prognosos of neck injury.

hihosilver

hihosilver

Well-Known Member
Joined
21 November 2010
Messages
1,420
Location
south East
Visit site
My 4 year old mare came over from Ireland and then was backed and turned away for the winter. She went to a professional rider to be rebacked and then she started to do strange things. She wobbled when first sat on and coming out of the stable, She swung her right forleg out when ridden. Vet called she was x-rayed and found to have some changes on neck towards wither. After many phsio treatments and bute she seemed to be worse. I had her bone scanned and it showed hot spots on the neck. Back was fine. It seems the injury was fairly recent within the last 2 years...most likely a rotational fall. She now has been turned away for 6 months and is being x-rayed again. Will she ever come right to be ridden. She is 5 rising 6 now. Any advice or thoughts greatly appreciated.
 
hihosilver said:
My 4 year old mare came over from Ireland and then was backed and turned away for the winter. She went to a professional rider to be rebacked and then she started to do strange things. She wobbled when first sat on and coming out of the stable, She swung her right forleg out when ridden. Vet called she was x-rayed and found to have some changes on neck towards wither. After many phsio treatments and bute she seemed to be worse. I had her bone scanned and it showed hot spots on the neck. Back was fine. It seems the injury was fairly recent within the last 2 years...most likely a rotational fall. She now has been turned away for 6 months and is being x-rayed again. Will she ever come right to be ridden. She is 5 rising 6 now. Any advice or thoughts greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

My horse reared and fell over backwards in the field. He was ten. He developed strange rubbing on his fetlocks and a tremble on his forelegs. He eventually got to the stage that he was swaying quite badly. The vet misdiagnosed him and said he had EHV which prevented him being referred to Liverpool. Eventually he was and he was graded 3 - 4 on the 'wobbler scale' and was PTS on humane grounds as there was nothing they could do. Unfortunately due to the injury (vetebraes C3, C4 and C6 from recollection were involved) it was very hard to treat. C6 in older horses is bad news. Due to the damage Rommy's the gap in Rommy's spinal canal to allow the cord through was 17mm and it should have been 51mm. This was due to the calcium deposits that had been deposited due to the injury. Sorry, I am not explaining this very well as I am not a vet but basically the spinal cord and associated nerves were being compressed. He was an extremely poor candidate for surgery due to his age, and also his C6 issue so he was pts.

I can't see how turning away would help your horse, they always advise on box rest, if anything as being more helpful. Here is a paper about wobblers which is very in depth and written by someone who specialises in this at the University of Geulph. http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/livestock/horses/facts/info_wobbler.htm

I will be really blunt with you and I am sorry if this is offensive but I feel you are being led up the garden path by your vet who is putting off the inevitable bad news. I am not a vet, but it is very unlikely given the xray results you have already received that this horse will come good without an operation. It may be worth getting her referred to Liverpool now so you know what you are dealing with, rather than building up hope for the next 6 months and then finding out you are in the same situation.

I am wondering if something happened at the yard when she was sent away for reschooling, she may have had an accident that they have not told you about, or they may not even have been aware of. She may have had a tumble in the field that they didn't think was worth telling you about, or maybe cast in her stable to have caused the injury assuming it is an injury and not as a result of a fast growing young horse with developmental issues.
 
I was wondering if he was putting off telling me but he is a top vet from Liphook vet hospital. He said surgery was not am option and results are not really that good to warrant putting her through surgery. She is sound in the field and he says she is not a wobbler. He was positive that because of her age and that the injury was fairly recent that she would recover. She is not a world beater but has an amazing temp and is brilliant on the roads. All I want is for to be able to hack. I cant see me Being able to put her to sleep as she is such a happy mare. I guess I will have to keep my fingers crossed and see what happens in March when she goes back to Liphook. It is not a developmental problem it is definitely from a fall.
 
I think the problem is there is simply no way to tell, leaving aside that none of us have seen the horse's x-rays or have the experience to link initial injury to outcome. There certainly have been horses that have recovered, at least up to a point, from spinal injuries and others which have reached a point where their ongoing issues can be managed satisfactorily for low level work. Of course there are others that have degenerated or developed complications.

I remember horses in my youth that almost certainly sustained spinal/neurological injuries but we lacked the resources to find out. Standard approach was to turn away and wait. Some got better, some did not.

I would say, if you decide to wait and see, you have to be realistic about your time frame - it might easily be a year or more before you see optional healing. if you want to do rehab you will have to be very, very careful and leave riding until it's comfortable for her and safe for you.
 
TarrSteps said:
I think the problem is there is simply no way to tell, leaving aside that none of us have seen the horse's x-rays or have the experience to link initial injury to outcome. There certainly have been horses that have recovered, at least up to a point, from spinal injuries and others which have reached a point where their ongoing issues can be managed satisfactorily for low level work. Of course there are others that have degenerated or developed complications.

I remember horses in my youth that almost certainly sustained spinal/neurological injuries but we lacked the resources to find out. Standard approach was to turn away and wait. Some got better, some did not.

I would say, if you decide to wait and see, you have to be realistic about your time frame - it might easily be a year or more before you see optional healing. if you want to do rehab you will have to be very, very careful and leave riding until it's comfortable for her and safe for you.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that I will wait till March and see what the vet thinks. I am happy to wait longer if I need to. She will have had a year off in march. She came over from Ireland 2 years ago and I wondered if she fell in the lorry? She is tough and loves living out so I have got to give her a chance.
 
I'm generally not an optimist but I did know a beautiful 4 year old (winner in hand, brilliant mover and jumper) that was so severely compromised initially the owners were told to pts but, because they had lovely turnout, decided to give him one last summer in the field. At the end of the summer he looked better so they put him out with the young horses for the winter. When the next year's crop had been backed we brought him back in, at which point he was not the mover he had been but seemed fairly safe. He was sold with full disclosure to a decent enough rider who wanted to take a punt he would work at least as something to hack and in fact the horse ended up eventing reasonably successfully, even doing a season at the equivalent of Novice. I don't think he was ever the horse he promised to be but if you hadn't known him before, you would not have thought.

Again, though, please be safe. When/if you bring her back make sure you do it very carefully for both your sakes.
 
Thanks I will be very careful. The Professional rider did email me a disclaimer as the last time she attempted to sit on her after the physio for the vet to see she was bucking and attempting to rear...not her at all that's when the vet made the decision to turn her away for the summer and he saw her again in September and did bone scan with advice to turn her away for 6 months and feed her concentrated glucosamine daily. The professional was very negative and said I should cut my loses. I do trust my vet and will only attempt to bring her back if he allows it. My farrier thinks I should forget her for a year and allow her to heal.
 
I'd say your vet is probably being optimistic and your farrier is closer to the truth. My experience is it takes a full rotation of the seasons for a horse to 'reset' if it's going to, ideally out 24/7 with a quiet group, on varied terrain and with a minimum/no hard feed but good quality forage. It's not something people do much now that time and land are expensive but if you can and no one has any other bright ideas, what the heck. Obviously if the horse looks to be degenerating you'll make a different plan.

Good luck.
 
TarrSteps said:
I'd say your vet is probably being optimistic and your farrier is closer to the truth. My experience is it takes a full rotation of the seasons for a horse to 'reset' if it's going to, ideally out 24/7 with a quiet group, on varied terrain and with a minimum/no hard feed but good quality forage. It's not something people do much now that time and land are expensive but if you can and no one has any other bright ideas, what the heck. Obviously if the horse looks to be degenerating you'll make a different plan.

Good luck.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your support I will let you know what happens in March,:):):)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top