My boy has hind proximal suspensory injury - advise/experiences

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Laurac13

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My 6 year boy old had a lameness workup at the vets on Tuesday, nerve blocks, ultra sounds etc and he has a proximal hind suspensory injury, the suspensory has lots of small tears and is swollen to an extra 50% of normal size, he also has a little sinking of the fetlock. I have owned him since he was 3 years old and am gutted for him he is such a lovely boy.
Vet says his prognosis is very guarded as its a serious injury. He suggested a neurectory operation - any experiences please? I have brought him home he is to be on box rest for 4 weeks with 10 minute hand walking twice a day. He is also on bute and we have booked lazer therapy once a week for 4 weeks. He will then be re-scanned after the 4th lazer treatment before we make further rehab plans.
Please can people share their experiences of rehab for this injury and any rehab tips will be much appreciated.
Thank you
 
My 9yr old Mare was diagnosed, she firstly had the shock wave therapy & Bute, then a neurectomy, we followed all the vets instructions to the letter but twice I tried to rehab her and she broke down when we got to the 20mins walking stage, it was PTS I'm afraid, I hope your outcome is better. Best of luck.
 
Sorry to hear this :( Not quite the same but my mare was recently diagnosed with PSD in a front leg, secondary to navicular. She was very flat on her heels, and my vet said to turn her out as much as possible with graduated shoes on. I'm a bit worried as I thought generally treatment for PSD was boxrest and shockwave therapy, but at the minute I have to believe my vet knows best.

Hope you manage to sort your boy.
 
12 months ago we had the N&F op done on both hind legs. Took rehab slow and steady and now so much better than he was before 100% sound, doing tiny jumps (sack the jockey), prelim dressage, bit of showing and lots of farm rides. I had only bought him 10 months prior to op! Although mine only had swelling and no tears so I would expect you would need more time to heal tears as well as reduce swelling. Good luck x
 
The slight sinking of the fetlock jont is a worrying sign. I lost my section D/TB to a damaged hind suspensory, he was retired with it aged 8, but I had to have him PTS age 10 as the fetlock joint was collapsing due to the suspensory further breaking down. I'd had him since he was as an unbacked 3yo.

Sorry not to have had a better experience to share.
 
My boy was diagnosed at 6 also. We went for the faciotomy which released the pressure. We were warned off the neurectomy, especially on young ones as the length of time it would work for was very very short. The faciotomy worked wonders and we instantly had a more comfortable horse. That plus lots and lots of time, patience and walking has touch wood resulted in a sound horse.
 
Mine has suspensory branch desmitis. She has an ultrasound every 4 months to keep an eye on it. We managed to improve the situation and the condition of them actually improved after a summer of walking hacks building up to trot. They improved so much that in Feb vet cleared her to come back to normal work (hacking with sponsored rides). She went lame after our first sponsored ride and ultrasounds revealed they are degrading again so we are rehabbing again, currently walking hacks again, this time we are also using an arc equine.

My girl is 17 and has high mileage and arithritis so my only aim is to keep her in light work as that's beneficial for arithritis but will only work her if she is comfortable.

Sorry it's not a positive one but the fact that I improved her suspensories at one stage makes me feel I can try do it again (and then just keep her on light work) I think if they have age on their side then much more likely for a proper recovery. Maybe look into arc equine.
 
Sorry to hear about your horse. Just had to retire my 8 yo due to this. There is a very good facebook group called psd discussion group. I bought an arc equine for my boy, it's for sale now though. All the very best x
 
My mare had very similar to yours with tear to one hind and swelling to the other but no tears.
We did prp into the hole with box rest and hand walking, the hole healed well but they remained swollen (she was however sound throughout this entire process- she not went lame for 2days initially!) she had the neurectomy and fasciotomy and more hand walking. (Unfortunately it was winter by this point so we couldn't turn out as ground wasn't good enough so just had to walk twice a day), she then had her back injected when started back under saddle as she was sore and started back with walk work under saddle started trot work eventually but she didn't cope and she went lame on the worst affected hind (didn't block out totally sound to the hock at this point) so I retired her to the field but she didn't cope with the winter ground being 'sucky'on her and her leg swelled and she was very lame (I reckon if we rescanned she would have had a huge tear in something), so I had her pts unfortunately.
From diagnosis to turning away as didnt cope was 9months, and she only managed 2weeks in the field.

If I could turn the clock back I wouldn't have treated her and would have turned away for 12months to see what happened with rest.
Something to bear in mind is that there is very very few cases where it's purely suspensory issue 9 times out of 10 there is an issue somewhere else which causes compensation and unless that's resolved they never come right. Bear in mind Sometimes these issues don't arise until after you initially treat the suspensory.
The psd discussion group on Facebook is great source of guidance.
I'm sorry my story isn't more positive but I think now suspensory Damage is so much worse than the vets make out-
On my yard we have had 3 Pts with suspensory issues (nearly all suspected to have been bought with them but didnt show on vetting) and one which is rehabbing currently but still lame in trot. The vets basically told me after I'd treated her and spent a fortune that the op would
Likely only make her hacking sound which rest alone may have done.
 
I went through this with my 4 year old warmblood. The vets had recommended to PTS which i absolutely could not bear to do without first trying everything possible.
I used this guy Roger Meacock - http://www.naturalhealingsolutions.co.uk/about/proximal-suspensory-desmitis
And put the horse out in a field for 12 months on his recommendation.
After 12 months the horse came back sound and scanned completely clear of PSD. So it is possible to recover. There are some articles to read on RM's website, take a look.
 
My boy was diagnosed at 6 too. He had swelling to one and a lesion on the other. The vet said he wasnt a candidate for surgery due to the two different injurys so i turned away for 18 months. Sadly hes not really any better. Hes never been field lame but he isnt happy with me riding him so hes pretty much retired. I have to say the fetlock dropping is a bad sign. I had one that this happened to on a front leg and he never came back and was PTS
 
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