Suspensory advice needed please

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Poppyhorse

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Our eventer was diagnosed with a suspensory injury back in February. Vet thought at the time that it could be approx 3months old, as there were signs it had started to heal. We had her back out in May to rescan and unfortunately had only shrunk slightly (did use Arc Equine religiously for this whole time!). We then decided to commence a course of Indiba. He has had a full course of this, starting with 1 a week for months and more recently dropping down to 1 a month. Having been rescanned a few weeks ago, vet says no improvement at all :(
Could this be an old injury that we didn't know about when he was purchased last year and has reoccurred? Vet doesn't think so, she reckons he injured it 3 months previous to the Feb scan. Any opinions welcome as so unsure what next step is :(
 
Sorry to hear of your woes. Suspensories can be tricky. Other than the medication, what is the structure and husbandry like for this horse at the moment; stable, exercise routine, shoes/barefoot, rehab, etc ?
 
MissTyc said:
Sorry to hear of your woes. Suspensories can be tricky. Other than the medication, what is the structure and husbandry like for this horse at the moment; stable, exercise routine, shoes/barefoot, rehab, etc ?
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Hi, He had all shoes off at the beginning as his feet were so shocking both vet and farrier agreed it would do him good for everything to relax. He had 6 weeks box rest and then turnout in a small area. Middle of July he has now been turned out 24/7. Sensible in field. not been ridden since diagnosis due to vets advice?
 
I’m 6 months into hind suspensory problems just showing signs of improvement now been told by vet could take up to 2 years before healed. They also reckon it’s an old injury from years ago before I got her. Ive added Spirulina to her feed to aid with healing and she’s also on collagen. Fitted recently with EquStreamz bands noticed great improvement in about 14 days wearing those.
 
I had one who had a course of shockwave therapy and also PRP. Coupled this with cold therapy (loads of), rest, barefoot rehab with starting leading in hand after a couple of weeks of rest. Also had Arc Equine. The vet had said that there was a heavyweight supplement that he could have also had, to aid joints, ligaments etc, but it was never necessary as it healed quickly.

I don't know which thing helped. I took advice from other forum members, who said that ice/cold was important.
 
It's also worth getting someone to assess the horse's movement. I have one whose suspensory got worse between scans and it took a good horse physio to spot "something" higher up was causing her to move that leg a bit oddly - so the suspensory damage was effectively repetitive strain injury.
 
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