suspensory ligaments

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neweventer

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Well it's not been my year. After event pony number one had to be operated on to repair his deep digital flexor tendon (in recovery phase of hacking- fingers crossed it goes well), pony number two has done a suspensory ligament. He was on holiday so it didn't even happen competing. I have gone from having two fit eventers to now have one completely broken and one that I can only walk on.

No experience of flexor tendon damage. What are the general prognosis? He's hoping lame so I'm not thinking it's going to be good.

Anyone any good experiences of suspensor ligament damage or deep digital flexor tendon? Feel I need something to focus on.

(The one with the tendon damage is doing very well. They were very pleased with the operation and suprised at the injury with no lameness)
 
I have had a couple of experiences with suspensory injuries. My old horse had to be retired from jumpig but still was able to do flatwork and happy hack. My current horse was diagnosed with inflammation of the suspensory but a hock infection on the other leg has taken the focus of that! He had his hock flushed and has been on box rest for 3 months now. I go back to the hospital next week for them to scan it again. There seems to be varying outcomes but either way there is no quick fix :-(
 
Hi

My PRE gelding did both hind suspensory ligaments 2 years ago now. It happened about a month after he was backed and he was (obviously) hardly doing any 'work' at the time. Just one of those things my vet said (it is not always a wear and tear injury).

Anyway, I opted for the operation for my boy as 70-80% success rate compared with shock wave 30-40%, which in my view was a waste of lengthy time and money. So did operation straight away. Simple op, he went to Liphook and it took about 15 mins. They were FANTASTIC with him.

Recovering he was amazing and coped totally fine. He had hind bandages on up to his hocks. He was a very nervous horse (having imported him as remedial) but he surprised me and coped totally fine). He likes being in, so the box rest was fine for him (you have to do box rest for both op and shock wave anway).

Coming back into work he was totally fine and he has been in full competition work for few years now without any issues at all. He competes at county level (showing) and dressage.

So a nice success story for you :)
 
My mare did high suspensorys in front left back in 2005

Luckily rest was the option the worked for her, took 6 months but it sorted its self out, not even bute just bandage and rest.

I was OCD about bringing her back into work and started walking before we turned her out. Walked for 6 weeks, walked and trotted for 6 weeks, cantered for a month. Then put in the field for two weeks 24/7 as she was too fit to ride! :)

Because she did hers in the ring (I thought she had broken her leg the way she pulled up) took her a while to want to jump again. She happily does upto 1m now, plays horseball, and dressage to elem. So def not doom and gloom here!
 
Mine had psd 3 years ago, had shock wave, box rest and rehab work over 6 months and came almost back into full work. Hadnt got arou d to jumping though. Then he got tenosynovitis in his other hind. 8 weeks box rest inc 4 at a horse spa. Brought back into work, even got to do a combined training before he got tendonitis in a front leg! This has been over three years and I have now only oe insurable leg :D

I think if you have the ligament operated on you can no longer legally compete BE?

I'm now rehabbing my horse into being barefoot to hope that will help whatever underlying issues he has. If you have both horses with these injuriesid potentially be looking at shoeing/barefoot longer term or whether there's another common factor.
 
neweventer said:
Well it's not been my year. After event pony number one had to be operated on to repair his deep digital flexor tendon (in recovery phase of hacking- fingers crossed it goes well), pony number two has done a suspensory ligament. He was on holiday so it didn't even happen competing. I have gone from having two fit eventers to now have one completely broken and one that I can only walk on.

No experience of flexor tendon damage. What are the general prognosis? He's hoping lame so I'm not thinking it's going to be good.

Anyone any good experiences of suspensor ligament damage or deep digital flexor tendon? Feel I need something to focus on.

(The one with the tendon damage is doing very well. They were very pleased with the operation and suprised at the injury with no lameness)
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The most important thing is cold therapy. Ice the leg as much as possilbe if the vet is in agreement to this. When my horse did his, it was ice cupping three times a day for two days along side ice boots, tubbing and cold hosing. Bit OTT you may say but I am convinced (as was the vet) that this made all the difference.

We keep ice cups in the freezer at the yard. They are polystyrene cups filled with water, frozen and then applied over the area in a slow circular movement. The movement prevents ice burn but the temperatture is very cold which helps considerably, more so i think imho than hosing. As the ice melts you tear off the polystyrene. Normally when the injury is in its acute stage as only just happened you can get through an ice cup in one sitting (20 mins) as there is so much heat from the injury which melts the ice. But as time goes on the cups will last you two sometimes three sittings.
The tubbing where I sloshed ice cold water around the area with his foot in a tub for 20 mins also helped a lot.

Also bandage the leg as compression is good, especially the opposite leg as the horse will be taking more weight onto that limb.

I strongly believe that the more stuff you can do re: ice therapy immediately the better the outcome. But do ask the vet if cold therapy is ok to use in your horses case first. If so get on to it immediately whilst you have the window of opportunity to make the difference in the first criticial hours.
 
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I have a 23year old Arab mare that did a front suspensory ligament when she was 10 years old. She has been able to continue her Endurance including the GHS (100 miles) and race rides. At the age of 23 she is still winning veteran race rides.

Time off and a slow recovery /Rehab helped.
 
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