Suspensory branch ligament injury

[Tdoodney]

Any advice experience appreciated please. I have a beautiful cob with off hind suspensory branch tear. He did this late june we suspect by loosing his footing down a rabbit hole in his field. He's been on box rest with initial hand grazing but whilst doing this 6 weeks in he turned awkwardly and was 10/10 lame again. On re examination on ultrasound he had torn it some more to a grade 3 lesion. He's now been on box rest for a further 4 weeks with no hand grazing just in and out of stable. We are getting disheartened as no signs of improvement fetlock still swollen on inside still some heat and today it seems he may have tweaked it again possibly from getting up after laying down as he is stiff and sore on it not as bad as before though. He's on 2 bute a day and we ice it 3-4 times a day. Are we expecting too much is this normal for this injury.? Fear he will never recover from this only good thing he's a chilled dude and has taken to his incarceration well!

 

[Birker2020]

Any advice experience appreciated please. I have a beautiful cob with off hind suspensory branch tear. He did this late june we suspect by loosing his footing down a rabbit hole in his field. He's been on box rest with initial hand grazing but whilst doing this 6 weeks in he turned awkwardly and was 10/10 lame again. On re examination on ultrasound he had torn it some more to a grade 3 lesion. He's now been on box rest for a further 4 weeks with no hand grazing just in and out of stable. We are getting disheartened as no signs of improvement fetlock still swollen on inside still some heat and today it seems he may have tweaked it again possibly from getting up after laying down as he is stiff and sore on it not as bad as before though. He's on 2 bute a day and we ice it 3-4 times a day. Are we expecting too much is this normal for this injury.? Fear he will never recover from this only good thing he's a chilled dude and has taken to his incarceration well!

Sorry to hear this, my horse has slightly sprained but not torn his suspensory branch three times and last week an ultrasound on the original first leg to be injured showed a lot of scar tissue and greater calcification within that branch.

The ice therapy will be very useful. Shockwave made no difference to my horses injury. He had PRP in the end and that was very useful and started healing the area. This latest suspensory branch injury off fore was diagnosed first week in January and I only started jumping again in July time (very small jumps to start with). This was a very slight sprain, which was caught early and treated immediately with ice therapy and ice vibe boots. This should give you some indication of how long extra dealing with your horses injury which is a tear. Unfortunately as you probably know ligaments and tendons take forever to come right.

You could invest in Ice Vibe boots if your vet gives the go ahead. They are worth their weight in gold. Only wish I'd had them with my horses first injury as perhaps the outcome of no longer being able to jump would have altered if I'd pushed everything at it immediately, who knows, its always easier to be wise after the event.

I would keep on icing for as long as possible. Ice cups are very good as its a very cold temperature so is more effective imho than say cold hosing - as long as you keep the cup moving as you do it to prevent ice burn. Good luck.

 

[Goldenstar]

I agree keep icing and persevere .
These injuries are much more problematic to get right in the hind limb my advice would be just keep plugging on with the box rest .