Treatment for Collateral Damage

R

Rebecca1973

New User
Joined
3 July 2018
Messages
4
Visit site
Hi Everyone, I was wondering if there was anyone that could give me some advice for a collateral injury.

Just a bit of background…My mare was diagnosed with grade 4 ulcers in December last year, we were treating her with all the usual treatments, omeprazole, GG, supplements, sulcralfate etc. We kept her in work the whole time we were treating her, but tried to keep her calm and reduced the work.

We then went to a clinic where the trainer pulled me to one side and said that he though she didn’t look right behind. (The day before she had been in the school for a play, had rolled and then leapt up, leaped 5ft in the air and took off galloping around the school. I can only assume this is when she had injured herself) We took her to the vets and she had damaged both her suspensory ligaments, only slightly as the vet said she was only 2/10. She went in to rehap, box rest with 20 mins walk a day, increasing 5 minutes a week for 6 weeks along with cartrophen injections and shockwave therapy. We went back to the vets after 6 weeks, she was sound and her ulcers had reduced to a grade 1.
I was able to turn her out and start riding her, 20 minutes again with 1 lap of trot increasing to 2 then 3 each week.

When we got her home, we sedated her and put her in the field, she was perfectly behaved and just munched on grass until some horse were put out in a few fields away and were galloping around, she got very upset and started to fly up and down the fence, I ran straight in to take her out but the next day she was lame on the right fore. Vet told me to carry on with the rehab for the hind suspensory, so we did for a couple of weeks, but she was still lame on the front leg. We had the lameness workup and she has slightly damaged her collateral ligament. Instead of treating it with either prp, and/ or cartrophen & shockwave I decided to send her to a water treadmill, she did really well and has come home looking amazing but is still 1/10 lame.

The reason for my post is that I don’t know what to do next, do I bite the bullet and get the prp, shockwave and cartrophen treatment, do either prp or shock wave & cartrophen, or I am tempted to send her to a vibrating plate rehab. Does anyone have any experience as I don’t know what to do for the best!!!

Thank you for reading my post and I look forward to reading your replies!!
 
The most effective treatment for collateral ligament damage in a front foot is to do a barefoot rehab. This also applies to horses which are already barefoot with weak feet.
 
Hi, thanks for your advice. She is actually barefoot and she has quite good feet. I did have shoes put on her after the vet recommended them to me as support for her suspensory's and it was around this time that it all happened, so I sometime think, could it have been the shoes that caused it. (I don't think she has had shoes on for quite sometime, at least 2 years) She also has started to brush her fetlocks together in walk, which she never used to do.
 
Rebecca1973 said:
Hi, no front
Click to expand...

Is she dishing Infront in order to rub front fetlocks ? The fact her movement has changed may mean she is loading her front feet differently and hence may have caused the injury. Is it possible that she is still uncomfortable behind and therefore overloading her forehand ? Have you had her back x-rayed ? I would suspect something is going on somewhere due to the multiple problems and both hind suspensories often go hand in hang with back problems. It may be if you can fix the back end the front end will go sound again, just something to consider
 
From your description it would be really interesting to take a look at some slow motion video from the front to see how she is landing that hoof.
 
No shoes, fetlocks don't rub.

Shoes, fetlocks rub.

It sounds clear that, no matter what they looked like, her bare feet were balanced and her shod ones aren't.

That could easily have caused collateral ligament strain.

Like Ester, I'd find front on video interesting.
 
ester said:
Oh I thought it was currently not shod and fetlocks rubbing?
Click to expand...

I read it the other way, of course, but more the OP can confirm that even if she is not shod now, the brushing started after being shod? Something has unbalanced the feet/action, that's for sure.

Though it was interesting that my horse stopped dishing with a foreleg once his kissing spines were released. So there could be more going on than the feet.
 
I would suspect a neck problem. Friends horse had wobblers and started rubbing its hind fetlocks together as it was unclear with its foot placement (in a very basic nutshell way of explanation). If the horse has been seen careering around the field as the OP describes a fall may have taken place and this may have caused injury to the neck.

If there is impingement in the cervical vertebrae this can cause erratic foot placement of front as well as hind limbs although friends horse displayed this is its hind fetlock rubbing which is the more common outcome in this situation.

My horse has neck arthritis and occasionally rubs her fetlocks whilst walking, more often than not when you pick out her feet and put them down she will tread one on another. The lack of awareness of foot placement is missing from time to time.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I just wanted to apologise to everyone as I have been trying to reply to everyone but my account kept throwing me out. Thanks for everyone's advice... Just to update you all... the other day I went into the school and it had just been rolled so what totally flat and I noticed that she didn't rub her fetlocks together, so I am guessing it must be because she is finding it difficult walking on uneven ground due to her collateral injury. I went ahead with the PRP so she is currently in rehab, walking out 20 mins a day. Will let you all know the outcome. I have had her back checked and she has regular physio so pretty sure its not a neck or back issue. She doesn't have shoes on now, as soon as I found out she had damaged her collateral I took them off as she hadn't been used to wearing them and they were normal steel ones. I am going to try her with some alli plates soon though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top