Help, suspensory ligament check ligament injury

[astroud]

Hi,

Please can anyone offer any advice to me. My nearly 5 year old gelding who i have owned since he was born has damaged his right hind suspensory and check ligament whilst in the field. He has been to Leahurst hospital who diagnosed him and been sent home for 3 months box rest with in hand walking twice a day. He is also due to have some shock wave treatment. After the 3 months he may still need an operation.

He is only used for hacking and the odd fun ride. Has anybody had experience of this and have they got their horses back in work??

Does anybody have any other advice for me please.

 

[louise8667]

In my experience suspensory injuries in the hind limbs are harder to 'repair'. Doing nothing tends not to help the injury. I suppose it depends on the extent of the damage. Have you had any scans? If caught early enough you may be lucky & the shockwave may help the healing process. With my horse it was quite an old chronic injury. I have tried absolutly everything but have had to retire him.
On reflection of my horses injury, I think I was in too much of a hurry to get him right. He was referred to Rossdales where they recommended fasciotomy neurectomy which was carried out back in Feb 09.
All I'd say is that I wish I had done a lot more research and not taken the vets advice as gospel. I do believe that there were trying their best to fix him, but I think in my horses case they focused too much on the suspensory injury and never asked what had caused the injury in the first place. I have come to learn that most of the time PSD is usually secondary to some other hidden injury. But, if you know your horse did it in the field then your situation is probably different to mine.
There is some quite interesting reading out there. Roger Meacocks website may be of interest to you (someone recommended it to me on here). I can't really comment at the moment on his methods as he hasn't yet treated my horse but its definatley something I wish I had pursued before putting my horse through an irreversible denerving. Also your horse is only 5, he may well just come right from enough rest. Just stay open minded and don't rush into anything. Good luck!

 

[Welly]

My boy did his front near check ligament 18 months ago. We had a scan and started box rest each month we had it scaned and it got worse it had fused to the tendon due to lack of exercise so we had it operated on in Feb 2010. with a lot of slow walking in hand then under saddle he is now back in work. He will only be a good hack but thats fine by me, there is hope but it takes time.

 

[alsiola]

In my experience suspensory injuries in the hind limbs are harder to 'repair'. Doing nothing tends not to help the injury. I suppose it depends on the extent of the damage. Have you had any scans? If caught early enough you may be lucky & the shockwave may help the healing process. With my horse it was quite an old chronic injury. I have tried absolutly everything but have had to retire him.
On reflection of my horses injury, I think I was in too much of a hurry to get him right. He was referred to Rossdales where they recommended fasciotomy neurectomy which was carried out back in Feb 09.
All I'd say is that I wish I had done a lot more research and not taken the vets advice as gospel. I do believe that there were trying their best to fix him, but I think in my horses case they focused too much on the suspensory injury and never asked what had caused the injury in the first place. I have come to learn that most of the time PSD is usually secondary to some other hidden injury. But, if you know your horse did it in the field then your situation is probably different to mine.
There is some quite interesting reading out there. Roger Meacocks website may be of interest to you (someone recommended it to me on here). I can't really comment at the moment on his methods as he hasn't yet treated my horse but its definatley something I wish I had pursued before putting my horse through an irreversible denerving. Also your horse is only 5, he may well just come right from enough rest. Just stay open minded and don't rush into anything. Good luck!

I am trying to find a nice way to phrase this, but Roger Meacock appears to be a world class buffoon, with just enough knowledge to sound scientific, but not quite enough to realise why he is talking rubbish. Rossdale's on the other hand are world class vets. Unfortunately the internet means that the information given out by both is just as accessible.

 

[cavalo branco]

Hi, there is a lot of information on this if you do a search on the forum. In a nutshell, my boy had a high suspensory strain in his right hind as well as arthritis in the same fetlock. A few facts-hind suspensories are harder to get right because the ligament is quite encased by other structures. They need box rest whatever other treatment the vet recommends. The fasciotomy/neurectomy op is often done but wasn't in my case.

I had the following - 4 months box rest with hand grazing, shock wave treatment and adequan injections. Another 2 months or so of gentle walking and very restricted turnout in own paddock. He also had egg bar shoes on hinds.
The suspensory healed but as I was still under insurance, I opted for IRAP treatment for arthritis, this meant more box rest. Finally, one year on, he is out normally and just extending his ridden work to trotting and the odd canter.Still good to stay in straight lines and no jumping.
So far he is sound !!! I think of him as having glass legs though

 

[astroud]

Hi, there is a lot of information on this if you do a search on the forum. In a nutshell, my boy had a high suspensory strain in his right hind as well as arthritis in the same fetlock. A few facts-hind suspensories are harder to get right because the ligament is quite encased by other structures. They need box rest whatever other treatment the vet recommends. The fasciotomy/neurectomy op is often done but wasn't in my case.

I had the following - 4 months box rest with hand grazing, shock wave treatment and adequan injections. Another 2 months or so of gentle walking and very restricted turnout in own paddock. He also had egg bar shoes on hinds.
The suspensory healed but as I was still under insurance, I opted for IRAP treatment for arthritis, this meant more box rest. Finally, one year on, he is out normally and just extending his ridden work to trotting and the odd canter.Still good to stay in straight lines and no jumping.
So far he is sound !!! I think of him as having glass legs though

Thanks its good to hear your horse is back inwork. Hopefully i will be able to ride my boy again, i am doing everything possible to help him. Fingers crossed.