Failed Hind suspensory surgery

J

Joann

New User
Joined
21 January 2015
Messages
4
Visit site
Hi,
My pony is an 8 year old welsh C. He had bilateral hind suspensory surgery at the end of March 2014. From the moment I first started walking him in hand I knew he was worse than pre surgery. I nevertheless continued with his rehab as prescribed, until in August he bucked me off twice. In the interim he had injections of steroids to his hocks and his sacro iliac (sp?). At Rossdales they mentioned the injections might be necessary and they also found he had kissing spine though it was not "hot" in the bone scan. I turned him away in August and have done nothing with him since, but I can tell without looking at him that he is still short behind on the lead rope. I als saw him attempting to have a canter with his mates in the field and the same leg was very short in canter. Has anyone had this experience? I feel I'm out of ideas. Do you think he's in pain? TIA
 
That is where my mind is going. I've never had to take this decision with a horse who wasn't already terminal. How do I live with it? :-(
 
I agree with Black Beastie.

I'm so sorry to hear about it, I wish there were some magical cure for all the things that go wrong for horses.

I think you learn to live with it through coming to the conclusion that it is the best thing for him. If he is struggling in the field and does not seem to have much of a future then perhaps it could be the kindest thing to do. Better to let him go easily than struggle through until something more painful happens.

At the end of the day it is a horrible decision to have to make, but whatever you chose, as long as you keep his best interests at heart, it'll be the best thing for him.

My thoughts are with you and your boy x
 
have you discussed the worsening with your vet ? reason i ask is i have a horse with multiple conditions similar to yours. the main problem has been finding out which of the conditions are causing pain and to what degree.
is it psd your horse was diagnosed with and was the operation to de nerve ? if so, unless as you say the operation has gone wrong in some way, there should no longer be any suspensory pain.
my guess from the brief description you have given is that its not necessarily the case that the operation has not worked but more the pain is coming from elsewhere, my guess would be spavins which is, again im guessing, what they have put steroids into his hocks for. this would fit as the time off in the field would actually not help spavins that have not fused.
this is exactly the problem ive had with mine. steroids did not reduce the spavin pain and he got worse so in the end we fused the hocks with ethanol. bingo. amazing difference and much more comfortable horse.
i would suggest discussing things with your vet and asking about possibly using ethanol to fuse the hocks (if indeed its spavins that they were injecting steroids for) and you may be lucky and get a result.
when you have multiple issues its so hard but from the experience i have had i would not be sure that the operation has necessarily failed but rather you pain source has not yet been correctly dealt with.
i agree with others that once all options have been exhausted there may be no other road to go down if hes not comfy in the field. my heart goes out to you, its hard.
 
Thank you everyone for you support and thoughtful replies. There is without a doubt multiple problems, sacro, kissing spine, and of course suspensory which have been operated on. I suppose I was asking if anyone out there had this particular complex of problems and what the outcome was? I probably know, but was looking for reassurance etc. Thanks
 
why did they put steroids in the hocks ? you havent mentioned what issue there is with the hocks ?

my post above explains that mine had pretty much what yours has had, kissing spines, psd, spavins and sacro, all showing as hot spots on a bone scan. we have treated everything we can treat (other than sacro as that was only slightly raised on the bone can and they believed that to be compensation for the other issues rather than a problem in itself )but when there was no improvement we decided to try further treatment of the hocks and this was they key for us. the steroids hadnt worked. the ethanol did, the horse has had an initial reassessment and is trotting up sound (was lame after the steroids but before the ethanol)
i didnt op for the surgery for psd as it was mild and have had shockwave and like you kissing spines was not active so we did not treat that as again only marginal.
we are currently rehabbing and im due to get back on him in the next few days so time will tell but horse is currently sound and vets are quitely confident with correct management he will come back into a useful level of work.
i nearly fell over when they came back with the results of all the scans and test but the vets were quick to explain not all of the conditions found may be relevant or actively causing pain and their task was to find out what was causing pain and rectify that.
 
Oh dear you have been through it too. My insurance only covered the investigations so I have spent roughly 5k so far and I am running out of money and confidence in vets. I was just told the steroids in the hocks would be necessary. The sacro steroids only worked for a short time and showed the lameness to a greater extent. Under saddle it felt like running on a flat tyre. :-(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top