Suspensory paranoia.

[Fourtoomany]

Hi.

So I’m just currently worrying while waiting for the vet.

At the start of the summer my mare came in lame after quite a busy week of training. She has a rather large sand crack on one of her rear hooves that was growing out and I noticed when I lunged her that she was looking a bit lame especially in one direction. It was very difficult to actually decide where she was lame. I asked my farrier what he thought before calling the vet. He pinpointed the crack and the vet came out and had a good check agreed she could feel heat in the heal that rung true with the farrier’s thought of infection. Horse had a week of antibiotics and Bute and was fine afterwards, so we carried on as usual.

FF a short while and I notice she’s slightly nappy with me just on the flat which isn’t in itself entirely unusual. I haven’t had her long and she was a bit of a sort when she was settling in. No problems hacking, jumping or with anything else.

This week I notice she’s particularly backwards. She didn’t feel or look lame when being ridden. My yard owner agreed that it looked as if something was up but she wasn’t obviously lame, no swelling. I gave her a few days off as she had done quite a bit but today when I bring her in at lunch time I decided to lunge her and notice she’s presenting lame in front on the outside of a circle in the school in trot one way. This is similar to how she was before but the hoof crack is no longer an issue. She’s ok in a straight line and ok in the opposite direction.

I’m now besides myself with worry that she has done her suspensory, as this is a classic symptom. I worry that she actually had done it a while back but that the signs were subtle and I’ve just not picked up on it in time and now it’s got worse.

I feel pretty awful. ( I know this isn’t an abscess!)

Does this pattern sound familiar to anyone else who has been unfortunate to experience a suspensory injury in their horse? Ie no swelling (high up) and more of a gradual thing than immediately obvious.

 

[Birker2020]

Not sure about suspensory, but know a fair bit about suspensory branch issues. These can sometimes present as inconsistent or even mild lameness in their early stages and if the inside (medial) branch of the suspensory is sprained the horse will present as lame if the injured leg is on the outside of the circle. Sometimes because they can present as mild or inconsistent there can be a danger that they are ignored with detrimental effect. See screen shot! Even vets can miss the sometimes subtle signs so don't be too hard on yourself if this is the case!

Box rest is normally four weeks and then 6- 8 months of controlled exercise. This is because controlled exercise increases the chance of a better repair to the collagen fibres. When a tendon or ligament is damaged the fibres are organised haphazardly and the idea is for the fibres to run as straight as possible for the best repair and healing.

Ice therapy, ice cupping and cold hosing with correct stable bandaging will help with this repair process and anti inflammatories can help. I used to borrow a long wave theraupeutic ultrasound machine machine which gave fab results with a ten minute a day application.

A few days after injury the vet will want to scan, they don't normally scan right away as there is usually too much inflammation. Then the vet will probably scan in another 6 weeks to see how the injury is healing.

Most heal well but it does depend on the initial treatment (and imho cold therapy at an early stage gives a better result based on my experience of five suspensory branch injuries).

 

[Birker2020]

You do need to get the vet out for a full lameness assessment and in the meantime box rest, appropriate compression bandaging and cold therapy would be my advice. No point in guessing or speculating.

My horse had PRP but may have got fibrosis following this procedure. Vet did say opposite legs in the future may be predisposed to suffering the same issue. Foot balance is crucial and your horse may have to go barefoot.

 

[nutjob]

I've had my fair share of suspensory issues. One horse had DSLD / ESPA which came on very gradually and the first sign of it was behavioural issues. It was difficult to see the lameness without blocking one of the legs as it was bilateral, hind limbs. My current horse spent 18 months rehabbing a front suspensory which was an injury and during the rehab was reinjured presumably from something he did in the field. There was no external sign, no heat, no swelling just a very subtle intermittent lameness so I also have suspensory paranoia. The damage was worse than the amount of lameness suggested.

Good luck with your vet visit.