Proximal suspensory ligament injury

[bgray1981]

Hi,

My horse has been diagnosed with proximal suspensory ligament injury in left fore. Vet has suggested 6 weeks box rest, then 6 weeks of walk, then review. What are your experiences of this injury? Is my horse likely to make a full recovery? Compete at the level we were at (BD Elementary) or is it game over, and retirement? I appreciate it's a varied answer as depends on the injury/recovery etc, but would just appreciate your experiences and feedback.

Thank you

 

[Auslander]

My experience is with hind limb proximal suspensory desmitis, so not relevant to your horse at all. However, I've done a huge amount of reading on anything suspensory related, and it's generally felt that injury, rather than wear and tear to a front limb, has a far greater chance of a good outcome. Good luck

 

[gunnergundog]

Scanning is your friend such that you can monitor progress or any deleterious changes. Things can look fine from the outside and horse be sound such that you push on to the next stage of your rehab programme; however, changes can already be happening internally - these could be picked up by a scan and thereby stop you making an expensive, possibly game ending, move by cracking on. So, my advice is to scan at the end of your box rest, then scan again at the end of your walking, then again at the next stage and so on and so on.