believed to have collateral ligament desmitis - more than that couldn't be determined as he's not insured and an MRI would have been too expensive, so all he's had is nerve blocks and x-rays in terms of diagnostics.

He's been on field rest for over a year but is still lame in trot and above. He is not on any treatment and is barefoot. The vet said he can be ridden lightly if he is comfortable, so I've ridden him a few times, just in walk for a few minutes each time and he seems happy with that.

I got in touch with a couple of vets recently about reassessing him, his own one and another nearby that seems to be a more modern practice. His own practice said that he needs to be controlled by bute, but when he was on bute previously it didn't really do much in terms of his lameness - but would it have actually made him feel better? He was taken off it as he was put out for field rest and there were concerns about long-term bute usage.

The more modern vet practice has said that there are a number of things that can be tried - coffin joint blocks (am I right in thinking they last a couple of weeks?), palmer digital nerve block, something called tildren and some other coffin joint injections.

Having observed him with his field companion, he moves about no differently to his companion and grazes all day long, occasionally rolls, farts and does horsey things. So he doesn't show any signs of discomfort at walk or while grazing.

Does anyone have experience of these treatments or conditions? Or found any of these treatments useful?
 
I could be completely wrong but as far as I'm aware the nerve blocks are simply a diagnostic tool that last for a very limited time (as in hours). These would help the vets determine which treatments might be beneficial. The vets can give steriod joint injections to help reduce inflammation. It is something you'd need to talk through with the vet but in some cases they are very successful and in others not. I've never had a horse treated with tildren so cannot comment but again once the vets have done the nerve blocks I'm sure they can advise on the potential success. Be aware there are obviously risks with all treatments so you may wish to take these in to account.
 
Will respond in greater detail tomorrow from my laptop (on phone tonight with limited battery) my chap has recently gone through a collateral ligament damage and I'm sorry to say the only way to get the ligament to heal was rest, the CL is a high movement ligament and restricting movement with controlled exercise on hard surfaces was the only way to get a handle on it, I don't know how this will affect the side bone though. Is your chappie shod at the moment? There has been recently a lot of success with rehabbing foot injuries by taking them barefoot, google rockley farm, it makes for a very interesting read. Supplementing diet us also important but I will go into more detail with that tomorrow if that's okay :)
 
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