Life after suspensory ligament damage?

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peanut

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My boy has been diagnosed with proximal suspensory ligament damage. He's only minimally lame and I can't pinpoint any particular time he may have done it.

What are your experiences of life after this injury? Did your horse return to normal activities?

I'm wondering whether we will ever jump or do cross country again and would be interested to hear how other horses have done post injury.
 
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but my beautiful horse Ronnie was PTS a month ago due to proximal suspensory desmitis that deteriorated further after neurectomy/fasciotomy. I personally know 3 horses who have had the surgery and only one is still alive 18 months after diagnosis. It perhaps wouldn't stop me from trying the surgery route, but at least my expectations have been lowered.

I hope you and your horse have a more succesful outcome. Will keep everything crossed.

What treatments have been recommended?
 
Thank you for replying and I'm so sorry to hear about Ronnie.

We're just starting out with box rest and shockwave therapy. The vet hasn't suggested surgery yet. I'm trying to be optimistic but it isn't easy as you well know.
 
If it helps to hear a positive story as well... my boy was diagnosed with the same nearly 2 years ago. He had shockwave treatment and then a lot of osteopathic work as his back was terribly sore, probably from compensating for the injury. He was definitely sound about a year ago with no noticeable stiffness anywhere. At the time I was pregnant so taking it slowly anyway, but I got him back into full work early this year after having a baby, and he seems to be completely sound. I haven't done much this year, mostly due to the hard ground, but we have done 3 ODEs at PN, and we're going to the BCA tomorrow, and have entered Tweseldown unaffil next month. He has been sound after each outing and he is loving work as much as ever.

What treatment route are you going down?

I am not an expert, but the vets say that they have 40% recovery rate after shockwave treatment, and 70-80% after neurectomy. From my experience I would say to expect it to take much longer than they say, and expect further complications like soreness elsewhere. Do get your back person to check him along the way - I had mine out every 2 weeks at one point, and am absolutely convinced it was worth it.

Best of luck and don't give up hope yet.

xx
 
Well - I have good news. My old horse had this injury and it got progressively worse over the years. We did the routine stuff without any success and at one point my vet was thinking about cutting her nerves but decided it wouldn't work because of how her nerves were branched.

But then I built a simple track system (a poor man's version of a paddock paradise). Just a circuit round a field on the side of a moderate hill.

Within months the injury had healed substantially, much to the very experienced vets amazement.

Post a short time on the circuit this horse happily coped with the South Down hills. I guess that was a good outcome. It was for me.
 
So sorry to hear this, my thoughts are with you, i know exactly what you are going through.

Yes, my pony has had it.
We also didnt know what caused it, just happened.
She has had about 1 and a half years off, 9 months on complete box rest and i now back to ridden work and jumping. We are always careful about the surfaces we ride her on, only in the arena, never in fields. She will never do xc or sj over about 90cm again, but that was much more than we were expecting, got told she would never be ridden/ jumped again!

We have to check her leg daily and if there are any signs of swelling she has a few days off until it is back to normal, however the vet told us to expect this.

All in all though i think she has recovered exceptionally well, probably better than most.

Keeps us updated with your boy's progress, i have my fingers crossed for you that he gets well soon! xxx
 
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