Question about experiences with a medial collateral ligament tear

[luv my paint]

My 11 year old mare who is my 3-3'3" equitation/jumper was just diagnosed with a moderate to severe medial collateral ligament tear via ultrasound ( it is right above her coronet band on her left front). She did it when she got panicky in turn out. She does not like turn out and I could kick myself for listening to everyone who told me that it was good for her. I should have just gone with my instinct and not put her in the turn out- too late now.
The vet school , nor my vet would give me a definative prognosis on whether or not she will return full work ( meaning showing at the 3ft -3'3" level.)
I realize that she is likely to be off for up to a year and it will be a long rehab. I just want to know if anyone else has had this injury and what their experiences are? Also has anyone used Stem Cell on this injury? We are looking into it for her.
This horse is my baby- I have had her since she was 5 so I really want her to come back, and will do everything in my power to ensure it happens. but if she does not I will still have her for life.

[Lieslot]

So sorry to hear about your horse, don't beat yourself up over it. Horses do silly things.

My one horse did the same thing in '04/05. We were told 50% change of ever becoming pasture sound, as the tear was substantial and he had a small tear in the radius ulna ligament of the same leg.
Long story short, recommended 3 months boxrest, then small paddock and re-evaluate.
We were going through a move at that point and I was not charge of him. The place I boarded did not boxrest him, but just put him in a paddock immediately. He became sound after 3 months and was back under the saddle at 6 months and never had a problem with the leg since.

I know there are various thoughts on rehabbing ligaments, but in the past when one (human) would tear his ankle ligaments, one would end up in a cast, nowadays doctors will give you a support tape and off you go, start physio. Not saying this is the right way for a horse. But my guy was out there from day one bucking, rearing, bouncing on this injury (not because that's what I wanted, purely because I didn't know that's how he got handled) and it seems to have speeded up the healing process and made him seemingly as strong as before. He's not a jumper however, just a low-level dressage horse.

Best of luck with your baby, don't despair, I've read more succesfull rehabs on this board of injuries this kind.

[SS189]

Look into PRP (platelet rich Plasma) rather than the stem cell. Just had my mare done and it is doing wonders so far! Great results from the studies that I have read.

[Peggy]

In the middle of rehabbing one. The long version is blogged in the link below. The short version is that we did six weeks of alternating shock wave and IRAP (three treatments of each). That was back in Sept-Oct. We are now up to trotting 10 minutes (soon to be 15), but we had two set-backs (one impaction colic and one weather) and had to re-start. Star's is in the middle of the ligament and he has some damage on all four (both sides of both feet) that link the short pastern to the coffin bone. Damage was described as a strain. It was diagnosed by MRI (too low to see on ultrasound). I have been told that the prognosis for full return to his previous level of jumping (3' at shows up to 3'3"-3'6") is excellent.

Two other horses at the barn had them. One was high like the OP's horse and was diagnosed via ultrasound. She just did a long layup and he was OK eventually. The other one I don't know much about--don't know if it was a presumed diagnosis or, like the other horse, high enough to diagnose via ultrasound.

Good luck!

[Gunnar]

Bodie had a lateral collateral tear, visible on Ultrasound. He recieved shockwave treatments (3 or 4 ?) and stall rest. Over time he was allowed in a larger area. 10 months later he was sound. Back to jumping XC. The one set back he had was several months into it he got away and ran like a banchee! He went from sound to unsound that day! :sadsmile: On the next trip to the clinic he was worse instead of better. More shock wave and more time was needed!

Good luck and please give it time! I was urged to check him early on but i waited until I felt he was sound before even taking him back to the clinic! I waited 6 months between vet visits to be sure. Liagments are slow to heal and this type of injury is long in the recovery time! :sadsmile:

[leakyb]

My daughter's mare had a collateral ligament tear on her left foreleg....got her blanket buttstrap stuck on a fence bucket and galloped across 20 acres with a bucket beating her back legs! She was scratching her butt because her tail was itchy in winter. Don't you love horses?

Anyway, we did shock wave therapy and had excellent results....it healed with no adhesions and you can't even tell that she had any injury there at all. She WAS stall bound and hand walked for 8 months; I think we were able to hack at the walk the last month of that. She went from being crazy in the snow handwalking, to gulping down grass at the end of a longeline while I read a paperback book at the end of her stall rest time! (We went through a LOT of Ace paste.)

Good luck with your girl...

[RiverBendPol]

I have a friend who has a CCI** horse who did the same last March. He has rested since then, did shock wave and is now allowed to trot. He will start cantering at the end of this month. No turn out yet-he was cleared for small paddock turn out but the weather turned and the footing went frozen and lumpy so he hasn't been turned out yet. That will happen in a couple of weeks.
Good luck.

[leakyb]

I have a friend who has a CCI** horse who did the same last March. He has rested since then, did shock wave and is now allowed to trot. He will start cantering at the end of this month. No turn out yet-he was cleared for small paddock turn out but the weather turned and the footing went frozen and lumpy so he hasn't been turned out yet. That will happen in a couple of weeks.
Good luck.

We partitioned tiny areas of pasture with electric fence tape for turn out. Luckily turn out was allowed the end of one summer, so our horse was happy to roll and eat grass rather than explode. She would graze under supervision and after about 1-2 hrs ask to be let back inside because it was kind of buggy.

[luv my paint]

Thanks for everyones suggestions. We did an MRI today with bad results. She has the worst medial collateral tear the vet has ever seen. We are doing Stem Cell therapy and Tildren in 2 weeks.They are only giving her a 30% chance of being sound enough to jump again. Needless to say I am devastated. All this from one mis step in turn out.

[Peggy]

Sorry to hear this and hoping that you are in the 30%.

[Fharoah]

I am going through this kind of injury and it has been terrible. After the MRI (May 07) I was not given any options other than rest. Now we will be looking at other options. I wish we had done stem cell.

Best Wishes!

[Bluehorsesjp]

Thanks for everyones suggestions. We did an MRI today with bad results. She has the worst medial collateral tear the vet has ever seen. We are doing Stem Cell therapy and Tildren in 2 weeks.They are only giving her a 30% chance of being sound enough to jump again. Needless to say I am devastated. All this from one mis step in turn out.

My horse did his medial collateral ligament in turn out in September of '07. He had a complete rupture with possible bone involvement.
He was not insured so I did not do stem cell or shock wave although those were suggested.
We did 7 months of stall rest, before our first recheck. He was sound at the first recheck. He had been a 2/5 on the pavement after 6 weeks of stall rest.
I started walking under saddle in June. And trotting in July. I added cantering in late november. Yes super long rehab, I am going super slow. I am thinking about adding jumping in the spring. He has been sound since the first recheck, and both my regular vet (who has not seen the MRI) and my lameness specialist are confident that he can jump again. So don't despair.
The stem cell will help speed healing, but I would advise you to go super super slow in your rehab. I thought tildren was more for bony injuries, but am starting to hear about it in soft tissue as well.
See if you can PM rubsnotpats, her horse is back jumping in the regulars. Also check out the collateral ligamnet thread.
http://www.chronicleforums.com/Forum/showthread.php?t=116193&highlight=collateral+ligament
Don't get discouraged. My horse wasn't supposed to be doing as well as he is either. The vets aren't always right.
Another thing that helped me alot was the book Back to work by Lucinda Dryer.

[Fharoah]

Trildren for soft tissue injuries? I would love to know about this as my boy may benefit. My lameness vet never mentioned trilden but I would be curious as we are heading back to specialist next week.

[luv my paint]

Thanks for the words of hope. I will be taking rehab very slow. This is my "forever" horse so I don't care how long it takes. I just want to give her a chance.

She has also bruised her navicular bone so the Tildren is to help relieve that pain and get her more comfortable so she is not straining that ligament.

[Peggy]

There is an article about Tildren in the current COTH magazine (one that went online yesterday). Can't remember what, if anything, they said about soft tissue.