Suspensory ligament damage

[Madasmaz]

Hi...somewhat worried about this.

My pony has suffered minor damage to her near hind suspensory ligament. It first presented as ping-pong ball sized windgalls two weeks ago. These have now gone with use of splintex gold and stable boots at night, but no box rest. I spotted some warmth (only slight) on Wednesday eve, so asked my instructor to take a look yesterday luchtime, when she schools my pony. As the joint look a little enlarged as well in comparison to the other we both agreed it was time to call the vet. She has only been doing light exercise, walking round fields, and not anything too demanding in the school...more yoga exercises. Vet diagnosed low grade lameness and suspensory damage showing on the scan as some mottling of the ligament. We are on a week of box rest with bute, then small paddock turnout for a week before he returns to give booster jabs and rescan. I am going to turn her out with sportabac boots on, and she is in veredus stable boots 24x7 for the next week. Is there anything ese I should be doing??? I have wound myself up looking on the www, with hind suspensory damage not having a terribly good out look. Would magnetic boots help? She has been wearing SMB Elite boots since the windgalls flared up whilst being ridden as well. Worried, as she is only 8, and I know she could have a foal, but I couldn't afford to keep them both, I have had her since 1 and the thought of loosing her ....well...not got to that yet so won't contemplate it. Cheers for any advice, and only advice please....

 

[_jetset_]

My vet said magnetic boots can not harm, so it is worth a shot!

My mare damaged the proximal area of her suspensory in November 2007 (right behind the hock) but from what you have said I am guessing your mare's damage is lower down in the leg, therefore has an improved prognosis.

What I would say is that one week of box rest seems a very short period. My mare was on 6-8 weeks of box rest (after four weeks she started in hand walking for 15 minutes twice a day) and shock wave treatment too. I would be a little wary of turning her out in the second week, as ligaments take quite a long time to heal and for the inflammation to reduce.

The other thing my surgeon recommended was getting her on an MSM supplement. Initially I put her on a pure supplement, but she is now on TopSpec 10:10 which has MSM in it as a maintenance level.

As for the sports boots, I put a few posts about these and there were mixed comments about them... they can heat the legs up which causes more problems, and my vet suggested turning her out with nothing on the legs when she finally went out in May.

 

[AandK]

the key with any problem is not to do too much research on the web, you will only end up in despair.!! the best place is somewhere like this, where different people can let you know what happend when they were in the same situation.
of course it is different for each and every horse, some good, some bad but i think you are being a bit pessamistic talking about losing her.! you describe this as minor damage and as the scan shows mottling as apposed to a black spot (major damage) this would seem to be the case. your vet has also prescribed a very short recovery period too.

in comparison, my horse injured his suspensory where it brances down onto the fetlock on the inside of his right hind. i think he had a very low-grade injury before as he had been under-performing of a couple of weeks, i gave him a break in the field for 10 days and after that he was 3/10 lame.! cue x-rays and scans etc and the above diagnosis. there was a dark area on the scan so his injury is probably more severe than in your case although the vet described it as acute so it was very recent. my horses recovery schedule is thus: course of 3 shockwave treatments 2 weeks apart, course of Adequan, 3 months box rest; 1st month 10 mins walking, 2nd month 20 mins and 3rd month 30 mins. after 3 months he will be re-scanned to see how it is healing and take it from there. he is not on bute but i decided to put him on a higher grade joint supp (Cosequin) as the vet suggested that he will need good quality glucosamine to help heal the ligament..
i have decided not to boot or bandage the area, as it seemed to help keep it cooler than when i did (not much heat anyway) and there was very little swelling. the vet seemed to think that he would not need any bandages and also advised that no boots/bandages would be able to 'support' the ligaments so just to use what i would normally use.

the key with ligament and tendon injuries is lots of time and gentle low grade exercise to aid healing. so my advice would be, be patient and do not rush anything.!
given that the injury is minor i would not write your horse off yet.!! (sorry for the essay.!)

 

[Madasmaz]

Thank-you both.

She has cortaflex daily, so have a choice on that to go to the higher strength or go for pure glucosamine, will look up Cosequin. I think I will keep her in for the two weeks and just do 10 minutes in hand walking in the school from next week, as some movement has been suggested...only trouble is, with all the rain the school is very boggy and quite deep (probably how she did it in the first place). I did find that using the sports boots when ridden with stable boots at night, allowed her to go out without her legs swelling. Fortunately, she is not the type to go charging round the field, the business of eating grass being far too important to expend energy on running around, she leaves that to the 3 yo cob she shares grazing with, observed with distaste,

. Looking on the pluss side, we got a 1st, 2nd and 6th this year in dressage, and I have a lovely DVD of our last outing which I hope to put on YouTube as soon as I have worked out how to synch the flumps theme tune to it. I don't think jumping is going to be in the plan for at least two years, if at all now, as we were really only beginning.

 

[_jetset_]

Don't be too despondent, it does sound as though her injury is a minor one.

Cortaflex does not have MSM in, that was what Grace was on at the time and the vet suggested buying an MSM supplement (think it came to about £19 a month for the MSM). The MSM is what supports the ligaments and tendons, helps rebuild damage done to these areas and looks after them too.

 

[Madasmaz]

That sounds like a good plan...I have been looking at Cosequin and Riaflex complete...and was edging toward changing to Cosequin, but at £99 fo 700g (60 days)..its double cortaflex, so would rather use up my cortaflex and add in MSM if that's all I need. I don't think she's going to get any new rugs this winter...

 

[siennamiller]

hiya
My horse has just had all the scans etc( last week), he has proximal suspensory damage on his left hind. He has to have 3 months box rest with 20 mins walking a day, then he be rescanned. Liphook did all his scans etc and they said I could use cortaflex if I wanted to do but up to me. He is also having shock wave therapy. BTW His did not show any heat or swelling at all.
hth. good luck

 

[angiebaby]

Mine did his PSD last May, like siennamiller there was no heat or swelling, was not diagnosed for 5 months! In the end he had a neurectomy, and 12 months field rest. He is now sound and back in full work

Sounds like you've caught it early, but I think you need lots more box rest.

 

[charliesarmy]

My mare did her suspensory ligament earlier this year she was on box rest for 8 weeks with a 15-20 min walk this was increased after 10 weeks in to walk twice a day then after 12 weeks got advised to change the walks to riding as she was ready to blow and I don't thnk I could have restrained a 17.3 beastie the main prob I've found with any tendon damage is that after the initial lameness horses feel as fit as a fiddle and want to get on with there job BUT if over exerted to soon (hence why I rode her rather than lead!!) it will just go again and probably take even longer to mend but the vet told me after 12 weeks its just a softly softly approach and not to rush hope this helps and good luck.. ps mine is back in work,pregnant,and seems A1 so don't be too dispondent!!

 

[Horsestudent2022]

the key with any problem is not to do too much research on the web, you will only end up in despair.!! the best place is somewhere like this, where different people can let you know what happend when they were in the same situation.
of course it is different for each and every horse, some good, some bad but i think you are being a bit pessamistic talking about losing her.! you describe this as minor damage and as the scan shows mottling as apposed to a black spot (major damage) this would seem to be the case. your vet has also prescribed a very short recovery period too.

in comparison, my horse injured his suspensory where it brances down onto the fetlock on the inside of his right hind. i think he had a very low-grade injury before as he had been under-performing of a couple of weeks, i gave him a break in the field for 10 days and after that he was 3/10 lame.! cue x-rays and scans etc and the above diagnosis. there was a dark area on the scan so his injury is probably more severe than in your case although the vet described it as acute so it was very recent. my horses recovery schedule is thus: course of 3 shockwave treatments 2 weeks apart, course of Adequan, 3 months box rest; 1st month 10 mins walking, 2nd month 20 mins and 3rd month 30 mins. after 3 months he will be re-scanned to see how it is healing and take it from there. he is not on bute but i decided to put him on a higher grade joint supp (Cosequin) as the vet suggested that he will need good quality glucosamine to help heal the ligament..
i have decided not to boot or bandage the area, as it seemed to help keep it cooler than when i did (not much heat anyway) and there was very little swelling. the vet seemed to think that he would not need any bandages and also advised that no boots/bandages would be able to 'support' the ligaments so just to use what i would normally use.

the key with ligament and tendon injuries is lots of time and gentle low grade exercise to aid healing. so my advice would be, be patient and do not rush anything.!
given that the injury is minor i would not write your horse off yet.!! (sorry for the essay.!)

Hello! I know this post is almost 20 yrs old (beauty of internet !) but how did your horse with the right hind suspensory injury end up doing longterm ? I have a horse with a left hind branch injury and just doing a bunch of research on it. Thanks !

 

[AandK]

Hello! I know this post is almost 20 yrs old (beauty of internet !) but how did your horse with the right hind suspensory injury end up doing longterm ? I have a horse with a left hind branch injury and just doing a bunch of research on it. Thanks !

Gosh this was a blast from the past! The horse made a full recovery, and returned to eventing the following year. I did change his management, he lived out from as soon as he was allowed turnout I think in December of 2008.
He retired age 22 in 2019, and I lost him August last year age 26.

 

[myheartinahoofbeat]

It sounds like a relatively mild injury, although not to you, if the vet is saying a week of box rest. Our 9 yr old had hind suspensory injury and we turned him away for a year as had the time and space to do so and didn’t want to spend a fortune on treatments as he wasn’t insured. The prognosis was bleak from the specialist at Rossdales but he had the all clear just last week to start proper work after a summer of rehab. The www is not your friend and not many people will write about how fantastically easy it was to get their horse back into work, it’s usually the ones with the horror stories who want to write about it.

 

[Birker2020]

Hello! I know this post is almost 20 yrs old (beauty of internet !) but how did your horse with the right hind suspensory injury end up doing longterm ? I have a horse with a left hind branch injury and just doing a bunch of research on it. Thanks !

speak to me, my previous horse did her suspensory branch on all four legs!

In a nutshell, cold therapy in copious amounts ( I hosed, ice cupped https://www.animalosteopathycollege.com/blog/ice-therapy-for-horses#:~:text=One method I really like,for 10 to 15 minutes I also Ice Vibed), initial box rest then in hand walking, bandaging over night especially to support opposite limb, anti inflammatories.

Ideally, you shouldn't turn out in boots or bandages, airflow boots are better as other things can cause over heating of tendons which is problematic.

Rehab includes remedial shoeing, keeping weight off the horse and gradual return to work under vets advice.

PRP or stem cell can work well, but in my case we feel the PRP may have caused scar tissue (calcification) which caused mechanical lameness according to the vet as it was only evident on the one leg and bute made no difference.

I believe laser therapy can help in this situation too, my horse had long wave ultrasound therapy which I was able to do myself as my physio lent me her equipment.

Horses can easily have issues with the opposite limb and in my horses experience this happened more than once!
Vet did say that the ultrasound therapy and the ice vibe boots gave really good results. But I tend to go overboard with rehab because I want a good result so put a great deal of time and effort into it, and I enjoy that side of things too.

Search results for query: suspensory branch injury

forums.horseandhound.co.uk

I think current thinking has changed from complete box rest, to an initial box rest and then an in hanforwarding period and/or turnout in very small fenced off paddock 10m 10m if the horse becomes dangerous when hand walking.