IRAP - any experiences???

[Harriettie]

My chap was at horsepital yesterday to diagnose very slight lameness in his off hind, accompanied by slight swelling on the outside of his feltock. The diagnosis was inflammation of the tendon sheath - cause unknown. The treatment I think I am going to go for is IRAP as I am concerned about the laminitus risks of steroid injections and certainly don't want to even think about an operation under GA as the lameness is too slight to risk his life for a cure.

I've googled IRAP and it looks like its quite a successful option with minimal risks, but I wondered if anyone here had any direct experience, how it went and what the outcome was. My chap is a 15 yr old MW cob and we compete at novice dressage.

Thanks in advance - and am happy to update on the outcome if folk are interested.

 

[tillyd]

Hiya, sorry to hear about your chap.
My mare had a course of IRAP injections a couple of years ago, for inflammation of her coffin joints. I liked the sound of it, and cortisone hadn't helped her. Sadly it certainly wasn't a miracle cure, although she is still in work. Difficult to know what to attribute to the IRAP and what to other changes (management etc) that I made. But certainly no miraculous improvement, but then who knows, maybe she'd be worse now if she hadn't had it. As I understand it, its very low risk (other than infection at the injection site) so if you can afford it is definitely worth a go. Wish you all the best.

 

[tabithakat64]

My boy has had IRAP therapy on a hind tendon sheath.
He had a very serious injury to his DDFT and SDFT (a 4inch tear horizontal tear over the fetlock joint).
My horse has had 3 IRAP injections into his tendon sheath over the last 9 months to help with the recovery process as the sheath itself was hugely swollen following the injury.
He also had an operation to debride the injury site and cut the annular ligament and surrounding tissue.
I believe the treatment has helped my horse become field sound and able to light hacking.
I too went with IRAP because of the laminitis risk.
He was also a dressage cob and was treated at Rossdales.

 

[Lainey123]

My boy had IRAP last year and it didn't work. He didn't come sound. Happy outcome though as he has been rehabbed barefoot and is now sound, so a good out come for my boy but IRAP didn't work for us. He had a sprain to his lateral collateral ligament. It does work for some so don't worry about my outcome as i expect loads of horses have benefited from it, just not us. Also he is rather a delicate flower even though he's 17hh!!!!!!!!!!

Good luck.xxxxx

 

[Ludi-doodi]

Yes and thought it made a huge difference to my horse following surgery for collatoral ligament damage. I think we had 4 courses over a 6 month period and never had a problem with that leg/foot in the nearly 5 years since he had the last injection. PLenty other problems, but not with that leg!

 

[Harriettie]

Well, I decided to go ahead and my lad had his first treatment at Rossdales yesterday. He was examined again before the treatment and although the swelling had actually reduced very slightly and he was very marginally less lame on one rein on the hard surface small circle test, I decided to continue.

He is now on box rest for 8 weeks, with further treatments in 2 and 4 weeks, which can be done by my own vet as I now have the serum in my freezer

From Saturday he has to be ridden or walked out in hand for 10 minutes twice a day, increasing by 5 minutes each day per fortnight.

The injection was made directly into the swollen tendon sheath and there is a small risk of infection, so antibiotics were injected as well. There is no dressing now, although there was initially. It doesn't look any different - I sort of thought it would be more swollen.

So, fingers crossed.

He seemed to secretly enjoy being at Rossdales as I think he has become bored with not going out to events, let alone not being ridden. Hopefully all that is about to change!

 

[tabithakat64]

I'm pleased to hear it went well. Who was your vet Harriette?

 

[Harriettie]

Hi TabithaKat - the vet was Sarah Boys Smith - is that who you had? So far I'm very very impressed with her, she has managed to cope with my many and varied (stupid) questions without rolling her eyes once and not tried to influence my decisions. The groom when we went for the diagnosis was also great, a retired stable lad / jockey who stayed with me during the day and helped me think through the options.

Very impressed overall with Rossdales.

 

[lochpearl]

My horse has had IRAP on 2 different occasions, first was for collateral ligament damage to both coffin joints, he had 5 injections in each foot, I believe they were weekly, so over a 5 week period. The scans show amazing improvement and healing which was due to the IRAP, we also did 3 lots of shock wave over a 6 week period.

Second was after surgery for OCD in his stifles, I think we only ended up doing 2 lots in each stifle and they were 2 weeks apart. He is now under saddle and building up slowly, but sound! This is a horse that had 20% chance of being ridden again due to either of the problems.

I love IRAP and would always use it over cortisone injections.

The only thing I would advise is to take things easy and don't rush anything. I also was feeding cosequin to help with the joints/ligaments, which has helped. I have now started him on a product called superfix - you can google it. This is in place of the cosequin, and it has natural 'bute' in it, so helps with inflammation and mild pain relief as well helping the tissues mend etc. I think their main work was with the racehorses at newmarket and they have had great results. The one they recommended for me was the sportmax as he is young and the problems he has had. My vets only recommended me to try it because they knew how much my horse means to me and that I would try anything beneficial for him, so far so good.

 

[tabithakat64]

I thought so - Sarah is my vet too.