Sacroiliac injury

[jopoultney]

My horse has recently been diagnosed with a sacroiliac joint injury. He has so far received steroid injections and a similar treatment to stem cell treatment, and I have been told to rest him for 1 year. Has anyone got any experience of successfully treating/managing this type of injury?

 

[AmyMay]

A girl at my previous yard had a horse with this type of problem.

He received treatment at Liphook, was rested, and then slowly brought back in to work over a period of a year and is absolutely fine. She is meticulous in his management - and has regular visits from a trusted back person (one that works on muscles, rather than bones - can't remember what they're called). He has been on Synaquin continuously over this period (around 3 years now) - not sure whether that's useful or not.

Anyway bottom line is that this horse is now fine - and continues to be so to the best of my knowledge.

He is remedialy shod behind.

 

[samp]

It took over a year for my horse to be diagnosed. I was told to rest for 6 months - although he may not return to full work and was advised that perhaps I claim loss of use as he may be a happy hacker. ANyway whilst on box rest an equine sports therapist came in to the yard. He was climbing the walls so she asked why he was in. To cut a long story short she said she had a good success rate with this injury returning to full work. After discussing with the vet we sent him to her yard for 2 intense weeks or work, treatments etc. I did not jump for 6 months but we went on to jump 3'6" opens again and he is still going strong

 

[Madam_max]

Yes my mare was diagnosed with this a few years ago at Liphook. I was told to rest her for 3 months which did nothing. I found a really good Physio (by chance) and she has made a full improvement, better than expected. She's doing everything as normal, jumping over 3', dressage, hacking, xc etc. Whereabouts are you?

 

[jopoultney]

Based in Leicestershire. I am doing this on behalf of a friend who doesn't have computer access. The horse has also been to Huntingdon for a scan. He has been eventing at novice level and the owner is worried that he won't be able to compete at this level again in the future. I will tell her about physio - should she contact her vet for local contacts?

 

[Sags_Deer]

tell me what were the symptons and made you go to the vet in the first place, i sometimes wonder if my boy has something wrong like that.

 

[Madam_max]

Yes that's prob best.

 

[Lottie7]

My event horse was also diagnosed with this following his first scintigraphy scan. He had 9 months rest in all. He was given a very guarded prognosis. When he was rescanned a year after the first scan there was no hot spot in that region but on bringing him back into work his symptoms were just the same.

I could go on and on about the symptoms he experienced over the years. Despite these he evented to intermediate level.

His problem turned out to be EPSM - muscle and feed related and fairly easy to correct. He went on to return to eventing and thereafter enjoy show jumping.

It is well worth researching EPSM as it is very common and can be misdisagnosed by even the best vets in this country as sacroilliac, spavin, stifle, kissing spine etc. Sometimes these things can show up on scans and xrays but are not actually what is causing the symptoms. My horse has a spavin - that cannot be denied as it showed up on both scans. However it was was not causing his problems.

Good luck. Physio really helped but IF it is EPSM then it is really only the diet change that will make the difference in the long term.

 

[acolvine]

Hi,

For long term maintenance then maybe look into sports massage. A list of certified Equine Body Workers can be found on www.equinenergy.com . This site will also help explain how massage can benefit recovery from injury and also aid future prevention.
You will need authorisation from your vet as is the protocol with any equine therapist.
EBW's are qualified to carry out equine massage, fully inusured and regulated by the International Equine Body Workers Association.

Hope that helps

Amanda
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