Stifle ligament fenestration - any experiences?

[Toffee_monster]

This is what my little star of a driving pony is having done this weekend

His stifle started locking up after a small driving accident (rein snapped, pony spooked, carriage topped ontop of me) but after having eveyrthing checked out and showing no problems the vet put him on a minimal dosage course of bute in case of a deep muscle inury and he hadnt felt stronger between the shafts! But The day he came off it was the day he locked up badly all day.

Poor fella. Luckily his xrays and scans were totally clear and no lameness at all in his flexion tests, but something is obvioisly not right so the ligament fenestration / splitting is the next port of call.

Feel a bit sick as not sure what to expect. Luckily he loves being in so box rest shouldnt be a problem.

Any experiences ?

 

[Toffee_monster]

No one else had this operation done ?
Will have to just hope for the best and stop panicing

 

[neddynesbitt]

No experience of this but just wanted to wish you all the best and I hope it goes well. Keep us updated, I'd be interested to know how it goes xx

 

[serenityjane]

We had a horse who had this on both stifles- it is a really simple operation- we travelled to vets, he was sedated, clipped over stifle and thoroughly cleaned and then the ligament was located by scan and was scored with a scalpel, although I do know of another horse that had the ligament scored with a needle-but both just in and out through the same very small hole, no stitches, no antibiotics, no box rest, straight home and just in hand walking increasing from 10mins the following day up to 30mins at 2 weeks, then ridden as normal. So please do not panic!
I know some vets recommend 6 weeks off work but we did everything per our vets instructions and he healed just fine! In fact after a week you couldn't really see that anything had happened!