Lateral branch of suspensory tendon/ligament - please let me have your experiences.

Birker2020

Birker2020

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My horse has slightly sprained the lateral branch of his suspensory ligament and as I caught it early (even though I didn't know what it was) and ice cupped it, clayed it, kept him in on box rest and gave him anti imflammatories and my friend is a physio so treated it with pulsed magno therapy he is likely to be back into full work within a 2-3 month timescale.

Has anyone else had a horse suffer from this? Please can I have your experiences good/bad. Many thanks.
 
Mine did the inside branch, not the outside branch but it healed fine and she went on to jump and hunt with someone else, who bought her after a vetting which did not even find the old injury.

Hers was mis-diagnosed and not treated properly and took over six months field rest to come sound, but yours should be fine.

I would look carefully at foot balance, as it's not that common an injury, tendon-wise. I read at the time that base-narrow conformation predisposed suspensory ligament branch strains and my mare was base narrow (chest was wider than where her feet stood on the floor).

Good luck.
 
Ligaments are easy to fix. So long as you bring them back into work carefully and slowly you should have no lasting damage and your horse should never have a bother again.

By the sounds of it it is a very small injury. We have one currently just back into work who pretty much shredded his Check Ligament 4 months ago. He is about to start cantering work again. We have had horses that have totaly mangled various ligaments and 95% of them have returned to full work and raced again with no futher issues. The 5% that didn't also had other issue that prevented them from returning to training but hasn't stopped them going on to be normal horses.

Just give it time and patience when work recommences and you'll not have a bother.
 
EKW said:
Ligaments are easy to fix. So long as you bring them back into work carefully and slowly you should have no lasting damage and your horse should never have a bother again.

By the sounds of it it is a very small injury. We have one currently just back into work who pretty much shredded his Check Ligament 4 months ago. He is about to start cantering work again. We have had horses that have totaly mangled various ligaments and 95% of them have returned to full work and raced again with no futher issues. The 5% that didn't also had other issue that prevented them from returning to training but hasn't stopped them going on to be normal horses.

Just give it time and patience when work recommences and you'll not have a bother.
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Blimey!! I hope this is true, my understanding is that suspensory ligaments can be hard to heal and can cause permanent disability, especially hinds,all the information seems to say this.I have rehabbed a front suspensory successfully with careful treatment and following the plan of controlled exercise to the letter. That horse failed his flexion test on the leg at his vetting but went on for several years with no problems, and hasnt had a problem since, been to camp and jumped everything. Currently rehabbing hind suspensorys, touch wood it is as you say!!
 
Thanks for your comments. I have read various information after googling lateral branch of the supsensory ligament and read a variety of prognosis's from poor to excellent which is why I thought I'd ask you. I am prepared to take as long as he needs to get back into form. A lot of the information I've read has said that the injury can be caused by foot imbalance (he has had a new farrier for the last two shoeing at every six weeks) but the farrier has an excellent reputation and has been shoeing a few at our yard for many years all whose feet are excellently balanced and trimmed.

I have also read that the common denominator with most of the injury's to the lateral branch are caused by a deep surface which our menage has? Just out of interest did the horses that you had injured by this have a deep surface to ride on?

I hope to reaffiliate him BS as this is my ambition. I am prepared to give him as long as it takes to get him right.
 
our cob did his collateral ligament (hind) when we first got him and had about 6 months off/coming back into work. No problems... good luck! He was not in box very long; went on limited turnout and despite loonying around, recovered well - oh and lots of swimming helped too. Good luck!
 
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