Proximal suspensory desmitis...doesnt look too good

[MrsMagoo]

anyhow, had my younger girl on her course of bute to see if that made any difference to her movement and vet came out tonight to recheck her - well doesnt look too good!!!

Being on 4 bute a day hasnt shown a signaficunt improvment like we were hoping so now its down to guess work and nerve blocks, although at this stage shes deemed inrideable and if we had loss of use it would come to that....

The vets next step is to look into her having 'Proximal suspensory desmitis' which could be causing her hind leg lameness but even then she may never be back to full ridden health and we have to wait and find out to see if theres anything genetic, if not, then the only option would be to have her as a broadmare or a companion... well what a waste of a good young mare

anyone heard of this problem before???

 

[Alibear]

MY chap had this and we got him sound again but he had the chronic form which means it's developed gradually over time where as the acutue form is from n injury or a sudden onset.

There are lots of treatments avliable, rest, steroids, shockwave therapy, and finally a de-nerving operation.

My chap was de-nerved in the end and it did work and he returned to full fitness, both his hind legs were affected.

I know of quite a lot of other cases and as far as I remeber only 1 never came sound so there is hope chin up.

Presume your horse is being rested completly at the moment? time and rest a defintiyl important factors with this one I'm afraid.

Oh and before you run screaming at the mention of denerving, they only remove the branch of the nerve that goes to the top of the suspensory , so the horse can still feel the rest of it's leg and hoof and the bottom section of suspensory so it's not as "bad" as some people think.

 

[MrsMagoo]

Well she was in full work on bute to see if any problems would occur or disapear so to speak. As the bute didnt make much difference my vet is now looking in the direction of the suspensory liagament although its still not 100%. he is coming back next week to do nerve blocks on that leg but in the mean time, he didnt want her on box rest, and just gentle walk/trot work every now and again!!!

 

[Alibear]

Yeah that's what I was doing with Mac until his day in at the vets as originally they thought it was his hocks.
Soemtimes they want them kept in light work so they stay lame enough for the blocks to show a result.
Is you vet nerve blocking on it's own to start with and then go down the x-ray , scans depending on what the blocks show up?

I;m lucky enough to be just 15mins away from the vets and they have an on site "horsepital" so I took mine in and they did all three together.

 

[ihatework]

Mine got this as a 6/7 year old. He had shockwave treatment and period of rest. Has since come back into full work and done all disciplines at affiliated level, unfortunately this year he sustained a different injury which will probably put an end to his competitions.

 

[MrsMagoo]

AliBear - yes my vet is doing nerve blocks next week just to determine if it is definatetly that leg then she will have to go in the vets for x-rays etc and go from there...

B&J - was it expensive to have all that treatment on your horse, and was it out of work for a long time???

 

[ihatework]

The horse had 4 months off work.
Shockwave treatments are normally given 10-14 days apart and you would usually have 4-5 treatments.
Depending on your vets you will either take your horse to them or your vet may be willing to transport the equipment to you.

A rough cost per treatment is about £100 - 120. On top of this you may obviously have a call out fee plus it is common to sedate the horse to have it done.

I've found the insurance companies don't quibble about paying out for this treatment so it may cost you around £700 but you should be able to see fairly quickly if its successful and still gives you the time and money left to try different treatments if it doesn't work

 

[MrsMagoo]

Cool - my vet mentioned a different operation that they did which sounded like they cut the muscle and various different tissues etc around this, maybe its a new thing???

 

[Alibear]

[ QUOTE ]
Cool - my vet mentioned a different operation that they did which sounded like they cut the muscle and various different tissues etc around this, maybe its a new thing???

[/ QUOTE ]

Hmm that could be the part of the op myhorse had to , they remove some tissue from the leg to make more room for the inflamed suspensory which stops it from pressing on the tendon.

Or it could be something different.

 

[Bri]

Can I ask what symptoms your mare has? And why does your vet think it could be Proximal suspensory desmitits??
My young horse is also lame on the hind. No idea what it is!

 

[MrsMagoo]

well we first that she finds canter very hard and almost like she has no impulsion behind. Then the vet noticed that she was 50% short on left hind especially coming of a slope. She would never stand on that leg for long periods of time.

We tried working through it, with no difference and the last thing was a course of bute which also showed not much difference. Its not 100% sure this is it but hes going to start with that i suppose :? Vet did say its becoming scarily common in young horses and there not even sure of what the reasons are yet, 1. maybe genetic 2. school surfaces and some others.

 

[Bri]

Hmm...would you mind explaining what it actually is?

Just plucking at straws really, but vet has offered me no explanation as to what it could be, so doing my own research!

 

[MrsMagoo]

Hmmm well its as far as I understand - inflamation of the suspensory ligament which is from the fetlock down (not sure if it applies from the hock down) and how he explained it to me yesterday was that instead of the ligament moving with each stride, its streching and tearing around the join causing pain and discomfort. You may get a better explanation googleing the name, a few things come up with it

sorry im rubbish at understanding things myself...

 

[star]

my horse had proximal suspensory desmitis 4yrs ago as a 16yr old. he had 3 lots of shockwave, box rest and controlled exercise and was back competing in 6 months and never looked back. i caught it very quickly though and we were straight in the horspital getting it sorted and treated - the quicker you diagnose and treat, the better the chance of a recovery.

you seem a bit confused with what it is though. the suspensory ligament runs from just below the hock to the fetlock, then splits and joins the extensor tendon at the front of the leg. proximal means top part, so in PSD, the part that is injured is up just below the hock, not near the fetlock (that would be a suspensory branch desmitis). desmitis just means inflammation of a ligament.

standard non-invasive treatments are box rest, shockwave and then controlled buildup of exercise. the only surgery that is done is know as a plantar neurectomy and fasciotomy - this is where they cut the strong fascia surrounding the ligament and preventing it from expanding (and therefore making it press on the nerves and cause pain), and they also cut the lateral plantar nerve to kill the sensation from the origin of the suspensory. i know someone who's horse has had it done recently, but he is still lame, so it hasn't worked for him. i do know others who it has worked very well on, including a top dressage horse. it is imperative the horse blocks out to a lateral plantar nerve block before going ahead with this op as if it doesn't, cutting that specific nerve wont help.

 

[MrsMagoo]

Hi, thanks for all the good info

I have posted an update since, she had the nerve block done on that hind leg and unfortunetly there was no improvment so we are back to square one, being the back!!!

She has to go to horspital next week for further ultra sounds and x-rays but its back to looking like kissing spines....