suspensory ligament strain.....

[Vindaloo]

I just have NO luck with horses, I lose Kash to a mystery rupture in her gut, Moo had to be put down just before Christmas and now Dougal my budding Badminton ride (er in my dreams) has strained both hind suspensory ligaments.

He was at Bell for 7 days and had just about every scan, block, x-ray you could imagine until on Friday I was told it was the suspensory ligaments.

I am feeling terribly depressed now, please someone tell me that these can heal. He's only 6 and had such a bright future (even if only in rodeo) and now I am thinking the worst.

I have known a few horses with this type of strain which never managed to go back into work but this was years ago. Dougal has to have Shock wave therapy and is turned out, no box rest. We have no idea how severe the strain is, apparently it was really hard to see on the scan, hence the lenght of time it took to diagnose.

He's really fed up, he knows he's hurt and he's being very brave but you can see it in his eyes. Don't know who's more depressed, me or him.

 

[kimrichards]

Hi ya

I was going to email if you'd had any news. I think some people were talking about this sort of injury on here the other day, i'll have a look through.

Have the vets said much on how well or length of time for recovery?

 

[fizz-tally]

jay tweaked his in july 2005, he had 6 weeks box rest & 1 year off work.

he is now doing walk/trot/canter/bugger off

& on sunday we popped our 1st logs since he did it

there is hope,jay got the all clear to go back to hunting/x/c if i wanted to do that

good luck & chin up xxxxxxxxxxxx

 

[CLS.]

A friends horse tweaked his hunting and the vet graded it as a 3 (on a scale of 1 to 10) if i remember rightly he had box rest then walking and limited turn out for 6 months then brought back into work went hunting and did it again. This time he was bunged straight out in the field for about 8 months then brought back in to work slowly and was sold on to a young girl with the full lnowledge of his injury and that he should take it easy and not reall y hunt again. She has done EVERYTHING with him and has not had a problem since. Shes hunted him HT SJ the lot and hes fine. She just doesnt take him in really heavy going as a precaution.

 

[Scarlett]

my lad done his as a 3yo when racing - he had 6 months off and hydro therapy and its never bothered him since.

Just give him as much time off as he needs, dont rush him into work and you'll be fine...

 

[dozzie]

My horse did a similar thing on the front. Had 6 weeks box rest followed by walking in hand for 6 weeks. Then just really steady fittening work. The vet said that 90% of minor suspensory lig strains heal well and horse can return to work. Fingers crossed for you.

I am a bit neurotic about turning her out in mud if shes fresh! Thats how she did it in the first place. Also I always make sure I warm her up and cool her down well and keep her turned out as much as possible.

Once hes back in work you will have to be religious about checking her legs for a while.

 

[star]

sounds like he has proximal suspensory desmitis if he is having shockwave. my horse had it 5yrs ago in just his right hind. he had 3 shockwave and was sound by the 3rd. slowly back into work over 6 months and then gradually worked back up the dressage ladder to Medium and back jumping to 3ft and was competing ODE's again until last year when damaged different ligaments. prognosis is worse in hindlimbs than frontlimbs and worse when both affected and depends on degree of lameness, whether any bony changes and what type of ultrasonographic changes. i did my final year vet school research project on it as well as having been through it with my horse, so ask any q's you like. my horse was on box rest for several months with in-hand walking, then gradual increase in ridden walking, then trot and canter. PSD is slightly different to other suspensory injuries which is why what you're told to do may differ slightly from other people who have had different types of suspensory strains.