Suspensory ligament recovery - experiences?

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I don't know whether anyone saw my post in the NL last week so I will quickly give you the Lett's notes version
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I took Grace for the scan on her hind suspensory (11 weeks after injury originally discovered), and Peter Scholefield was pleased with her progress. The left suspensory is still a little thicker than the right one, but he said they are now a lot more comparable, whereas before there was a big difference between the two. The ligament is still slightly bowed, but he still seems to think that she is recovering well
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Now all I asked for was an improvement, which is exactly what I have... but I am beginning to wonder whether she should have no differences between the two ligaments at this stage?

Because of her colic surgery, we are a few weeks behind in the suspensory recovery at the moment... usually, after 8 weeks she would have started her ridden work, but that was not possible
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I have been walking her in hand for 15 minutes twice a day in the arena, but she is quite a hot young lady and thinks this weather is just so exciting
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When Peter scanned the ligament, he also examined her colic scar for me in depth too. He said it had healed incredibly quickly and she was looking very well
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He asked where we were up to in our colic surgery recovery and I explained we had almost 2 weeks of box rest left, then she was to be turned out in a 50ft field. I then told him that I had spoken to the vets at leahurst because I didn't really want to just turn her out in this wet weather with her ligament, and they just instructed me to continue with the walking in hand and increase the times...

Peter said he would rather me ride her in two weeks time, in walk, increasing this to 45 minutes over the time, for four weeks! I am so very excited, I can get on her on 17th February... He has assured me that the scar is up to it, the muscle has knitted, and he would rather have her ridden in controlled exercise than hooning around a field, throwing herself about and rolling! He said it would be good for her for both the ligament and the colic recovery if I felt able to ride her in walk for the next period
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Just take it slow is my advice. My mare redid hers despite very slow walking for the first few months. She went scatty in the field one day. 18months after that she never recovered.

Hope it all goes well for you.
 
I will let you know what happens on the 6th as Ru's was really big in comparison to his other ligament on other leg so hopefully it will be right down but.. vets did say it may be no difference at all and may not ever come sound!!!!
 
Thanks... she has to take it VERY slowly anyway as she is only 8 weeks into her colic surgery recovery
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The specialist just said he was very pleased with the ligament at this stage because it had reduced so much, but I am terrified of it going again... I didn't think she would be able to use the ligament much until the inflammation had completely gone, but obviously she has to increase her walking now and it is still slightly thicker.
 
I think as with humans the recovery of tedon and ligament injuries has as much to do with controlled exercise as it does with rest, Hence the walking but no charging around. Hope it all continues to go well.
 
As you know Becki Spider has this injury on both hinds.

She is now on about her 9th week of box rest and goes up to 20mins trotting tomorrow
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The vet came out 3 weeks ago and said she was very sound, even and all was good.

So hopefully when he comes out nxt week he will say the same and say I can canter and then hopefully she can go out. Im not sure about re-scanning as the 1st ones werent that clear anyway but I will ask next week if he thinks it will be beneficial.

I will take her very slow and even when I can do normal work, ive decided to just hack her for a few mths with no schooling or jumping.

Hopefully she will return to surface competing BD and BSJA in September, we will see though.

Good luck
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My Tb did his when in training to race - thankfully he was with a trainer who gave him a full year off to recover, he was box rested and went swimming, and he walked out lots and lots and he came completely sound and went on to race 3 times and has now came to me to do a bit of everything...

Take it slowly and I'm sure Grace will be fine!!!
 
I was planning on continuing walking for as long as possible... it is difficult because she doesn't hack out in traffic very well, but when she is a bit stronger and further on in her colic surgery I will box her up and take her to somewhere quiet where we can just do lots of walking.

I had hoped to be back out competing in September, but that depends on how she does, how the ligament looks etc etc.

I just wasn't sure about increasing the amount of walking when she still has inflammation, but perhaps this is what it needs now???
 
The walking is required to strenghthen and improve the circlation to the ligament. When Ed was recovering from his ligament injury and colic surgery I walked for 6 weeks and slowly built up to 1 1/2hrs.
 
Hi Becki
Speaking from experience of ligaments (both suspensory and annular) the only thing that I'd say is please don't put a time scale/limit on Grace's recovery - don't have images of competing in say six months or whatever as it's really difficult getting the horse fully sound, without the added pressure of the feeling of letting yourself down.
H went lame in june 05 - she's only just coming back into work - her first leg came sound and then the opposite hind broke - requiring further surgery - It's a long and ardous (but VERY rewarding) task rehabbing after this kind of injury - The same happened with other horses I know with suspensory injuries - those that have been operated on and those that have had alternative treatments - all took a lot of time and steady rehab work to come right
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I hate to sound pessimistic - just trying to be realistic!
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Kate x
 
My horse sprained a suspensory ligament 2 years ago. After 2 months box rest I started walking her in hand for two weeks then got on her in walk. Vet said same as yours, controlled exercise is better than galloping around field. When I did turn her out I turned into a very small paddock until she was settled being out again. Touch wood she's had no troblem since. Vet also said uneven ground is worse than muddy ground!
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My Mare did a very serious Ligament injury when she was 5 years old, her left Hind, She had 1 year of box rest, but after this she competed Eventing for the 1st time every after and was Brill. Still going strong now. My best advice though would be take the recovery period very very steady. She was sedated when first put in the field after a year for the 1st two days, Than when i started riding her i must have walked for about 3 months first. Her leg is a strong as anything now, I had Lazor treatment on it to reduce the swelling this really helped. And the Lazor man told me an old wize tell of putting vingear on the legs. Boiled at home and simmered for about 20 minutes, than bottled up. I applied it to the leg for 3 days with 3 days off. Its suppose to help with strengthning up the Ligments in the legs.
 
general suspensory ligament injury is quite different to PSD in terms of prognosis and recovery times. my horse never had any changes on ultrasound so cant help there - he was back competing in 6mths but his injury was very mild. even so, we walked for 3 of those months. vet said we needed to crack on, but i was keen to take it extra slow and have him make a full recovery.
 
Thanks Star... Grace's suspensory at the root was inflammed on the left hind in the first scan (11 weeks ago), and then much better when scanned on Tuesday. There is still a slight thickening, but Peter did not seem too concerned about that to be honest, although it is obviously still an issue because there is still inflammation (well, in my head anyway).

Is it PSD that Grace has?

Hers is an inflammation to the root of the suspensory ligament in the hind leg (just behind the hock).
 
I brought a 15 yrs event horse which had done a suspensory during its early career in eventing about 6-7years old, I had it scan during the vetting and scaring was seen,if had healed fine but the vet said still that I needed to do loads of road work with him to make sure it was strong enough every year that I evented or did hard work. This is abit further down the line than yours, but I think you always have to be aware of it. I take mine swimming aswell I think its brillant for strenghting and fitness! If I had the money the best place for ligament and tendon recover is hartpury college therapy centre, they have a aquaspa treadmill and a normal treadmill which are excellent controlled excercise. Studys have shown that the aqua spa reduces the inflammation as well as increases healing time. Hope this helps!!!
 
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Is it PSD that Grace has?

Hers is an inflammation to the root of the suspensory ligament in the hind leg (just behind the hock).

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yes, she has PSD - just means inflammation of the top part of the suspensory ligament. normal suspensory injuries are treated with rest, but PSD doesn't get better with just rest so they are important to distinguish.
 
Thanks for that... it is always too much info to take in when I am there
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So that is why the injections and shock wave treatment is suggested for PSD, because rest alone will not heal it. Is there anything else? I remember you did a thesis on it I think...
 
yes, for some reason, PSD cases that are just rested go lame again as soon as they re-commence work. a normal suspensory strain requires 1-2yrs of rest for the ultrasound changes to disappear and the horse to come sound. lots of PSD cases never have ultrasound changes to start with so you cant measure their progress so well but even those given extended periods of rest went lame again as soon as doing any work. nothing other than shockwave or the neurectomy surgery is proven to work for PSD, but i added MSM to the diet and used magnet therapy as well - who knows whether it did any good - all i know is that i had a sound horse at the end of it.
 
Thanks... I added MSM, and she also had Equissage treatment and magnetic boots (both stopped due to her scar from surgery but will start again soon).

That is worrying that not many PSD cases had changes on the ultrasound...
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i didn't say not many, i said lots - given there's been lots and lots and lots of cases, there are still plenty who do have changes on ultrasound, probably the majority do - that still leaves a lot that dont.
 
Thanks... panic buttons were pressed
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I promise you, normally I am a very rational person, but at the moment that seems to have temporarily been removed
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