Suspensory branch injury

[Momo22]

My horse has recently been diagnosed with a near hind suspensory branch injury. Ultra sound showed 3 small holes and ligament stretch, the part of the ligament attached to the bone still looks ok. My vet has been very guarded with her prognosis and treatment offered limited. Have been told shockwave not successful in branch injuries and PRP not an option as he has 3 small holes and PRP works better on bigger hole. Has anyone else had a similar experience and what was the outcome? And any advice on any other treatments to try? I have been using the arc daily, he still has substantial swelling but all heat gone and seems to be sound walking. We are 4 weeks into box rest, and have second ultra sound in two weeks. Any advice welcome

 

[Lovely jubbly]

I personally haven’t had any dealings with suspensory issues...but we did have a horse on our yard that has. The treatment was box rest for 3 months,cold hosing,Bute etc. He did come sound again but it took about a year before he was ridden again.

 

[ycbm]

I had a mare who did an inside front branch who had 6 months field rest and never had an issue again. Last I heard of her she was show jumping.,

 

[RHM]

Mine had a suspensory injury 5 years ago now, we had PRP and shockwave and it healed well but there is some thickening. There are surgical treatment options which you can look into. There is a Facebook group also which is amazing and is full of very knowledgeable people.
It’s a long slog of a rehab so make sure you look after yourself too. I paid a groom to do one day a week for me and that literally saved my sanity!

 

[Goldenstar]

Hind legs are more problematic than front with this injury .
I would keep it cold and box rest for twelve weeks then rescan and se Where you are it .
If the horse is sensible you be able to turn out part of the time in a very small paddock .
Your looking at a prolonged rest from any sort of stressful work what ever happens .

 

[SO1]

My pony had a suspensory hind branch injury last year not as bad as yours as it was a strain rather than a hole. He was 18 when he got injured and age I think can slow healing.

However I am lucky enough to be a livery on a rehab yard so he had access to cold water salt spa, water treadmill, and large horse walker and small paddocks. He started off by going into the cold water spa three times a week to reduce the swelling and then he started going on the large horse walker twice a day to do his walking. He had 13 weeks box rest and controlled walking then two weeks of trotting then started turnout in the middle of the big horse walker and then a small paddock on his own and he was injured mid March and did not get back out with the herd till end of August. This was at the start of the lockdown last year and I had planned to do half of his walking myself by hacking at weekends and walking him in the school after work but in the end due to the lockdown the YO took most of it to reduce the amount of time I was on the yard, the first month of lockdown liveries were asked not to go to the yard and then after that we were asked to limit visits so he did most of his walking on the horse walker and one of the grooms hacked him as well - he had to do two session of walking a day building up to an hour each time. He also did some of his trotting on the water treadmill though by that time I was allowed back on the yard at least 3 times a week to do some of the trot work and canter work.

Thankfully he made a full recovery, however I have changed his routine so that he does more hacking now and less in the school just to make sure he is continuing his walking on the straight and hard to keep his leg strong. One of the grooms hacks him during the week up to three time and I ride the other four days. The daily exercise again to help keep his leg strong. He used to be on 5 days a week exercise and now he is on 7. Luckily he is insured and I was saving money during lockdown as not commuting and not socialising so I could spend that on the extra exercise.

The vet did suggest laser which would have cost £3,000 and not been on the insurance but I looked that up and decided there was no real evidence that it would work and I am not that rich so took a risk and did not do it and thankfully he was still ok.

 

[Birker2020]

My horse has recently been diagnosed with a near hind suspensory branch injury. Ultra sound showed 3 small holes and ligament stretch, the part of the ligament attached to the bone still looks ok. My vet has been very guarded with her prognosis and treatment offered limited. Have been told shockwave not successful in branch injuries and PRP not an option as he has 3 small holes and PRP works better on bigger hole. Has anyone else had a similar experience and what was the outcome? And any advice on any other treatments to try? I have been using the arc daily, he still has substantial swelling but all heat gone and seems to be sound walking. We are 4 weeks into box rest, and have second ultra sound in two weeks. Any advice welcome

Sorry to hear about your horse.

Yes my horse had a suspensory branch injury on the lateral aspect of her near fore and she had shockwave which did diddly squat. She was a candidate for PRP and so had that and was rehabbed slowly over a period of around 10 months from memory with a return to jumping which she did for a good 18 months - 2 years without issue.

She then had a terrible accident whilst being tied up outside her stable next to wheelbarrow and got her damaged leg stuck between the tyre and the frame at the front and dragged the wheelbarrow down the yard bumping into things. Finally my friend got to her, calmed her and she managed to free her leg. She then iced it and when I arrived at the yard I continued to ice it until the vet arrived.

Thus followed another long period of rehab. I iced her leg repeatedly with ice cups and normal ice boots and then I bought ice vibe boots which helped considerably. However it was so badly damaged this time that calcification developed which was attached to the ligament. An operation was not suitable as it was not possible to separate the calcification from the ligament. She came sound eventually enough to do a bit of jumping and dressage, although always showed a slight bunny hop on the right rein which was worse when she was running on a bit in trot and virtually disappeared with collected work, but I was advised on a scan some two years later not to jump anymore and so stopped immediately. The vet felt it was mechanical (calcification catching on ligament) rather than pain that caused the bunny hop issue. I was also told more recently that PRP can actually cause calcification so is now not always the preferred method of choice in this situation.

Unfortunately your window of opportunity with ice therapy has probably passed now but you could still try IceVibe boots which are very effective in these situations to help your horse recover from injury.

https://www.chelfordfarmsupplies.co...MIpO35guLQ8AIVD-J3Ch1eOQY4EAAYASAAEgI7cPD_BwE

 

[Momo22]

Thanks for all the replies you have all given me hope that eventually we may get back to some sort of riding.

 

[Slightlyconfused]

One of mine did his rh suspensory branch injury four ish years ago and tired box rest but it wasn't working for was out in the feild for 8 months. Came sound but did the other side two years later and as of today had done three out of four suspensory branches.

Got review with the vet next week to see if he can go walk hacking.

His problem is that he is chunky and 16:3 but mentally thinks he is 4 years old and a 12 hh sports pony so pulls shapes in the feild he really shouldn't.
Under saddle he is seriously calm.
But at 18 he isn't going to change.

Do what works for your horse.

Vet wasn't sure he woo d come back completely sound first time but he did to wlour shock.

 

[conniegirl]

My lad did his suspensory branches on both hind legs.
He had 12 weeks box rest, 6 sessions of shockwave and a very careful and slow bringing back into work.

He is now in full work except jumping