PSD recovery - does this sound right?!

georgiegirl

georgiegirl

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Over the spring we noticed a few changes in Autumn which lead to us taking her down to the vets. Her topline muscle changed shape, she bagan struggling with left canter and stopped once or twice jumping when coming off a tighter left hand turn - these are all things she NEVER does so we knew something was up....

Took her to the vets who saw her ridden, lunged etc and said they couldnt see anything really that wrong. I just knew myself she didnt feel quite right or as athletic as she normally does...

So, we did a very expensive bone scan (thankgod for insurance!) which didnt really show anything up apart from very very mild uptake in the left sacro iliac region. The vet then went ahead with nerve blocks and when he blocked out her left proximal suspensory ligament he then said he could see what I was talking about re her not moving quite right and said he could see what I mean when she moves on full power!


Both hinds were scanned and the right was perfectly fine and the left showed inflammation and disrupted fibres - no holes or tears but more than likely given our history etc this is what had been rumbling away...

They did shockwave there and then that day as well as a steriod injection and she then came home to be put onto box rest with fortnightly shock wave treatments. She also currently has egg bars fitted behind.

Shes been in around 5.5 weeks now and the vet has said in a week and halfs time he wants me to start ridden walk work for a fortnight and then after that introduce trot.

At the three month stage (from diagnosis) he wants to rescan the leg and is then confident we can crack on with canter work and jumping etc with the aim of her being back out eventing mid september.

Reading up on other people PSD cases they seem to have months and months of box rest and rehab and I cant help but wonder if this all seems a bit quick?! The vets have been fantastic and I do trust them but part of me niggles away thinking what if etc etc. My guesses are its because there were no holes/lesions/tears which means they are aiming for such a quick comeback but was just wondering if it sounded right to others????

Also, anything else I can do to help her rehab? Ive put her onto a glucosamine and collagen based joint supplement now which I intend to keep her on indefinately and we are also planning some physio at around that three month stage as well as purchasing a massage pad to help her get back up to full steam (my poor bank balance.....) Just wondered if anyone else had any nuggets of advice they could offer for the best way of building her back up to work?

Thankyou!!
 
Did you enjoy the trip to Malton - as thats where I'm assuming you went?! Mine was diagnosed with PSD there in 2011, bone scanned, xrayed, then I had to take him home to ride him to make him lame enough for a nerve block :o After diagnosis we also had 3 shockwave treatments on a fortnightly basis.

The rehab sounds about right I think. I think I started on about 10 mins in hand, increasing by about 5 mins a week, then ridden walk in hand up to about 30 mins I think, then introduced trot work - although every injury is different. I think the jist I got with PSD is they need the boxrest to stop them damaging it more, but in fact they can take a reasonable amount of controlled work.

I got mine a magnetic rug to help with the box rest, and he wore magnetic leg wraps for an hour or so a day. I seem to remember putting him on a joint supplement, and I also got a mix from these guys with rustox, ruta grav and arnica in. I'm not sure if it helped (my vet was very sceptical about the magnets etc) but I did everything conventional, and tried alternative routes too. I think its good to have them seem by a physio/chiro every 2-3 months as the PSD can often lead to other problems in the back - SI in particular, plus all the standing still is not good.

http://www.crossgatesbioenergetics.com/animal-health/introduction.xhtml

Good luck with it, I feel your pain, its a total PITA!
 
Yes, luckily for us rainbow are just up the road and they really have been fantastic! :D

Im not querying there advice for a second it just seems reading around other peoples experiences that they were off an awful lot longer. Although I guess each case/horse is different and I really probably am far to precious with my girl!
 
I think towards the end I took an extra week here and there with the rehab to make sure he'd done each level properly as I did mine through winter (the joys!) and could only get out max 4x a week
 
my old horse has PSD in his right hind. he had box rest while he had shockwave, then did about 6wks walking, 6wks trotting before cantering. He did a 10mile sponsored ride (inc couple of tiny jumps) 7months after diagnosis.
 
Thanks for the reply star. See this is what I mean ours sounding quite a quick comeback with the vets saying all being well she should be eventing middle of September?? Actually though now I've totted it up that would take us to 5 months post diagnosis.....the original scan was very mild too according to the vet....

Will just have to see how she goes with the walk and trot work and the next scan I guess! This isn't going to do absolutely anything for my leg paranoia!
 
No it doesn't! Did you have Jonathan at rainbow? He saw my work shy beast and think he's pretty good at diagnosis and rehab. Have to say, I being uber cautious now wouldn't compete xc til next year, maybe something sedate on a surface you can trust, but no more. But that's just me, I wouldn't have been so cautious pre 2011 :o
 
I am uber cautious. My horse didnt jump again till 8mths after a tiny weeny tendon injury that took 2 top vets to see on scan and never made him lame.

Personally I think I'd be walking longer than a couple of weeks given amount of time off.
 
I was asked to walk quite soon as well and soon after the operation as well as the shockwave didn't help my horse. This too was at rainbow.
 
Did you have a rescan before starting the walking and deciding the shock wave hadnt helped??

I think we may be heading in the right direction. Just before our initial diagnosis I had her shod and she was completely out of character - very tense and generally unhappy. Looking back now it may have been a sign of what was going on. Had her shod the other day and she stood there fast asleep and relaxed and tied up on her own - this is after 5 weeks of box rest
 
if I rememver correctly I was sent home and told to walk him in straight lines, A scan revealed it wasn't working. So then they went to operating.
It sounds a little more hopefull if you think there is improvement.
Even after the operation i was still not convinced he was okay until the scanned the ligaments and the swelling had gone and - the fibre pattern was normal again.
But my horse did have a poor prognosis at the time.
 
Thanks for the advice and good to know it worked out for you eventually!

I guess all I can do is commence the walk and trot work as Ive been told to do and see what the scan at the three month stage shows us - until then apart from seeing how she feels there is nothing else we can do - the vets have been hugely positive from day one though and wanted to have a real shot at conservative/shockwave treatment. The statistics for surgery do seem very positive though if we find it is a route we have to go down.

Keeping everything crossed. She hasnt even been lame with it as such just not using herself quite the same - even the vet said he thought most owners would have put her performance changes/behaviour just down to being marish or trying it on and would have carried on so hopefully we have caught it and started treatment before it became a really big problem.
 
If you aren't sure why not ring them and ask them to confirm what they said or recheck your discharge instructions, there is nothing like being sure, my horses treatment was a long time ago, before such diagnosis became common - my vet didn't know what the problem was till he was snet to Rainbow.
 
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