SI Rehab

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WonderWheel

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Looking for some positive stories of rehabbing an acute SI injury. Steroid injections have been done, and I'm following the vet's rehab plan.

My horse is only 9, and I would be gutted if they couldn't return to full work.

I'm looking at getting a physio on board, probably to do some kind of electro therapy. I don't know which one is best, although I'm leaning towards INDIBA. Anyone had any success with this or think another therapy would be better?
 
Indiba is good - probably better than PEMF. Your physio will need to work with your vet on the rehab but it is worth having someone with a background in rehab on board. Our SI injury happened just before the lockdowns so rehab was more miss than hit which wasn't great.
 
Mine was ages ago so I can't remember what the physio used but Indiba either wasn't around or much used then. The main thing was lots of in hand work and exercises then bringing him back into work slowly. It took about year in total to get him back to where he was but he did get over it. We used tens on him at home and warmed his back before working him.
 
Yes, I have a positive recovery story. My horse did something daft in the field, and whilst technically sound, his trot stride was very short and tight, and he couldn't canter without bucking and disuniting.
Vet out of course, and we checked every inch of him as SI problems are so often secondary to something else, but absolutely nothing else was found, so it was a primary problem.
His SI was injected and we did a long, slow rehab, under vets instructions. He made a good recovery, but after about a year he started to feel slightly off, and I really didn't want to get into a cycle of regular steroid injections, so I tried Indiba treatment instead, and it worked amazingly well, I only wish I'd started it earlier in the process.
We are now just over two years on from the original injury, he has Indiba every three months, and he is thriving, in full work, and at a higher level than he was at the time of injury.
Talk to your vet, but personally if really recommend Indiba done by a qualified vet physio.
 
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Vets are absolutely essential for treatment but they're not trained in correct movement and how to achieve it, and most of these types of joint injuries are a result of compensatory movement and a type of repetitive strain, it's absolutely worth as a minimum genning up on rehab, posture, correct movement and muscular assessment and ultimately using a rehabber who focuses on those aspects. If vet or physio are recommending anything like a Pessoa, or straight into pole or hill work as if simply strengthening a healthy horse then I would absolutely be getting second opinions.

And yes, I have had conversations with more than one vet/physio explaining they have no training for this and the vets in particular felt they didn't know enough to get involved in posture etc.

equitopiacenter.com has some cheap/free resources to get started, this lady https://www.facebook.com/Longdrove.holistichorsetraining also has some brilliant courses (and I have several other courses I recommend for the many customers that need a bit of help for the horse before fitting a new saddle, not dissimilar from rehab from an injury).
 
Thanks for sharing experiences.
I've had a full work up done and vets are confident SI is the primary issue, which I understand is rare.
We are currently doing lots of poles in hand, and walking in straight lines. Haven't introduced hill work as yet, but will in the next couple of weeks.

How many sessions of INDIBA did your horse have? And are you still having maintainence sessions?
 
sbloom said:
Vets are absolutely essential for treatment but they're not trained in correct movement and how to achieve it, and most of these types of joint injuries are a result of compensatory movement and a type of repetitive strain, it's absolutely worth as a minimum genning up on rehab, posture, correct movement and muscular assessment and ultimately using a rehabber who focuses on those aspects. If vet or physio are recommending anything like a Pessoa, or straight into pole or hill work as if simply strengthening a healthy horse then I would absolutely be getting second opinions.

And yes, I have had conversations with more than one vet/physio explaining they have no training for this and the vets in particular felt they didn't know enough to get involved in posture etc.

equitopiacenter.com has some cheap/free resources to get started, this lady https://www.facebook.com/Longdrove.holistichorsetraining also has some brilliant courses (and I have several other courses I recommend for the many customers that need a bit of help for the horse before fitting a new saddle, not dissimilar from rehab from an injury).
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Possibly a stupid question but everything I have read seems to suggest getting back to work relatively quickly - not intense work - is there a better alternative?
 
Groundwork focused on posture, IMO. It's not to say that SOME other work may not be contraindicated but it will be on a case by case basis. Carrying a rider places a huge extra strain on the horse, so ridden work should be judged on how well the horse is already prepared to carry the rider correctly.

Have a look at the links I posted. I just don't understand this "return to work" as the main focus, it shows, in most cases, a complete inability to consider why this damage has happened and treats it as "one of those things".

Yes we need muscle (to whatever extent) to "hold" the joint once it's healthy, but that's the RIGHT muscle, and you can't have had that before, so how are you going to get it without changing the way the horse moves?
 
WonderWheel said:
Possibly a stupid question but everything I have read seems to suggest getting back to work relatively quickly - not intense work - is there a better alternative?
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I was advised by the vet to get mine moving soon after the steroid injection, in hand only initially. He'd had a crashing fall, nothing to do with compensatory movements patterns which needed to be corrected, and he'd already had a few weeks turned out after the incident followed by a few weeks of weekly physio and gentle in hand work. He was still moving like @daffy44 describes and was painful over his SI joint so I took him back to the vet who recommended the injections. The vet advised at this point that he needed to get moving to get the most benefit out of the pain free period following the steriods. There was no lunging or work in any gadgets but he did do poles and raised poles later on as well as other stuff which the physio suggested. Vet OK'd me to get on within a few weeks as she thought he was much improved but I waited longer, in part because he could buck and I had a bad back. This was about 8 years ago, he was 5 at the time.
 
The key thing is to try not to let incorrect/compensatory movement patterns become ingrained and habitual by working to build correct muscle and ways of using that muscle as soon as possible.... This is especially true if there's a window of opportunity immediately after injections and/or bodywork. Further down the line compensatory ways of using joints and ligaments will have had knock on effects elsewhere in the body so theres then multiple problem areas to be worked on and rehabilitated if that makes sense. Movement is its own medicine, just as much as nutrition is.
 
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