Slipped hock, anyone seen it? Prognosis?

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Equimo

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I had a desperately sad phone call last night with a lady who bought a horse from me four years ago. Tommy is a huge shire x gelding. He had his problems early in life and was a very nervous boy. I did some work with him, then sold him to Liz who has just been the most wonderful person i could have found. She has brought him on tremendously well and now loves the bones of him, she is devoted to that big woos and has had many happy times with him.
Liz called me to tell me that Tommy has a 'slipped hock.' Not something i have ever heard of, but she explained that he did it while she wasn't around. She thinks the door of the stable / field shelter must have blown shut very hard onto his hock. He has a swollen hock and is weight bearing on the limb but his hock is popping from side to side and his action through that limb is clearly wrong.
The vet has been out and diagnosed this slipped hock. He explained that of the three major supporting tendons in the hock, Tommy has badly damaged one of them and this may require an operation. Liz is gutted, especially as she cancelled her insurance a few weeks ago after E&L , Yes get that everyone E&L the crappest insurance company would not pay out when her tack room was robbed dry. She went to NFU but is not covered for vets bills.
So Tommy is going in for scans tomorrow and Liz is praying that she might be able to get him right with box rest. She has been strapping the hock up and she says this definitely improves his movement. She also says she thinks there has been a little improvement (reduced popping from side to side) since it happened about two or three weeks ago.
I'm very interested to find out if anyone has come across this before, and in particular if anyone has seen a case resolved / healed with box rest or non invasive treatment.
Thanks all. Poor Liz is devastated, she couldn't bear to loose Tommy to this.
 
A cob I used to hunt slipped the tendon off his hock twice - he is now 18. He came sound both times and continued hunting twice a week in Leicestershire. I think he had a certain amount of time off each time but it was fairly straightforward to get him right again.
 
Have heard of three cases of this - interestingly one was also a shire X, who was operated on and recovered enough for light hacking. One was an eventer who improved enough with rest to be hacked, and the other was a pony who sadly had to be put down.
 
I know of an eventing pony who slipped a tendon on the hock, it had a year off and came back into work fine, infact is eventing at the same standard that it did before it did the damage! :)
 
My 9year old ex racer slipped a tendon off his hock at the age of four.. Although the physical appearance of his hock now resembles a capped hock, he has had no problem with it since. He was box rested, then turned away for a year and is sound. His action is slightly abnormal but his performance is not affected. Hope this helps. x
 
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