Suspensory ligament injury in rear right leg help????

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VLDG

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I have a 9 year old horse, she has recently undergone a two stage vetting which she failed due to trotting away lame on the flex tests. This shocked me as she has never been lame in the 2 years that I have had her.

I spoke with the vets and they advised me to get a lameness test done, which I did. They repeated the flex tests and she trotted away no problems, then one of the vets rode her and said she could feel something was not right with her rear right leg, so they blocked her hock firstly and then rode her again, she rode much better this time. They waited for that to wear off then they blocked her suspensory ligament, then rode and she rode perfectly. They advised me that she has a suspensory ligament injury, which can be healed by rest for 2 weeks (no riding, but can be turned out into small paddock), then slowly coming back into work, but this problem can re occur. The vet said in his opinion she needs an operation to remove the nerve?

She is not lame at all to look at and doesnt have any swelling. I am wondering what other peoples experiences are with suspensory ligament injurys, what treatment they had and whether it worked?

I think I am also going to go somewhere else for a second opinion.

Thank you in advance.
 
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Sorry to hear of your troubles...

I'm in a similar boat but a bit further on down the line than yourself.

My mare has slight damage to the top part of her suspensory on her left hind. If your horse has done it in the same place then you will never really feel any heat or swelling as it is covered by bone at the top part of the ligament. Its the fact it is also encased by bone that will cause pain as the ligament swells there is less and less room for it - very similar to carpal tunnel syndrome in humans is probably the best way to think about it.

Our course of treatment so far has been longer than two weeks I must say. We are on week 7/8 of box rest. At initial diagnosis she had steroids injected into it and has had fortnightly shock wave treatments since. We now have the go ahead to start ridden walk work this weekend and will slowly build up to trot and then ultrasound her leg at the 3 month post diagnosis stage to assess wether we can crack on safely. So far so good.

As I say my mare wasn't lame but there were performance issues which lead us down this road. Our main symptoms were muscle wastage, short behind and struggling with canter leads on the affected side.

Nerve blocks are very useful doagnostic tools but really your gold standard to diagnose and also assess the amount of damage would be ultra sound or MRI scan.

We have opted to treat conservativley first but surgery is an option when that doesn't work but it all depends on individual cases I guess.

Good luck!
 
They'd really need to scan to give you a proper diagnosis and prognosis.

I would suggest that if they believe it's the kind of injury that will recover (ie this is either an acute issue such as a trauma, or a flare up on a chronic issue which will resolve with two weeks rest) then the nerve operation sounds rather drastic as a first treatment option. The op is also somewhat controversial and (I believe) brings with it potential issues if they would want the horse to compete in affiliated competitions in future.

If it is a suspensory, quite a few suspensory issues, especially when just in one leg, are believed to develop because of muscular problems / asymmetry further up in the horse putting undue pressure on that ligament. For example if a muscle it's connected to is shortened because of muscle spasm, and/or the leg is taking an undue amount of the effort because of asymmetry...the ligament gets undue strain. If it's this kind of case, then two weeks rest may get the horse sound enough to get through a vetting on a given day, but is unlikely to solve the problem.

There's quite a lot of info around about suspensory conditions if you do a search which may help you decide what to do next. Good luck :)
 
Ditto the other posters, you really need a scan first - 2 weeks box rest won't hurt anything, but without a real answer it might not make anything better either - or might be just the start of a much longer period of box rest ime :o
 
My understanding of the op is that it is if you opt for neurectomy on top of a fasciotomy that it perhaps begins to become controversial. Our vet said the FEI keep chopping and changing their minds as to wether or not they agree with denerving and the rules have changed a few times - not sure on this subject myself I'm only going on what he said....he doesn't see a problem with it as denerving does not reduce the horses ability to feel what's going on with it's leg it simply doesn't feel the dispensary ligament. Still, in my mind its better to try the other treatment options first.

He also said there were a very high number of horses competing at top level that had had it done - again, his words, it's something I don't know very much about.
 
Firstl I am so sorry to hear this

Unfortunately I know only too well what you are going through. My last horse had exactly the same. Scan showed just enough damage to mean surgery was the best option. Even though he was also slightly lame on front fore and other hind. None of which my vet picked up on it was so subtle

Surgery was done BUT not only did he never come sound on it. But also it turns out there is a degenerative condition that can cause it. I soon found out he had it in 3 out of 4 legs. I was very upset that they did not suggest scanning the front too. If they had they would have known he had not injured it and that he would end up with it in all his legs

Obviously I should never have been advised to put him through surgery. In fact the degenerative condition was never even mentioned.

I would always advise anyone before surgery to have the other hind and of the fronts scanned too and if there was even slightest change I would not have surgery. Unfortunately my beloved Micah was pts just short of his 8th birthday

One more thing to bear in mind is, if one hind goes the other one usually does too. Insurance will exclude the other one and unless done together there wouldn't be enough money for both

So sorry it's such a long post but I wanted to give you as much info as possible

I would be very very unlikely to put another horse through this surgery again
 
Thank you everyone for your comments. I went for a meeting with the vet today who advised that it still could just be a tweak in the ligament and not a full injury so has firstly suggested 3 weeks rest (he is happy she can be turned out into a small paddock as long as shes not usually silly) but cannot be ridden/lunged.

Once the 3 weeks rest is up we are going back to the vets for them to ride her and check if the problem has gone or is still there. Im absolutely dreading it.

I asked about the shock wave therapy and he advised that it works 95% of the time in the front legs but only 35% success rate in the rear legs, so he wouldnt recommend it but he will do it if i want him to.

Georgiegirl - please let me know how you get on with the shock wave therapy it will be very interesting to know how yours gets on considering yours is also in a rear leg.

Thank you!
 
Soulfull - thank you for your post, did you have the nerve removed? I think there are 2 different ops but this is the one we have been suggested. Im sorry to hear it wasnt the correct diagnosis for you, if she doesnt pass when we go back to the vets in 3 weeks I will be discussing them scanning it properly before taking any further action.
 
Basically The nerve was cut and the space around ligament made bigger to allow it to pass unrestricted. Sorry cant remember the name of op

I just wished I'd had at least one other leg scanned then I would have avoided putting him thro surgery for nothing :(
 
Hiya, my horse has started to show some tendencies to what I believe could be suspensory problems. Has anyone's horse start bunny hoping in canter? Particular on one rein? Fine in walk & tiny short in trot. She's having we saddle widened to make sure it's not that pinching first & instructor is out today to have a look at her (she is evasion queen at getting out of work!)
Panicking as I've spent most of this year & winter getting her right after numerous problems :(
Can anyone help?
 
VLDG - sorry to hear about the injury - I will explain my experience. I bought my horse 7 years ago and he passed a stage 5 vetting. Upon arriving with me and getting tack sorted I thought something isn't right. He was never lame but didn't seem happy. So I got Vet and Physio out on the same day - physio said he had tension in his back just infront of his croup which usually indicates issues around the hock area. The vet came out and suspected suspensory ligament damage in both hinds - but could only confirm with a scan. Off we went for a scan and it was confirmed. Again absolutely no lameness whatsoever even after flexion tests. 5/6 months box rest followed with shock wave therapy and re-scans to check if it worked. Then slowly brought back into work - walking in hand from 5 mins a day gradually up to 1 hour - no turn out allowed. Then riding at walk on hard ground building up - then on vets advice build up trot work. Eventually turn out was allowed ( at which point i stopped riding an unexploded bomb) and we just built everything up slowly. Ben was signed off 5 years ago and although we don't jump it's never re-occurred. The trick is with suspensory damage is dont rush it. Hope that helps
 
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