Suspensory Ligament

[Lucyy-xx]

My 6 year old sports horse has damaged his suspensory ligament in his front leg. He has been given a steroid injection and is on 3 months box rest, after 1 month he can begin a 5 min walk in hand for a week, increasing it by 5 mins every week. He will be re-scanned in December to see if he can move on to trot work. Just wondering if anyone knows if a micro-vet machine might help? His injury isn't what they call major, but I just want to help him where I can! Does anyone know or have a horse who has done something similar and has returned back to original work? I'm very worried about him, I just want him to make a full recovery. Thank you.

 

[lori ann]

Hi Lucy saw your other post have a look at the Arc Equine Unit some insurance companies will pay for this as alternative therapy .

 

[Victoria25]

My mare was diagnosed with this (branch injury) at Xmas last year. She was on box rest initially for a few months and then moving onto into hand walking, loose in a tiny area outside of her stable, then into a larger area and now in September she is only still being ridden in walk and turned out full time in a small paddock away from others/main muddy field. She does trot around in the field but luckily shes quite lazy and doesn’t do it that often … she gets ridden for short periods as and when we feel like it but only in walk still. The only advice to you is don’t be expecting to be trotting any time soon – my vet said this normally takes about 12-15 months for it to be at the stage when its as good as it probably can be – what you don’t want to be doing is doing too much too soon and being back at square one after being in for months on end! She has cartrofen injections and is scanned every few months. x

 

[spacefaer]

Our big lad tweaked the attachment of his front suspensory in March, falling over a small ditch out hunting. He pulled a small bone chip away at the same time. He had 8 weeks box rest, 2 weeks on a walker, building up from 10 mins each way to 1 hour a day. He then got turned out with a friend's young horse and had his shoes taken off at the same time (he's always a little footy when you take his shoes off, so it reduced any likelihood of him hooning around).

He came home end of July as she had run out of grass, and started walking under saddle beginning of August, as standard fittening work for this hunting season.

All done under veterinary supervision/advice. He was initially scanned after the 6 weeks box rest - we had shut him up because he had heat/filling at the back of the joint, and knew that the vet advice would be to box rest him. He was scanned once the heat/filling had settled - it came and went a little.

All of his fittening work is walking, we never trot him as he's an 18hh RID and doesn't need the road concussion. We have no concerns about him getting to the Opening Meet in November. He doesn't go autumn hunting, so he will be walking increasing distances/time Aug-Oct with some fast work thrown in towards the end.