supraspinous ligament damage - rehab experience

Azbo

Azbo

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The horse I ride has recently been diagnosed with damage to the supraspinous ligament. We are currently most of the way through 6 weeks lunging and long lining in Pessoa with two weekly shock wave treatments. The last being today. He goes back to the Vets in two weeks for assessment.

The horse is a 6 year old WB/arab with not a lot of experience, only being taken over by me last year as a 'badly behaved' 5 year old. I was only going to ride him once a week as I havent had a horse for a few years and I weanted to get back into riding again. I now look after him 5 days a week as it was clear he needed much more. He had not done a lot of anything really and this last year has mostly hacking and building his strength. Schooling, started with lots of work to get him working forward, only since new year starting taking contact and and gradually getting to him to work more rounded over his back and starting to work into an outline. We haven't done a lot of jumping as he need so much work to increase his balance on the flat. He'd never really cantered in a school until I started with him last year. We have no idea how or when this injury occurred but he has never been the easiest horse who has always had a buck.

The last year has very much been about trying to get to the bottom of his behaviour. He took to stopping backing up and bucking when I started taking more contact - turns out his teeth needed doing. He grow out of his saddle and this had caused him some discomfort. All of these have been addressed and sorted. Then end of May he started to run into canter, no clean transition would go a few strides and go disunited. Then he just stopped dead and refused to move. My trainer was nearly bucked off when he got on. This was the last straw and I got his owner out and got her to get the Vet. Initially they thought he may have kissing spine but after x-ray scan and then a bone scan. It was discovered that it is the ligament is the problem.

I've never come across this injury before. I just want to know if anyone one else has experience of this injury and what happened? I have read through some of the treads here, but would really like to know what to we could expect next and how long the horse was in recovery for.
 
My TB damaged his supraspinous ligament arsing about in the field in the snow. He also had spavin. He had stem cell into his s.ligament, hocks injected and about 9 months off. He seemed absolutely fine on the ground after that time but only managed about 3 weeks walking before it was apparent the treatment hadn't worked. Unfortunately he was pts because we had run out of insurance money, he was not a horse that could be kept as a field ornament and because we had basically run out of options.

It was heartbreaking - mostly because its a bit of a grey area and hard to treat/mend.

Fingers crossed for you - just because it didn't work for us doesn't mean it won't for you. Horse was a total willy at times - rolling and rolling in his stable or galloping flat out round and round his field jumping out if he so fancied!!! He wasn't a very good patient.
 
I'm so sorry to hear this, I did see your thread. I'm really hoping we dont have to come to this but it does worry me as we haven't had a lot of information from the vets. Whether that's because initially the vet we saw deals more with neurological issues (he started head shaking this year). One of the people on our yard is a vet nurse at Wilisley vets hospital and she says we are booked to see their back specialist at his next assesment. Hopefully we can get more answers then.
 
I look after a 13 year old intermediate event mare who damaged her suprasinous ligament and also had a tendon injury at the end of last year. We managed a month of box rest and then 6 months gentle turn out in a small paddock. She has just been rescanned and is able to start gentle walking and will be able to start hacking soon and by next year will be able to do some very light competing. I think it depends a lot on which part of the ligament is damaged and how bad the damage is. I hope all goes well with your horse.
 
Thanks skyejosh - Where was the tendon injury? I know from experience these can take a long time to heal. It's good to hear that you are making positive progress though. Let me know how things go.
 
She damaged the lower part of her digital flexor tendon. Problem was the girl that was eventing her competed her on very hard ground when she was already recovering from some slight damage on that tendon and that just made more problems in the whole leg. Hence the fact i have her back with the youngsters. She is doing well now though. Although the owner has just spent a lot of money and been unsuccessful trying to get her in foal, so she might be doing pony club with her grand daughter next year now.
Hope all goes well with your horse.
 
Best of luck with the recovery. My old childhood mare damaged hers, showjumping on hard ground. She was off for a year and it took quite a few months to get back to full strength once she was back in work. Unfortunately she was quite old when it happened. Her top line went and she really aged. I didn't compete her again. I gave her put on lone and She went on to live into her 30's and taught lots of kids to ride. She was a star pony!
 
Quick update - Just had our 6 week assesment and scan. The ligament is healing well and they were hard pushed to see where the damage was. Because of his age they are concerned that he may have some pain association. They have said to continue to longline/ lunge in Pessoa for a further month to ensure full recovery, working up to 40 minutes a day. Back up to the vets in a month for the last scan before we can start to ride again.:)
 
Just a quick update. We had the last scan today and have the all clear to ride again! starting off with 15 minutes a day gentle hacking working up to an hour over the next 4 to 6 weeks. Then working up to an two hours and slowly reintroducing schooling.
 
Any more news on your progress?! My ID x TB was diagnosed in April and is about to be re-scanned, but his back still seems to be incredibly painful, so I'm curious to know how you're getting on after a few months of riding again.
Thanks
Claire
 
Hi Claire, sorry to gear this.

Things started out really well with us. He was clearly much happier and felt like a different horse. Started out with lots of walking and still a bit of Pessoa work. We even started with a short amount of very basic schooling. Loads of improvement with his transitions!

Then after a couple of short sessions it was clear to me something wasn't right. We had literally just been doing trot and walk round the edge of the school, with a very loose contact to encourage him to work more on his forehands and over his back. He was only at the point of learning to work in outline before the injury was diagnosed and the vets didn't want us to do this with him until his fitness was up. He started throwing his head up in the trot transition, then when checked was noticed he was lame behind, not a lot. Vet came out again and he's had two weeks off everything. We are able to just walk him in Pessoa at the moment, although he has been spotted galloping round the field like loon.

If he's sound on Thursday ( and not further damaged himself!) we take it from there again. Vet hasnt
given us any exercise program yet as we need to see if he's sound first.

He has also started head shaking this year and this is being assessed at the moment.

He's a young horse who's still filling out at the moment, he doesn't look very mature for a 6 year old so we just have to take our time whilst he gets stronger.

Good luck with yours :)
 
Have they checked his stifles? Reason I ask is that one of mine went for lameness work up at a very well known Newmarket vets, I thought it was his stifles but they had none of it, they found a hole in his SL, very low grade arthritis in his neck and the rest they blamed on his feet - never had a sick or sorry day for his feet. Anyway he had shockwave for his SL and other treatments for the other problems. Back into work he wasn't right at all, showing lameness and evasion. Got a second opinion and he actually had severely damaged stifles. The first vets had assumed that the SL was the problem and not bothered to look any further. I was also advised that it is very hard to check and progress on the ultrasound with the SL as the damage will still show up on there even if it is old and pretty much healed itself.

If your horse is still not sound I would advise that you get a proper lameness exam for them to check everything not just the back, even though they have found some damage there already.

I lost my lad and wish I had, had the balls to push the first vets harder or change vets quicker.
 
Thanks lochpearl, I'm really sorry to hear that.

I have wondered about the stifles, he can be a bit teachy about being touch round there. I don't own the horse and wasnt at the last few vet checks but I am asking his owner if they have checked this now!
 
Update - Still lame :( he's coming in daytime, partly because he cant be trusted not to go mental in the field. partly because our YO is concerned as he has taken to pestering passing riders, a lady's horse bolted with her as result of his behavior and there's a busy main road at the end of the lane.

We have two vets coming next Wednesday to assess his head shaking, they have both been involved with the back injury, infact we've had a third on that as well. He was assessed for the head shaking when he first went for his back x-ray. He didn't head shake at all there. The head shaking has got worse and so has his temperament, these last few weeks. It took me 10 minutes to get to his nearside hind to pick out his feet last night (he's lame on the right) He was literaly lunging at me teeth beared and ears flat back. Had to stand there with one arm holding his head away and the other gently stoking over him utill he relaxed and let me move down his body to get to his leg. This is NOT normal for him and only started a few weeks ago, we have good days and bad, last night was bad:( He also has swelling under his right eye:(

Confirmed, they have not checked his strifles so I checked around his right stifle once he's calmed down and fully relaxed around me, definatly not happy there. I'm starting to fear the worst to be honest, he's not right at all :(
 
Mine actually fell on the lunge and I watched him so I pretty much knew what it was but the vets didn't listen. If he is running about in the field do you think he might have slipped? Honestly don't worry until you have the proper results. Very hard to say I know! If there is a problem in the stifles then xray and ultrasound should give them a good idea. I would try not to bother him with picking up feet etc until the vets have been, if he is in pain it will only make him associate you with the pain so I'd just avoid any areas that he objects to and just make a fuss of him where it doesn't hurt. Big hugs and let us know how you get on xx
 
Thanks lochpearl, Its very possible he has slipped in the field we will never really know I don't think. The lameness seems to be pretty high, there's exaggerated movement high up. So I'm told, I've been on the end of the rope each time.

This and the head shaking, just seems to be a lot of different stuff going on with him and he's far from mature.

Next Wednesday cant come soon enough!
 
when you are there, get one of the staff to run him up for you and you can then see what he is doing. my vets always insist on me being able to see it for myself too.

Good luck x
 
My mare had a similar injury as a four year - she fell on the road as a youngster spooking at some cows.

It was a long road to recovery. She had box rest and injections into the ligament followed by walk work and then gentle schooling. I had a very good physio who assisted in the recovery. She had all sorts of treatments to assist her recovery. We had to re-educate her as she had muscle wastage and thought the injury still hurt long after it had healed.

We had quite a few set backs in the first twelve months but I am pleased to say she is now 13 years old and competes at endurance and eventing. I have to be careful of heavy going and make sure that I keep her from putting too much weight on but she has not any had issues in recent years.
 
fizzywhizz said:
My mare had a similar injury as a four year - she fell on the road as a youngster spooking at some cows.

It was a long road to recovery. She had box rest and injections into the ligament followed by walk work and then gentle schooling. I had a very good physio who assisted in the recovery. She had all sorts of treatments to assist her recovery. We had to re-educate her as she had muscle wastage and thought the injury still hurt long after it had healed.

We had quite a few set backs in the first twelve months but I am pleased to say she is now 13 years old and competes at endurance and eventing. I have to be careful of heavy going and make sure that I keep her from putting too much weight on but she has not any had issues in recent years.
Click to expand...

Apologies I misread the heading - my mare had suspensory ligament damage - doh!!
 
Thanks for the updates. I'm so sorry you're having such problems, particularly since I was hoping you would be the silver lining to my cloud! Good luck with the next vet visit. Do keep updating us - it's so helpful for those of us in a similar situation.

I'm still trying to decide whether to have mine re-scanned. His back pain has suddenly returned after 6 months off, and his bad behaviour has started to come back too (kicking, biting, glazing over and rearing). I think he's re-torn the ligament fibres that were healing, which puts me right back at square one!

If only they were solitary animals who didn't like to buck and prance in their fields!

Claire
 
Just a quick update. Week three of gentle work and the horse is Awesome! We are taking slowly since the lameness but he's fab! He really feels like a different horses and is so much happier. Just trying to get him as for as we can before we start back to schooling, so lots of hacking so very gentle walk trot work in the school and lunging in pessoa. :)
 
Thanks for the update - that's wonderful news! Mine has been re-scanned and the scan shows that after 8 months rest there is no change to the ligament. I've been advised to ride him and see if he is still in pain before I decide what to do next. His symptoms always started after about two weeks of being ridden, so the next two weeks will decide our future. Your current situation makes me more hopeful than I was a few days ago, so thanks!
 
Sorry to hear that Claire. They really don't help themselves sometimes.

Out of interests other than rest what other treatment has he had and where on the spine is the damage? Mines was around the Lumbar vertebray so beyound where the saddle sits. He also had shock wave treatment which is often used on humans with ligament damage. Has this been tried?

Best of luck with yours :)
 
another update...

Slightly off again on the right hind in trot, he's not quite tracking up. lunged him last night it didnt get any worse. Have since found out he'd got over the fence into another part of the field yesterday. Night off tonight then back to just walking. I'm loathed to rest him too long, last time the vet said that its likley he's just a bit weaker and others have commented that in the past, when he was first backed he'd been weaker on this leg but this had imporoved with further work.. so want to see how things go if we slow down again.

I'm getting him booked in for some Equine Touch next week to see if this helps. Not really sure what to expect...
 
Vets out again on Tuesday, He's being scoped for ulcers. They will also be doing another back check up.

Other than not being able to put my leg on without flat back ears and kicking out, back seems to be doing okay!
 
As always, thanks for the up date. I've decided to call it a day with my boy. After two fantastic weeks he started showing all the original symptoms again. One of the symptoms is exactly as you describe - when I put my left leg on he has a tantrum. In fact he even grabs my leg with his mouth and pulls it away from his side (he never tries to bite my leg, if you can believe it, just pulls it away, or does the same with the girth). He was also roaching his back, swishing his tail, and generally behaving like a naughty horse. Since I know he's not naughty when he's out of pain I don't think any of it is behavioural.

We weren't offered shockwave therapy at Rossdales in Newmarket. I assumed that was because the ligament was completely torn, not partially torn, but I might be wrong about that. Maybe there was another reason for them not suggesting it.

Sadly, my horse's behaviour is so extreme when he's in pain I've decided the kindest thing to do is put him down. He must have had the injury when I bought him, so it's been a bit of a miserable journey together.

In case my experience helps anyone else, I should also say that several people have suggested I retire him. My big worry with this is that there is a craziness that overwhelms him when he's in pain, and I can't predict that he'll stay pain-free if he's turned out in a field. This means I'm very scared someone will get hurt if he reverts back to rearing and kicking when his back is bad.

Thanks for the support through all this - I really hope you have better luck.
Claire
 
Claire, I am so sorry to hear this!this makes me very sad, it does sound like you have made the right decision, although clearly a very hard one. I send you my best wishes and deepest sympathies.

I also have further update after todays vet's visit...They couldn't scope as he had eaten and they failed to tell us not to feed him, although it had occurred to us, assumed they would have said, he did apologies. This is postponed till Friday now but we are now dosing him with gastrogard in the mean time as he does have a number of symptoms.

He was shod a few days ago and I noted his back right had very uneven wear so kept the set to show the vet. We had two this morning, not sure why but they seem to come as pack at the moment. One has not dealt with Az before so fresh eyes. He checked over his back and Az literally double barrelled. He's show no signs of discomfort when I've checked his back, he just waits for the nasty prodding man! They are also very interested in the wear so are going to x-ray the hock and nerve block his back to see if we get improvement. They now seem to be thinking it may be this that caused the ligament damage in the first place as the leg isn't quite right. He's not lame on it.

Ulcers and head shaking are being dealt with separately.

We are looking at maxing out his insurance soon so I'm praying we get to the bottom of this.

Take care Claire and I wish you some good fortune for 2012 :)
 
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Thanks for your kind words. Good luck with yours too, I hope whatever they find is treatable, and that you let us all know whether it's the stomach, hock or back!
C
 
this sound like my horse. After few other issues and 9months off work coming back into work something wasn't right not pushing of right hind correctly not willing to canter found going right difficult didn't like any sort of lateral flextion found carrot stretchs very hard and developed very uneven wear on right hind and was collapsing though outside wall.
had investigation foot imbalance (only on xray externaly ok exept the collapsing) but still not right getting progresivly worse eventually found was sore on back and lacked flextion in neck. x rays and scans showed damage to supraspinious ligament and arthritis in the thoracic facet joint had some treatment for arthritis supraspinious lig damage was thought to be a secondary problem and unlikley to be main cause of problems. treatment had limited improvemet had 4 months off came back into work was fine but after a couple of months was slighlt lame right hind again worked on bute (only light hacking) then went very lame and turns out has done both hind suspensorys. Not sure when the inital damage was done but when talking to farrier he said it makes sense as another horse he does stared to collapse on a hind and a month later was diagnosised with damaged suspensorys. Make sure you use a good ortho vet but you will get there in the end
 
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