supraspinous ligament damage - rehab experience

Az was scoped this morning and this has come up CLEAR! which is a surprise to everyone... I was convinced and so were two vets.

Today they X-rayed both his hocks and his back again. Right hock is fine, no issues or concerns which suggest the uneven weight bearing is due to an issue in the left hock. This hock does show a small sign that something is a little off but not much, slight signs of arthritis . However this could be the cause of the soreness on the back and in turn the head shaking.

We start a bute trail on Monday but I have to ride him first without to gage if there is anything specific we are doing that gets the pain reaction (stops, head comes up, ears go flat back and he bucks and kicks out). This happens when I put my leg on so, rather a lot when schooling, or at least trying to.

If Bute helps then they will look at medicating the left hock. then we take it from there.
 
loopylucifer said:
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
Click to expand...

Where are you at now?
 
Have just feed back to the vet on the bute trail. Two bute twice a day, he was great, one bute twice a day still okay. One bute a day, I couldn't get him out of walk, so lunged him last night. He lunged fine, although he really has difficulty cantering on the right rein on the circle. he tends to spiral in and cant maintain the circle or the canter.

Vets want to medicate his back to see if this throws up some bilateral lameness. He's not showing any lameness at the moment, but he isn't tracking up as well with the right hind on the lunge, yet it looks okay on the left rein.

Theres talk of another bone scan, although he's had one within the last year so I don't know if the insurance will pay out for this.
 
Oooops! I've just realised your last post was only yesterday! I guess you're still deciding what to do. Hope the insurance will cover more tests - sounds like you need them. Claire
 
hi
How did you get on with bute trial??
Mine is out 24/7 atm and has been since July (not exactly the normal treatment for PSD). She is currenlty not on any bute this is since November will try and tort her up in the next few weeks to see where we are at. if sound may start long reining out and see how she copes, if not will carry on for a few more months.
I take it they have ultra sound scaned back? and did they scan suspensories too?
 
Bute trail proved he's in a fair amount of pain. I'm not riding him at the moment, just lunging and long lining but I've kept him on two bute a day. He belongs to someone else and they are away and want to talk to the insurance and the vet before we proceed with anything at this point. He's had a few thousand already spent on the initial back claim.

Bloody thing will let me prod his back and not even flinch, yet the vet comes and he's like a full sized game of buckaroo! This is why I had concluded the latest behaviour was down to ulcers rather than back again. Mind you it was the same the first time round so i should have guessed and not believed him.

He had an ultra sound scan in september on his back, this was clear so we started to ride again. They haven't scanned either leg at this point but they have x-rayed both hocks. The vet isn't convinced its the hocks. It could be higher or lower I guess but he's showing no lameness. They may want to ultra sound scan him again although they are talking about bone scanning.

He is putting more pressure on the right hock, his last set of shoes were really warn compared to the rest of the set. Both back hooves look the same to my eye.

They bone scanned him last year when they were diagnosing the ligament. It wasn't clear from the x-ray as to whether dorsal was fused or it was the ligament damage they were looking at. Sadly I dont think they checked anywhere else whilst he was radioactive or they may have been able to pick up an issues elsewhere. Problem is i doubt the insurance will pay out for this again and they cost around £600.

Its been getting me really down these last few days, I think because I have no control of what happens next but also because realistically we are running out of money and options. In all honesty, he's never been straight forward, he's taken a really long time to get anywhere, he's always felt a lot weaker on the right rein and he can be really bad tempered. The first time I went to ride him on my own he lunged at me teeth bared over the stable door but he can also be the sweetest thing, bless him, he's a gem considering.
 
blimey must be very tough not being your own horse. think i would be very tempted to have both suspensories scan even if its just to rule it out if its a bi lateral hindlimb lameness the horse will appear sound and often back pain is a secondary symptom. for me we had a primary back problem the facet joint arthiritis we then had a secondary problem of the suspensories but at first thought was back related. Have you had a physio out?
 
No physio as yet, I want the physio but again, this is down to the owner. I've even said I'd pay. She needs to be back so we can have that conversation again. He was still on the bute trail when she left on holiday. She breed and owns him but fell pregnant when he was first backed and has very little time for him since. I do most of the work and pretty much all the riding, so I have to feed back to her. She has actually rode him whilst he was on the trail. She even rode him bute free, so has seen the difference.

I'm going to talk to her about scanning Suspensories as you suggest. Also talk about the sacroiliac as i understand pain here can also show similar symptoms. The initial supraspinous ligament damage wasn't that far away either. I do however think, the most important thing is getting physio support for the recover once the issue is found and hes had treatment. He's clearly been compensating a fair amount!!

Thanks for your suggestions, its given me a bit of hope again.
 
Az has been jabbed in the back today with steroids, same spot that showed up the ligament damage last year. Now two weeks of lunging and then another review. Discussed with vet as to whether it could be the sacroiliac as this could explain the uneven wear on the shoes and the weakness and shortening on the right hind. However he was bone scanned last year and there was no indication of any issues here, specifically, then. Although if we see no improvement over the next couple of weeks then they will consider medicating this joint as well. EPSM can't be ruled out either but he's too young for a muscle biopsy... I think its safe to say that Az does not have a very high opinion of the vet. The vet wouldn't shake his hoof when this was presented to him, repeatedly.
 
Three days after the steroid injections, Az impaled himself on the end of an electric fence post. He couldn't move his front fore leg himself and had to be assisted by someone moving each leg for him, back to his stable. The wound was three inches deep and there was concern it had hit the elbow joint. By some miracle, after a few days box rest he was completely sound and there was no swelling on the leg at all!?! :)

We are now lunging in pessoa and can see improvement, especially on the right rein where previously he was not tracking up as well and also spiralling in and not maintaining the circle. He also no longer bucks when the vet checks this area. Back in the saddle on Friday...

Having gone back over his previous bone scan the vets have decided that it is likely the abnormal shape of the dorsal, previously picked up last year when the ligament was initially diagnosed, is in fact likely to be the courses of his problems again now. Although not strictly speaking kissing spine, its likely that there is some additional nerve pressure in this area. They therefore what to get in there and remove a small protrusion on the bone. This all hangs on how well he goes under saddle.

Issues with the sacroiliac have not been totally ruled out either.

I can report that he seems much happier in himself right now, he's not been bad tempered, except when I'm doing up his lunge roller. He knows better then to bite me so tends to take it out on his lead rope, the door or his rugs. He's not overly keen on the pessoa either and tries to sabotage any work by grabbing hold of it and trying to chew it whilst I fit it. To be fair to him, I feel the same way!
 
Two weeks ridden on steroids. First two days weren't great, I guess he was still anticipating pain because by day three he was great and he's just keeps getting better! He's actually enjoying himself.

They want him back in in three weeks to remove some of the anomaly shaping to the dorsal. Basically kissing spine surgery then three months recovery box rest and walking out daily for first 6 weeks, next 6 weeks pessoa..again..sigh..

By June when he will be being backed again it will have been a year since the ligament damage and the abnormal shaped dorsal were first diagnosed. Shame they didn't just do the surgery then really.
 
Week two on box rest just completed. All seems to be healing well, the patient now seems to be residing himself to his incarceration. However he's not at all bad walking out in hand. The main problem is him trying to drag you to the grass to munch on it. Resorted to Dually and he's worked out pretty quick that it tightens when he pulls, didn't stop him trying a new 'lunge foward with head in on bit the bit postion' move, this doesnt work either. He's now leading okay but I'm keeping it on for the time being. :)

Feeling quite postive about things at the moment. Three days before he went for surgery I jumped him for the first time in nearly a year.... He was forward thinking and really enjoyed himself, as did I.

Vet check up on the 13th April, so everything crossed he can start on some restricted turn out and light lunging. :)
 
Azbo said:
Week two on box rest just completed. All seems to be healing well, the patient now seems to be residing himself to his incarceration. However he's not at all bad walking out in hand. The main problem is him trying to drag you to the grass to munch on it. Resorted to Dually and he's worked out pretty quick that it tightens when he pulls, didn't stop him trying a new 'lunge foward with head in on bit the bit postion' move, this doesnt work either. He's now leading okay but I'm keeping it on for the time being. :)

Feeling quite postive about things at the moment. Three days before he went for surgery I jumped him for the first time in nearly a year.... He was forward thinking and really enjoyed himself, as did I.

Vet check up on the 13th April, so everything crossed he can start on some restricted turn out and light lunging. :)
Click to expand...


I know this was some years ago but this thread has made me realise i am not in this boat alone!! I was wondering how everything turned out in the end after surgery? Did anything else rear its ugly head? I am currently rehabbing my girl after she was diagnosed with ligament damage but she is super sore in her SI region and i am almost convinced she has suspensory issues but i am having to wait for another week of riding to see how shes moving after 6 weeks of in hand walking.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top