Gutted - what to do?

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cheekywelshie

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It is with a heavy heart i write this.

After a suspected suspensory ligament last september, a year of careful work- Jet has gone lame again. He was going so well then just yesterday in my lesson he went. I have worked so hard with this horse, i am devastated. He has been in the wars a bit - he had a splint fracture before that and then colic surgery before that!

My friend says she will take him on full grass livery for 150 a month and he will be checked twice a day. I guess i could turn him away over winter. I dont know if he will ever recover though really. And i dont know if i could go through bringing him back into work slowly again. I guess i know now he will never jump agsin. We never got evidence of the suspensory the first time- he came sound - was ok and has now gone again. I cant afford two horses. I love him so much i dont know what to do. :(
 
Scan him, get a proper diagnosis and then make an informed and vet lead decision.

I fail to see how you can go forward, make decisions or be comfortable in your own mind with a 'suspected' injury. I would need hard facts and evidence on any of my horses before I could even think of where to go next.

Good luck and I really hope the injury is not too severe.
 
He was scanned and xrayed in september last year and again in january this year by two different vets. Nothing showed up. He was box rested 6 weeks in sept last yesr and came sound then went a bit off in december but came sound again. He isnt insured now as is virtually uninsurable and i cant afford an MRI.
 
Don't assume its the same injury, as AA says you need a vet led decision. There are worse fates than PTS if you feel its right.
I had a horse have a year off due to a ligament injury. 3 weeks into his back to work programme he came in barely able to walk on same leg. I was about to call vet when farrier arrived & had a quick look - huge abcess drained & we've not looked back since.
 
Whether or not he has done something to his suspensory ligament, he is not reideable, so best option is turnout, which gives him time to recover and you time to think. I am a big believer in turnout. Most vets just tell you what is wrong and then tell you to rest them anyway.
 
I would try to afford a nerve block if you can try to isolate the area affected at least.
Then yes I would turn away ,be scrupulously carefull that you keep the feet balanced and trimmed .
And let nature do what it can.
You don't know it's not something easily sorted like a bruised sole or gravel you at least need a vet to look at that.
 
jeeve said:
Whether or not he has done something to his suspensory ligament, he is not reideable, so best option is turnout, which gives him time to recover and you time to think. I am a big believer in turnout. Most vets just tell you what is wrong and then tell you to rest them anyway.
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I can see your point, but without knowing what is wrong, turning them out could be a kiss of death. My horse was 'unlevel' behind. Had I turned him out he would have made the injury worse and been pts.

You need a definitive or as near to, answer before making a decision. My horse had a large hole in his hind check, a major life threatening injury and certainly career ending. He presented with slightly shortened steps in trot. The vets had never seen such a large hole in years and the senior vet referred to it as a 'mush'. I chose to nurse him and took him home, it is two years on now and he is now 20 years old.
 
Have to get a vet, this is serious & should not be guessswork.

My mare did a tendon, vet said it looked like swiss cheese, more hole than tendon left. I was told at best she would be field sound. Best piece I got was turn her out in limited paddock, give her as much time as it takes to come sound then give her that amount of time off again. Worst thing you can do is start to work them as soon as they appear sound, no matter how desperate you aree to get back on. I fed (& still do) green lipped mussles, as a very good source of amino acids to nutritionally support tendon repair & in the end she had 3 years off (was returned to main herd after 6 months). As she was so talented, in that time I bred from her (to keep foal for myself, now 5 years old). I now ride her reguarly, she does fun rides & pleasure rides, 100% sound but I never jump her or work her on a circle. IF your boy has done a ligament again, you have a choice to make if you can't have two. Keep him, & nurse him, & accept what he can do has changed (& for a while it is like a bereavement as you have lost your horse in a way) forever, if you can home him as a field comanion fine, but don't dump him somewhere & leave him to his fate, PTS if you 'must' jump & school. It is hard, & these are very serious decisions which is why first thing is get a vet.
 
cheekywelshie said:
It is with a heavy heart i write this.

After a suspected suspensory ligament last september, a year of careful work- Jet has gone lame again. He was going so well then just yesterday in my lesson he went. I have worked so hard with this horse, i am devastated. He has been in the wars a bit - he had a splint fracture before that and then colic surgery before that!

My friend says she will take him on full grass livery for 150 a month and he will be checked twice a day. I guess i could turn him away over winter. I dont know if he will ever recover though really. And i dont know if i could go through bringing him back into work slowly again. I guess i know now he will never jump agsin. We never got evidence of the suspensory the first time- he came sound - was ok and has now gone again. I cant afford two horses. I love him so much i dont know what to do. :(
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Aww *hugs* this is one of the crap parts of being an owner, I've been exactly where you are now. Suspected suspensory damage etc etc. This was about 4 years ago, there are numerous threads in the archives in here with the whole story. At one point a vet told me I'd be lucky to have him another year.

It's been a long old emotional slog, with him on and off lame throughout, given more bute than you can shake a stick at. nerve blocks done suggested ring bone, flexion tests suggested ligament damage. In the end I retired him, he was X-ray'd and nothing definitive showed up and the most recent don't even show arthritis! He's field sound now on no bute, and seems happy with life. But not being able to afford a riding horse is the pits, I have two retired. Maybe if I had a more practical heart I'd put them to sleep safe in the knowledge they've had a good retirement being lazy old men, but they are still sound and for geriatrics in pretty good health, they owe me nothing and I can't bring myself to put an old horse down simply because they are costing me money :(
 
When something like that happens, it is easy to at first just presume the worst and feel that the situation is hopeless. But hopefully there is no reason for that you have to make a final decision about it already today, without that you can wait with making any big decisions for a day or so.

Ditto AdorableAlice, if the situation isn't acute, in general, I wouldn't want to make a big decision based only on something suspected. Even though he isn't insured, in your shoes I would probably still have wanted a veterinarian to at least give me their opinion about what they think the problem is.

Hopefully the injury isn't as bad as you first thought, but if it is, and you in the end decides to give him a few last good weeks in a field, and then euthanise him because you can't afford to keep a horse that you can't ride, then I want to say that I'm one of those who, in general, doesn't have a problem with people not keeping unrideable horses for life.

(((Hugs)))
 
AdorableAlice said:
Scan him, get a proper diagnosis and then make an informed and vet lead decision.

I fail to see how you can go forward, make decisions or be comfortable in your own mind with a 'suspected' injury. I would need hard facts and evidence on any of my horses before I could even think of where to go next.

Good luck and I really hope the injury is not too severe.
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Definately this - don't make any decisions without a decenet diagnosis.

AdorableAlice said:
I can see your point, but without knowing what is wrong, turning them out could be a kiss of death. My horse was 'unlevel' behind. Had I turned him out he would have made the injury worse and been pts.

You need a definitive or as near to, answer before making a decision. My horse had a large hole in his hind check, a major life threatening injury and certainly career ending. He presented with slightly shortened steps in trot. The vets had never seen such a large hole in years and the senior vet referred to it as a 'mush'. I chose to nurse him and took him home, it is two years on now and he is now 20 years old.
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It's strange how they can have such large holes and not be terribly lame - my girl was 'off' rather than lame, she wouldn't go forward and you could hear a difference when she was trotted but was very difficult to see anything. The vet's were 'there's no point scanning, there won't be anything there', we scanned and she had a 50% lesion in her DDFT. She's now had 2 years of being a field ornament and mom and is 100% sound and starting to come back to work. I think sometimes they aren't given enough time out to fully heal (not saying this was op).

OP, have him looked at to get a professional opinion on whats going on, probably include scanning again as it's not expensive and non-invasive and could help and go from there. Good luck
 
So sorry to hear this. Both myself and 2 other people I know have has horses diagnosed with defenerative suspensory ligament disease. The links I will post show the later stages and none of our horses showed the dropped fetlocks or excessive lying down. Only symptoms we has were reccurent lameness. Sometimes in same leg sometimes in other legs or in my case 3 out of 4 legs (I didn't know it was 3 legs I only saw 2)

Unfortunately we all had to pts :(. 2 out of 3 horses were under 10years old :(

http://www.ckequinehospital.com/page/184/Degenerative-Suspensory-Ligament-Desmitis-DSLD

http://www.equipodiatry.com/dsld.htm
 
It's very hard OP. My wonderful competition horse did his DDFT last year - huge hole in the middle of it. He was insured so had surgery etc. but they made it clear that it was career-ending which was devastating. They doubted he'd ever come sound. He was meant to be box rested for at least 6 months, but he was so naughty on his "controlled exercise" that he ended up re-injuring it again so vets all agreed just to chuck him back out in the field which is what he was used to, and leave him to it. 18 months on, he is perfectly comfortable but not 100% sound and I do ride him but it is literally walking around the paddock purely to do something with him (he loved being worked). Very occassionally he obviously tweaks it a little as he is a bit stiff the day after, but in general he is perfectly happy as a field ornament. Even if he did ever come sound, Id never risk jumping him again. I understand your dilemma about not being able to afford another - I only have horses to compete but I have him as an expensive pet, along with 2 of old ponies (my very first ponies!) and now my current competition horse has gone lame too. I cannot afford another horse in money or space either!

Personally Id get the vet out to have a look, dont spend a fortune on scans as you say you cant afford them anyway. Then I'd probably turn the horse out in a small paddock (so he cant tear around) and leave him off for the winter. I personally would never PTS unless the horse wasn't happy and couldn't cope with his lameness.
 
soulfull said:
So sorry to hear this. Both myself and 2 other people I know have has horses diagnosed with defenerative suspensory ligament disease. The links I will post show the later stages and none of our horses showed the dropped fetlocks or excessive lying down. Only symptoms we has were reccurent lameness. Sometimes in same leg sometimes in other legs or in my case 3 out of 4 legs (I didn't know it was 3 legs I only saw 2)

Unfortunately we all had to pts :(. 2 out of 3 horses were under 10years old :(

http://www.ckequinehospital.com/page/184/Degenerative-Suspensory-Ligament-Desmitis-DSLD

http://www.equipodiatry.com/dsld.htm
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So sorry to hear this!

My horse has never failed flexion tests. We had him scanned and x-rayed last September and found nothing - the vet recommended six weeks box rest. It was horrendous. He was fine for a few months but then must have tweaked it in the field as I thought he seeemd a bit off.So we did the flexion/nerve block/scan/xray again - nothing. The only sign was he was slightl off when lunged in one school (oudoor) . Fine in the indoor. The vet could see no sign of lameness as he was ridden. He suggested bringing hmi back in work. So I did lots of walking on my own for months and months and then gradually increased. Now I think giving him a year off is the only option - if I can't turn away it may have to be DIY livery - where then I might be able to afford another , although I have to say I would be terrified of something happening to that! (Current one has had colic surgery, splint fracture, undiagnosed lameness!) :(
 
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