suspensory ligament operation

[Lynz25]

Has anyones horse had to have a suspensory ligament operation and how did it go? <span style="color:black"> </span>

 

[Caritas]

A girl at my yard had her horse operated on twice and both ops were a success, on different legs, i will ad. Godd luck and try not to worry! Sorry i cant give you anymore advice as not much experience with this.

 

[Lynz25]

OK thanks for that. We are having both legs done at the same time as both sides are affected. Apparently its an 80% success rate to return to their normal activity post surgery so fingers crossed.

 

[Oldred]

My horse is diagnosed with suspensory ligament strain in both back legs and apparently requires this op. Can you tell me if your horse suffered with back pain as a result of the suspensory ligament problem? Thanks.

 

[Lynz25]

It all started in January there was just something not right with him but I couldn't put my finger on it. The vet did some bloods which just showed muscular damage somewhere. His back was sore especially on the right hand quarters. The vet suggested a course of treatment with the ciropractor - which we did. This seemed to help. In March I took him to RAF Halton and jumped some of the small and then some of the larger jumps - however with the larger he kept clipping them with his back legs which isn't like him. In April we took him to 2 SJ comps, in the 2nd he got eliminated for refusing and one of my friends commented that he looked tight on his left hind. A couple of weeks earlier the farrier had trouble with putting the left hind on so we wondered if the back was a secondary problem. We had the ciropractor out which didn't seem to help so the vet came out and checked him in June. He weent to the diagnostic centre last week where they did a bone scan which showed hot spots in his pelvis and in both hind limbs (left worse than right). On the nerve block in the hock the gait got better but not competely correct so they blocked the sacro-iliac joint which gave a further improvement. So he has bilateral suspensory problems and a sacro iliac problem. The latter of which the vet thinks will get better once the operation is done. He is certainly very tender over his hind quarters which I suppose isn't suprising as he drops on the left pelvis so much when he brings the right through and then has to hitch it to clear his hoof off the ground. Where did your horse go to be diagnosed and have you got an operation date?

 

[angela24]

My horse had a neurectomy (sp) and some tissue cut away to relieve the pressure on both back suspensorys last Monday, apparantly it went exactly to plan i can't tell you if it has been a success yet sorry as he's still on compete box rest, we had a few scary days after the surgery with him being on a drip because he wouldn't eat or move but then again he is mard, but he is doing much better.

Someone on heres horse has had it done successfully.... Alibear????

Have you not been offered shockwave and controlled exercise first?? Or have the ops been suggested first off?

 

[Lynz25]

They said that we could give him a couple of months off but he's not really been doing much for the last 3 months -just hacking out 1-2 times per week on flat fields - and I also gave him a month off which made no difference. In fact he has just been getting progressively worse. They offered shockwave but it is only 40% successful whereas the operation is 80%. I said to the vet that I thought due to the odds of success, the operation was the way to go especially since it is now a chronic condition. The vet felt this was the right decision to make in the circumstances. Where did you get your operation done?

 

[angela24]

My vet did it along with a specialist at Wright and Morton at Somerford Park in Cheshire.

What operation are they doing i believe there are different types and combinations?

 

[fizz-tally]

roo did his front &amp; is allowed to hack/school/dressage but trainer doesnt think he will be up to jumpinng ever again,friends horse did his back leg &amp; is allowed to do the same as roo,he had 1 year off &amp; is about to start work now,roo had a year but hasnt done much

 

[Lynz25]

I believe they are cutting away the tissue / nerve that supplies the ligament

 

[Oldred]

Thanks Lynz25 for your info. My horse is not booked in for the op. It has taken all the insurance money to get to the point of the vets saying only an op could help - and then his gut feeling is it wouldn't! I was curious because the horse was never sound with the nerve blocks in the proximal sus lig area in both back legs (just apparently significantly better though I found it hard to discern much difference). However, when the horse had a sacroiliac nerve block it was instantly sound and obviously pain free. She had shockwave treatments which did no good at all. Then she had a schleroising agent injectedinto the sacroiliac area which seemed to work for a few weeks then she was in pain again. I hope everything is a success for you. Would like to know how the back pain is affected/cured in the future. Good luck.

 

[star]

the technical name for the op is "plantar neurectomy and fasciotomy" - they basically cut the nerve that supplies the ligament and cut the tough fascia that surrounds the ligament to give it somewhere to expand to as part of the problem in the hindleg is that the ligament wants to swell because it's damaged, but it cant so it hurts much more. it's very important that the horse goes sound to a plantar digital or subtarsal nerve block before the op is done because if it doesn't, cutting that nerve wont make it sound.

my horse had the problem in his right hind. he had shockwave and was back in full work in 6 months. he was 16 and went back to working at Medium, jumping 3ft etc. now retired for a completely different reason. personally the thought of putting my horse under GA scares me slightly (risk of 1 in 100) and i've seen some very good results with shockwave and some not so good results with the op - i would always go for the least invasive treatment first, but that's just me.

 

[BenjaminBunny]

My horse also had suspensory ligament damage - he had 6 weeks box rest with 4 shockwave treatments - after 6 weeks he went for a scan which showed his ligaments sat nicely below the splint bone (whereas they were above before) also the fibres were much better - better on one than another

after the scan I was told to continue a further 6 weeks box rest with gradually bringing him back into work - all at a walk only - starting at 20mins a day and building it up - after just over a week he's now on 30 mins a day (split into two 15 mins sessions) i can actually ride him to do this but he's doing ok in hand and i don't want to just hop on -

so i plan for the first three weeks to keep him in hand - and it has to be on flat concrete ideally (so around the stable block) then once he's shod on his back i will start walking him up the large (but stoney) entrances to the yard - once he's used to that i will then ride him but with someone at our side to reassure me more so than him

)

then we'll go for another scan and see what happens

at no point has surgery been mentioned to me

 

[angela24]

Surgery wasn't mentioned to me BenjaminBunny the first time either, my lad had the shockwave, cartrophren (sp) injections and he came sound, got him back in full work for about three weeks and he slipped went down in the road and got up lame, he's been lame ever since and i was told the only option left for him was the surgery which he had last week.

I wholeheartedly agree with Star to try the non invasive treatments first. Unfortunately this is his last chance so i have everything crossed!

 

[Lynz25]

We spoke to our own vet last night to check if she felt that us and the Newmarket specialist had decided the right thing. She felt that in my horses instance this was the right way to go and that if the shockwave therapy didn't work, apparently less likely to as it is now a chronic condition, it would be a year to eighteen months before he could have the operration. The vet over a Newmarket who is going to do the operation has this as his particular speciality. After we said about going down the operation route they did some more scans to see if he was suitable for it - which he was. All I can really go on it what they are telling me is best for Kibs

 

[Alibear]

That's be Andy Bathe and yes he is the best in the world at this particular operation so your horse will be in very good hands.

Hope it all goes well for you and yes Shockwave is much less effective for Chronic conditions, my chap was similar and we skipped shockwave and went straight for the op.

Good luck

 

[BenjaminBunny]

Ok I'm worried now... although my horse seems to be making good progress and he has never showed signs of lameness

i guess we can never tell

the reason i'm concerned is i've only had him 4 months and he passed a stage 5 vetting - i wouldn't have bought him if i knew - so far i've managed to ride him 3 times before i realised there was a problem

but having said that there are two horses at my yard who have sucessfully gone through just the shockwave and come out the other side ok

 

[Alibear]

Hi

My chaps chronic problem showed 6 months afte rI bought him again with a clean 5 stage vet to the extent it was commented on how well he passed his flexion tests!

Apparently this often shows when a horse is moved and is possibly down to be ridden differently or ridden on a different surface.

hindsight hey

 

[star]

my horse got it 6months after i bought him - his was more acute which is why he has responded well to shockwave and not had problems since. He wasn't vetted, except by me, but I'd had him on loan for a year so knew he was ok - just a shame he went wrong just after I handed over the dosh!

 

[angela24]

How is yours getting on now Alibear is he still in work?

 

[angela24]

Has Dan shown any improvement Star?

 

[blaze]

Hi, just to add my twopenneth - my mare had bilateral PSD (hope this is the right term - basically both hind ligaments were a problem, at the top end rather than the branches near the fetlock). She had shockwave therapy, three sessions two weeks apart each time, and she came back sound from this. She was also a candidate for surgery had this not worked, but she had the added problem of DJD in both stifles so at the time we were debating four sites of injury and multiple operations!

Has now been working fine for well over a year. Her ligaments are not normal but neither are they anywhere near as bad as they were. I would always go for shockwave first but then again, we were watching my horse like hawks (and paranoid, overzealous hawks at that!) as to how she moved, as she was coming back into work after a foreleg operation. Then we noticed the back end wasn't moving as it should! Think we were lucky enough to catch it quite early so maybe that's why SWT worked for us.

I hope everyone has positive outcomes - I find the ligament damage much harder to contend with than my horse's DJD as I understand the bony stuff and what causes it, but I am stumped by her suspensory problems!

 

[star]

[ QUOTE ]
Has Dan shown any improvement Star?

[/ QUOTE ]

nope, he's worse rather than better. give me back the PSD anyday - that was far easier to deal with. this tenosynovitis, annular ligament thing is a right pain. My vet is now arranging for Ian Wright from Newmarket to see him with a possible view to tenoscopy and debridement of the ligament and tendon sheath under general anaesthetic. I really didn't want him to have an op and was ok to retire him if need be, but he's had 3 months off and is deteriorating - he didn't want to lift up his other legs to be shod last week and is now very painful on palpation which he wasn't before, so now I dont really see any other options, apart from the unmentionable which would be a great shame to even consider on an otherwise extremely fit and healthy, albeit 20yr old.