Suspensory ligament branch injuries

how bad is the injury?

If it's hind leg PSD then it's a tough one. There is a really good facebook group that you'll find lots of folk with the same issues on, though.
 
My old lad tweaked a front and went on to be an advanced endurance horse. In fact it was all the long slow distance work that we did rehabbing his ligament that persuaded us to give it a go.
 
Had a mare who did the inside one on a front, was rested six months, lame for several of those when seen to trot in the field, and went on to make a complete recovery. A later owner contacted me and had not even noticed any thickening.
 
My mare has SL branch injury too, diagnosed in September last year on both hinds. After 3 months shock wave and walking/trotting on roads (vets instructions) she was no better so is now turned away, hoping for Dr Green to do his stuff! Not particularly lame just not quite right & scans show disorganised mess. She's not sore on palpation though, hasn't been since October when the shock wave treatment finished. Best of luck with yours, positive vibes all round !
 
She's 18 this year and did tweak her front suspensory ligaments a few years ago at different times but has been fine. Then 3 years ago she was diagnosed with navicular although without any soft tissue damage, which I know is very unusual.

She was lame on trot up, crippled after fetlock flexion, which was heartbreaking to see. She's not a wimp and was never really lame with the navicular. After lameness assessment, scan, x rays and nerve blocking foot the pain is coming from her fetlock. Findings are OA in fetlock joint, fractured splint button, apparently not an issue because not weight bearing, wear & tear of front right suspensory branch & bad injury to suspensory branch. This was 3 weeks ago, she's had 2 injections in fetlock joint, on box rest apart from a very short walk to hand graze & two danilon a day & vet coming out next week to assess again.
 
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poor you, and poor her.

Front suspensory damage has a much better prognosis than rear so don't loose hope too quickly.

I suppose the question is how did this happen? If it is through some sort of accident then that's one thing but if it is from wear and tear, why has the wear & tear got so bad/ is there an issue going on elsewhere (e.g. foot balance), etc? Getting to the route cause of this sort of damage can be really key.
 
Foot balance is really good so I don't need to worry about that fortunately. She's always spun round when hacking out if she sees something she doesn't like and the navicular was found to be more in this foot so I'm wondering if she's been carrying herself slightly differently to compensate.
Saddle checked regularly and McTimoney treatment every 6 months.
 
Spint bone fractures often go hand in hand with a suspensory injury, that's what H did. The prognosis depends on the location of the break and the severity of the tweak. Certainly with H the break resolved far more quickly than the tweak.

Good luck xxxx
 
Tiffany said:
Any one had any experience of this injury and if so did horse make a full recovery?
Thanks
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Hi there.

My horse had a slight sprain of the supsensory ligament in June 2011 which failed to respond to 3 lots of shockwave and LW ultrasound. In January 2012 Bailey had PRP (platelet rich plasma) injected into the branch. The horse started progessing well in his ridden work but he was clearly showing hopping on the right rein. This was due to pain the horse was experiencing in his near fore on a right circle or turn.

Here you can see the hopping at its worse:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U93TkaYep0

The horse also had bone spavin for which he has been unsuccessfuly treated with tildren and intra-articular joint injections. The vet thought it would be beneficial for him to have fusion using ethanol (alcohol) and both hocks were injected. This prevented the horse throwing his weight from his worse affected hock onto his opposite diagonal (the one with the suspensory injury). I learnt to ride the horse in a more collected way and the weight was transferred off the front to the back again where the horse no longer felt any pain.

Simple remedy. All through 2011 and the beginning of 2012 the horse was jumping very consistently and we got 16 1/2 double clears out of a possible 18 classes doing two classes a show for 9 weeks almost consecutive weeks! I was totally delighted. Then as I was just making plans to take my horse to Milton Keynes for his fourth three day event since owning him he had a terrible accident. I was at work and to cut a long and sad story short the horse managed to get caught up in a wheelbarrow dragging it down an aisle of the yard and knocking into things with the wheelbarrow in his panic. Fortunately he was able to free himself but ended up with a cut and very swollen leg. Luckily my physio friend was on hand (I was at work) and iced the leg immediately (which I do feel made a huge difference to his recovery).

Although Bails has only been out jumping twice or maybe three times since this time (doing a max of 2ft 6 each time and only one class each time) he has never come completely sound and is 3/10th lame. Xrays were taken a few months ago which showed that he has a large calcification in his suspensory which is deemed by the vet to be as a result of trauma which is belived to have eminated from the wheelbarrow incident. I am gutted.

Two weeks ago the horse was significantly lame so went for a lameness assesment and was found to be 3 10ths lame on the right rein again. After a nerve block of his foot he was 1 10th lame which is attributed to the calcifcation which is getting larger with time. Xrays pinpointed dereriation of the coffin joint arthritis and he had a steroid injection into teh coffin joint.

In repsect of the supsensory eventually the horse will be unable to be ridden as the calcification will interfere with the action of the leg and his pain will not be managable and he will have to be pts.

At present ten days after the steroid injection into the coffin joint he remains lame.
Such a very sad ending to what had been an excellent recovery of this lovely horse. I am hoping against hope that I will be able to manage his pain and he will become sound enough to continue jumping but this is doubtful and the best I think I will be able to expect is hacking.
 
Thanks for replying AC14 and sorry to hear about your boy's accident particularly when he was making such a good recovery. Hopefully he'll recover sufficiently for you to ride/compete again.
My girl was so lame without bute a month ago it was heart breaking. Vet is coming out this Wednesday so fingers crossed. I have resigned myself to the fact I may not be able to ride her again because she's also got OA in fetlock joint, navicular (diagnosed 3 years ago) and fractured splint button. :(
 
Tiffany said:
Vet is coming out this Wednesday so fingers crossed. I have resigned myself to the fact I may not be able to ride her again because she's also got OA in fetlock joint, navicular (diagnosed 3 years ago) and fractured splint button. :(
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Sorry to hear that. I hope it all goes well, will keep my fingers crossed for you. So dissapointing.

thanks also Kelpie x
 
Hi there, my boy has been rehabbing for suspensory ligament psd and inner branches for the past 10 months. We had shockwave, box rest and loads of walking in hand and hacking. We have just been allowed to start canter work, but he has just started showing 'not quite right' movement and is having to go back for a rescan :( the prognosis in the hinds is not good, sorry to say, and their is limited treatment options for the branchs. Reinjury rates are very high as i am finding. I have been advised if i do get him sound enough for schooling there will be no more jumping :(, sorry for the negative input.
 
Leanne1980 said:
Hi there, my boy has been rehabbing for suspensory ligament psd and inner branches for the past 10 months. We had shockwave, box rest and loads of walking in hand and hacking. We have just been allowed to start canter work, but he has just started showing 'not quite right' movement and is having to go back for a rescan :( the prognosis in the hinds is not good, sorry to say, and their is limited treatment options for the branchs. Reinjury rates are very high as i am finding. I have been advised if i do get him sound enough for schooling there will be no more jumping :(, sorry for the negative input.
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Actually I was quoted 40% reoccurence. But like I say you want to get as much weight off the forehand as you can if the injury is on the n/f or o/f. I did this with ethanol into the hocks for his bone spavin. The 'not quite movement' you describe may be due to him overcompensating on the opposite leg. This was the case for my horse, sound on a straight line, sound on the left rein, but on the right rein he looks lame on the right fore - this is because his injury to the suspensory is on the near fore and on the right rein he is putting the n/f injured leg at an angle in order to turn to the right and therefore it hurts. My vets suggestion of doing loads of work on the left rein and only a little on the right is a good idea to rest it.

Looks like I may have to try what I have always refused to try and that is to put him on a bute a day and see how he goes. This is what the vet has been hinting at.
 
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