Sacro-illiac injury blues

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GGRider

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Anyone got any good, bad or uplifting experiences of this frustrating problem. S-I injuries affect the ligaments attaching the pelvis to the spine and leave the horse with a tilted/dropped pelvis, muscle wastage and reduction in athleticism. My TB did this repeatedly as a 2yo and has just done it again aged nearly 5. There go the seasons plans to event and here comes the physio again. Any experiences out there? Thanks.
 
Yes unfortunately. Bloody frustrating. I went physio route and horse has just started jumping again. Early days. Canter transitions are still rubbish!!! We are working on getting the back and stomach muscles strong enough to support the problem. Was offered P2G as a kill or cure but as my mare was never lame and has the breediing to be a broodmare i decided against it.

I am considering calling it a day if she isnt right in a few months purely because of the frustration of getting nowhere. I will possibly put her in foal as we are now fairly sure the problem was caused by a shunt from a car. Then, hopefullly, I will buy something that is less frustrating and keep her as a happy hacker!!! She is lovely to hack! Providing you dont ask her to move too much or collect or use her backend she is lovely!!!

When i did research it did seem that physio and work was the way forward but your horse will have its limitations. Rest was definitely a bad move! People who rested their horses seemed to have more negative results over all.

My horse is also much happier in a wow saddle.

Sorry not inspiring but at least you know you are not the only one. Plus i think there are a lot more out there going undiagnosed but just considered lazy!
 
the tb x that i look after had s-i injuries through jumping when she was younger, we did have a few stressful problems last year with her and thought she wouldnt be ridden again but through feeding and exercise the problems are sorted out now and she hacks out nearly every day with 3 or 4 of those days being with canter work (she's 17 now but she thinks she's 7 most of the time)!!

sorry dont have any experience of it in youngsters!
 
Yep
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My mare was diagnosed with this (can't remember how many years ago now) at Liphook. Told to rest her for 3 months, still no difference. I luckily found the most fab phyiso and after her initial thoughts of 'Oh my god,it's a dinosaur'. She has gone from strength to strength and there is nothing she can't do. I have the physio regulary, but she has strengthed herself up so much. She's 16 still jumping, hacking, xc dressage and is better than when she was 8
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My cob has this problem, happened when he was rising six, he's now rising 16, he's always been a happy hacker, and the vets have told me he will always be half a tenth lame on each hind leg. He's had physio etc over the years, but nothing ever made the problem go away. He's on Equine Herbals Devils Claw Flex, which helps loads, and is great to hack, and we've done a fair bit of schooling over the years which he's coped with well. Sometimes he feels a bit unlevel behind, on those days we take it very easy, sometimes I get off to walk him downhill, and sometimes we gallop around like loonies!

I don't know how it would have affected him if he had competitive career planned for him, I think generally he is happy and I don't think he's in pain.
 
It took a year for my old horse to be diagnosed (8 years ago). We did box rest and an equine sports therpaist said that was the worst thing. He went to her for 2 weeks and we never looked back. He always used to drag his hind legs but he would happily still jump, gallop etc. In fact he is now in RC SJ teams and reg hunting with his new owner. So it's a case of finding the right person. It was all about building up the correct muscles. We used lots of pole work, hill work and weighted boots
 
Mine has just come back from Leahurst and the diagnosis was ligament damage in the pelvis region and inflamation that had never settled down. They have injected her sacroilliac region with anti inflams, cortosteroids, pain killers. She came back with muscle relaxant tabs to take and a 6 week programe of bringing back into work starting with long reinging and then lunging moving onto light hacking. I am just about to get back on her this weekend and have been taking things nice and slowly with her. When lunged she is not showing any of the symptoms she was displaying before hand so I am keeping everything crossed that she is OK again ... but only more time will tell.

Like above the also said that once she is back in work she must be kept in work to keep her muscles tight and supportive around the joints - so I have invested in a good pair of waterproofs for when I was long reining and lunging in the pizzing rain !!!

If you want to discuss further PM me.

MaverickMD
 
Yes, but not helpful, I'm afraid. I bought a 10yo ex-steeplechaser that must have had a bad fall while racing - the problems didn't really come to light until he stopped jumping for me and we had him investigated. After a week's residential therapy at a physiotherapist's yard, months of home-based physio followed (pole work etc), and eventually he was deemed rideable again - but I was never sure that he was pain-free and retired him a year later aged 15.
 
I'm just waiting to find out if this is a part of what Flynn has done
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so far we have - torn adductor muscles, torn ligament at L4 involving a bone chip from the spinous process. That was the first vet. Second vet has nerve blocked upward from hoof to hock and has found (with swelling) problems with sesamoid and suspensory and doesn't believe first vet's diagnosis and wants to send Flynn for scintigraphy - although I'm not exactly certain on which part, waiting for phone call today.

"Back lady" felt it was very probably S-I.

Poor old boy only slipped a leg off the ramp
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I would go for scintigraphy. The problem with any back problem is that the horse compensates and gets other problems in the joints, neck legs etc. Hence why therecould have been other diagnoses. Mine was scanned and it showed lots of other minor issues all probably related.
 
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