Possible PSD....again.

[Kadastorm]

Hey guys,

some of you may remember that my pony was diagnosed with bilateral PSD in the hind and navicular in front 2 years ago. After remedial shoeing, box rest, 3 x shock wave and lots of gentle work he came back amazing and hasn't had a days lameness. We have been out to dressage, show jumping and cross country and just been having fun!

His workload dramatically reduced over the past few months as I am currently studying for my final uni exams but last week when poo picking I noticed that he didn't seem quite right behind, particularly on his hind right. Yesterday, the girl who loans him took him out for a quiet hack and confirmed that he isn't ok so I got him out, trotted up and turned him on a circle and im pretty sure he has done it again...same symptoms but not heat or swelling.

For now I have put him on box rest and I am currently waiting for a call from the vets for advice. He is no longer covered by insurance and I do not have the money to put him through treatment again, all I can hope is that box rest and rehabbing like before may improve things.

Has anyone got any experience of going through it a second time? and not treating with surgery or shockwave? I always said that if he did it again I would give him the chance to recover through box rest and rehabbing but I cannot financially do the treatment all over again. After all, the pony was meant to be a project and was about to be sold when he went wrong and instead of following everyones advice to PTS i thought i would give him a chance.

The little ****** is my best friend and im so worried, i should be studying for my final exam before having to go to work tonight and all weekend but all i keep doing is researching PSD and treatment options, although the resounding prognosis im reading at the moment is not a good one!

Thanks for reading, its probably a bit of a ramble, i do apologise!

 

[applecart14]

I am hoping I get no negative comments on answering your post.... I really hope I don't , I am going to give it a go as i am keen to answer your post and give you a bit of positivity as I know what its like.

I am probably not much help as its not PSD my horse had as its much lower down the leg but I've put my horse through suspensory branch strain rehab on the same leg twice (it did really well and then a traumatic injury meant we were back where we started). He came round eventually and has done really well for a couple of years before doing his hind susp branch (a small sprain as before but less than the other one) and prognosis is good for a full return to work with a 40% chance of it reoccuring. When the vet came to the first suspensory strain after he reinjured it I thought he would say he would never be ridden again but he just smiled and inferred that there was no caveat on how many times you can rehab an injury, you just keep going through the rehab process again and if it heals it heals and if it doesnt it doesn't. Only time, patience, a sensible rehab programme, early intervention with anti inflammatory, compression, ice and rest (in some cases) will help. So I was very much like you are now, thinking, oh no not a second time, there is no way he will come back from this. Apart from very narrowly missing breaking his leg (I still don't know how this didn't occur) it swelled and looked so severe and damaged that my vet is still amazed about the recovery and the fact that still two years later its better than ever. In fact the new injury has gone down so much (although it was never huge anyway) since using the ice vibe boots (put on once per day when I see the horse in the evening after work) that I am really glad I bought my 'magic boots'.

Good luck. Listen to your vet and your gut instinct as those are the two that know the horse best at the end of the day. I'm stuck on my insurance so I know I would struggle if I had to pay more than £40 a week on vets bills although in reality it is nothing like this and I am fortunate with my circumstances in that I can pay them off quite quickly when they do come about. I try and put some aside into my vets account as well so I am in credit - normally its only about £40-£80 but it helps when you have the odd colic you weren't anticipating for example.

as for the shockwave, it did absolutely nothing for my horse. In fact his healing was very very slow for weeks, and each time the vet came out to visit he would scan and say there had been no improvement and all of a sudden overnight one day he started making progress. When he did it the second time (first injury) the PRP made all the difference I think. But what helped most of all was the ice treatment, I am totally convinced of that. I put everything into it as I know how important it is, and I really feel it made all the difference to the outcome. In fact I was so dedicated that the first and second day the poor horse was subject to cold tubbing, ice boots, cold hosing, ice cupping x 4 on the first day and 6 on day 2 with twice a day for days 3-7 and once per day for days 7-28.

 

[PolarSkye]

I'm so sorry to hear this - how heartbreaking for you.

The two conditions may well be linked - if he has navicular in front (like my boy), he will be adapting his whole way of going to compensate and that may be contributing to the PSD behind. Without seeing him move, it's hard to be sure, but that would be my thinking.

The Barefoot Massive on here will have lots of great advice for you wrt to helping the navicular by removing his shoes - and it is perfectly possible to rehab PSD with controlled field rest and lots of time.

Take heart - this is not necessarily the end of the road - you just need to keep an open mind/explore different options and therapies.

I do wish you the best of luck . . .

P

 

[Kadastorm]

Thankyou for your replies guys! I will read and reply properly when I am home as I am at work. Vet didn't call back today so I am going to have to go the weekend and try again Monday. He is a very impatient patient already!