Stifle ligament injury

[JCHobby]

Hello to all,

I have a young Tb diagnosed (by ultrasound) with a tear over 70% of his middle patellar ligament (holds the patella on the occular groove I believe). 7 months stall/small paddock rest-confinement with minimal exercise (no circles) and there is still a substantial hole. We are also trying stem cell/blood plasma injections to jump start the healing. Any other suggestions to look into to help this ligament heal?:eek:

Clinically he looks great compared to 7 mo's ago. highly enthusiastic attitude and much airs above ground even in his limited space to move. gaits look clean and strong, no dragging of hind feet. Our concern is a tear thru the ligament before it heals. Our other concern, if this condition has existed long term (diagnosed last summer but may have occured while growing up in pasture and just not observed) might it never heal?

any suggestions/ past experiences????

Thanks.:)

[LMH]

Keeping this on page 1 in hopes someone can offer some help!:)

[Qtina]

This may be a long shot - my horse had a ligament tear in his hind right leg that just would not heal.. It had been a year and a half and it still had swelling, heat and pain. I do equine therapy and kept hearing about photonic light therapy aka LED light therapy.

I had tried all kinds of wrapping, rubbing, bute, supplements, etc and nothing really helped.

But, in 3 days of using the light for 30 minutes each session - the swelling finally went down by about 50% and then it completely took all swelling away.

My husband and I also use the light for ourselves with tendon issues and it works wonders.

Just a thought. If you are interested at all, let me know and I can tell you where we got our lights from - they are not all the same.

[dwblover]

I read that shockwave therapy can be particularly useful in ligament injuries.

[JCHobby]

Thanks for the replies,

I have used "cold laser" light therapy on a nasty cut, deep into the gaskin from a Tb kicking and putting one leg thru the wall with sheet metal siding outside, than pulling it back in. What a mess. But the end result (since no arteries severed or joint involvement) was clean (no proud flesh) and minimal scarring. The laser seemed to increase circulation and speed up the healing. How would that compare with the LED light therapy. Also, this tear is not accompanied by heat, swelling or notable pain. Does the LED help circulation and how "deep" into the tissue can you reasonably expect it to have an effect?

My vet is not so sure about shock therapy having any effect on a tear. What is your experience and what type of tears? Seems injury location impacts the treatment effect significantly.

Thanks again for the input!! :)

[Qtina]

I do believe that cold lasers and photon/LED therapy are similar.

The thing you need to look at is - the nanometers in the light. There has been a lot of research done on how the different nanometers effect different problems.

We have 2 different lights - I have one that is set at 660 nm. I used this one on my horse initially and I use it in my therapy business.

My husband researched it more after seeing the results with my horse and using it on his own repetitive stress injury that would not heal. He found the company that actually makes them for NASA and bought the same light that they have used in a lot of the research.

That light has different ranges in nanometers (I forget the exact range - but could find out if you are interested).

My light worked very well - but his is more powerful and has more diodes and I believe does work a little more effectively than mine in a shorter amount of time.

If you would like to know more - my husband knows where to find the literature of the studies and also the website where he bought his light from. He actually called the company and spoke with someone to find out more about how it could help his particular problem. So, you could maybe call and ask about your horse prior to purchasing one - as they are a little pricey. But for us, it was worth it to help the horse as well as ourselves.

I think they do have a way to get some insurances to pay for them now, although we were not able to get ours to pay. And, of course, they would not pay for it if it was for a horse. They are now FDA approved for certain conditions.

If you need any more info - let me know. I can ask my husband what websites it is on.

[Qtina]

I just realized I did not answer all your questions -

Light therapy does help increase circulation- but it does a lot more than that to help get the cells to heal.

Here is a quote from Dr. Henry Whalen - the man who is the the NASA hall of fame for his research on photonic light - he can explain it better than I can.

"We've noted that the red light from light emitting diodes increases the energy inside the cell. As Dr. Whelan explains, "If you think about it, a lot of injuries result in an energy problem because the tissue is damaged, injured, and therefore has difficulties going through its normal processes of energy metabolism. Usually there's a lot of swelling, which strangles the blood vessels. You're getting inadequate oxygen and nutrients, so there's an energy crisis. " The LEDs fix the problem by stimulating the cell's energy engine, the mitochondria.

Once this occurs, various chemical events take place to cause actual physiological improvement through a functioning referred to as a photobiostimulation. New cell tissue is produced; bone tissue is demineralized, skin and blood tissue in the treated area is regenerated. Health begins to be restored."

I do believe there is even more to it than that - but that is a start.

As far as how deep it goes - they say 23cm or about 9 inches. I know with my light - if you put it under your hand or wrist, etc the red light is very bright on the other side. It is so bright, you have to be careful you don't look directly at it. They say it is safe and have used it in studies on eyes, so it won't hurt you - it just kind of blinds you for a second.

I highly recommend these lights for all kinds of soft tissue injuries. I also believe it helped decrease the amount of calcification that was forming on the ligament injury in my horse - which is what I think is meant when he says "bone tissue is demineralized".

If you have any more questions, please ask, I can try to answer them for you.

[Qtina]

Ok, for those of you who have asked, I finally got the website for the light we use as well as a link to the studies.

Here is the link to the homepage:

http://www.warp-heals.com/index.htm

The one we have is called the Warp 10 - I know funny name, but this is the company that makes the actual light used for NASA and used in the studies by Dr. Henry Whalen who is now in the Hall of Fame for all of his research. So, it is a more powerful (but yet still safe) light than some of the other companies. Although, some of them are good too.

To find the studies - click on "Clinical Research" or use this link -

http://www.warp-heals.com/clinical_research.htm

Hope that helps, if you have any more questions, feel free to ask.

Tina

[Dressage Art]

Thank you for posting about LED. It's great that I can buy something that I can easily do MYSELF with my horse

PS: I just read that now it's also prooven to erace human wrinkles!!!