Suspensory help

[farmgirl88]

I need some suggestions

My darling and wonderful OTTB fell outside over the winter. He's not the type to run around outside very much and he is extremely quite but we think that he just simply wasnt aware how slippery snow can be (he lived down south in the warmer climates every winter).

He was dead, dead lame that first day. took me 1/2 hour to get him 40 feet from paddock to the barn. No swelling anywhere. Vet palpated, nothing was broken. Suspected that he just landed really hard and bruised himself up really bad. we did a week 1/2 of stall rest just to be safe. he showed improvement and was drastically better than the day he hurt himself. We got the OK to turn him out for an hour at first and then progress with that as the days went on. He was on all day turnout for the spring. He was much better but has plateued and has not gotten any better since. Hes definately no where near as bad as he was.

Still, no swelling anywhere in the legs. It is his right hind (the side he landed on). Every time he did trot around or even canter on it, his stifle area would sweel (kind of). The muscles would bulge right there as if he was in race training again). He is naturally an extremely muscular horse who, at first glance, looks as though he could be in race training still. Hes just very mucley. The vet came out can did ultrasound and found some scar tissue in his suspensory in that leg. Its not overly huge but its there. she also ultrasounded the other leg and found nothing. not sure if im concvinced it is that since there has been no progress after months of stall rest and there has been a history of some misdiagnosises from this vet since she first started working as a vet about a yr ago. Not saying shes wrong, but im airing on the side of caution and keeping an open mind. Just find it odd that his stifle area would swell like that.

We had him on a test run of the SmartTendon about a month ago. Didnt really see any drastic changes, just wanted to give him a little extra umph to kickstart the healing. Im trying to stay on the cheaper side of treatment. im in college and just saved my warmblood i just bought at the slaughter auction. Id like to try and stay away from the thousands of dollars to treatments (that are new and not completely proven yet). Shes comming back in oct to do a re-check on him. She told me to just turn him out all day for 3 months so he can walk on it, but hes in a small enough paddock that he can't jump around on it. We want to see if some exercise will actually stimulate mor ehealing without having him jump around or act stupid on it.

Hes a good boy and thrive son his all day turnout. hes very, very well behaved. I just feel so darn bad and helpless about this. he is such a nice horse. you could do anything with him and it just really sucks to see him like this. She cam back about a 3 weeks ago to re ultrasound. The ultrasound showed improvement, although not a lot. however, he was more lame when lunging at the trot for her. Im just at a loss. We've been at this since january. Ive been good about cold hosing and such when he does sometimes take a jerk on it, but i just cant fathom paying 3,000 to treat this injury and im not even sure if thats what he actually did to himself.

Any suggestions on treatment for this or any great suppliments that have helped horses in this situation? i just want my horse back. He has always been such a treat to ride and have around. no spook in him whatsoever. it just sucks that a freak accident like that may have screwed me over and i had only had him since april of '08 and he fell in late dec. just a crappy situation

[farmgirl88]

I need some suggestions

My darling and wonderful OTTB fell outside over the winter. He's not the type to run around outside very much and he is extremely quite but we think that he just simply wasnt aware how slippery snow can be (he lived down south in the warmer climates every winter).

He was dead, dead lame that first day. took me 1/2 hour to get him 40 feet from paddock to the barn. No swelling anywhere. Vet palpated, nothing was broken. Suspected that he just landed really hard and bruised himself up really bad. we did a week 1/2 of stall rest just to be safe. he showed improvement and was drastically better than the day he hurt himself. We got the OK to turn him out for an hour at first and then progress with that as the days went on. He was on all day turnout for the spring. He was much better but has plateued and has not gotten any better since. Hes definately no where near as bad as he was.

Still, no swelling anywhere in the legs. It is his right hind (the side he landed on). Every time he did trot around or even canter on it, his stifle area would sweel (kind of). The muscles would bulge right there as if he was in race training again). He is naturally an extremely muscular horse who, at first glance, looks as though he could be in race training still. Hes just very mucley. The vet came out can did ultrasound and found some scar tissue in his suspensory in that leg. Its not overly huge but its there. she also ultrasounded the other leg and found nothing. not sure if im concvinced it is that since there has been no progress after months of stall rest and there has been a history of some misdiagnosises from this vet since she first started working as a vet about a yr ago. Not saying shes wrong, but im airing on the side of caution and keeping an open mind. Just find it odd that his stifle area would swell like that.

We had him on a test run of the SmartTendon about a month ago. Didnt really see any drastic changes, just wanted to give him a little extra umph to kickstart the healing. Im trying to stay on the cheaper side of treatment. im in college and just saved my warmblood i just bought at the slaughter auction. Id like to try and stay away from the thousands of dollars to treatments (that are new and not completely proven yet). Shes comming back in oct to do a re-check on him. She told me to just turn him out all day for 3 months so he can walk on it, but hes in a small enough paddock that he can't jump around on it. We want to see if some exercise will actually stimulate mor ehealing without having him jump around or act stupid on it.

Hes a good boy and thrive son his all day turnout. hes very, very well behaved. I just feel so darn bad and helpless about this. he is such a nice horse. you could do anything with him and it just really sucks to see him like this. She cam back about a 3 weeks ago to re ultrasound. The ultrasound showed improvement, although not a lot. however, he was more lame when lunging at the trot for her. Im just at a loss. We've been at this since january. Ive been good about cold hosing and such when he does sometimes take a jerk on it, but i just cant fathom paying 3,000 to treat this injury and im not even sure if thats what he actually did to himself.

Any suggestions on treatment for this or any great suppliments that have helped horses in this situation? i just want my horse back. He has always been such a treat to ride and have around. no spook in him whatsoever. it just sucks that a freak accident like that may have screwed me over and i had only had him since april of '08 and he fell in late dec. just a crappy situation. Any suggestions on treatment or suppliments to help him along would be greatly appreciated thanks guys:D

[vxf111]

Did you get an ultrasound done when the horse initially fell?

1.5 weeks of stall rest doesn't sound like even CLOSE to enough rest for a soft tissue injury. I am surprise, when you turned him out and he was still lame, that you didn't call the vet back? If I suspected a soft tissue injury, I would be erring on the side of total rest until he was 100% sound, not just "better."

My pony had a suspensory injury and was on stall rest for close to 8 months before he was sound, and then started a very very controlled and slow regimen of return to work/turnout.

If there was a soft tissue injury that never properly healed, I don't think any oral supplement is going to do anything for you now. :( The more recent ultrasound shows you there's still some damage, did the vet suggest stall resting the horse now? I can't believe it's been a year, the horse has been lame, and NO vet has suggested stall rest for a significant period of time?!

Sorry to be a drag, I just don't think you're going to find the answer in a supplement in this case.

[farmgirl88]

he was on stall rest for 8 months with no improvement. obviously some suttle improvement but nothing major, at all. It turned him into a complete psycho. We kept him on it for as long as we could and finally he just needed to go out. It just got ugly. We started with handwalking daily. 10 min a day for 2 weeks. 10 min 2x a day for 2 weeks. then 20 min, 2x a day for 2 weeks. He started off on an hour of turnout after that and has now just started going out all day. its just been a very, very very long 7 mo. with little to no improvement

A soft tissue injury was never ever suspected to be the problem in the beginning. the main concern was something being fractured somehweres. the vet called daily to ask how he was doing and he was making improvement day by day and becomming sounder and sounder. since he was getting better and better every day severe bruising to his hip area was suspected since he fell so hard. the vet said we could start turning him out lightly, daily, because we didnt want him in for too too long so he'd become psycho upon first time going back out. we didnt want to re-create the scene that created it all in the first place.

He currently is out in a slightly larger than stall sized paddock. We made it small enough that he could at least get out and enjoy the day without running or bucking around. as long as he gets to go out for a bit he's quiet, calm, and just as lovely as he always was. after 6 mo. of turnout he was just off the wall. he just was handlable anymore. i was walking him outside the barn doors just so he could have 5 min of grass daily to keep him somewhat sane. Even when he's in he likes to walk around in his stall so its not like hes standing still in there. hes certaintly not nerotic or anything along those lines. hes one of the quietest horses i have ever been around, he just likes to walk around in his stall.

[purplnurpl]

If you thought there may be a bone issue of any kind the only real way to know anything with horses is to just bite the bullet and have a full body bone scan. Or at least a rear end bone scan for your case.

If I were you I would find a lameness specialist. Do the proper blocks. And have a bone scan done if needed.

Did your vet ever block his hind suspensory? If she blocks it and he's sound then you have your answer, if he's not sound then obviously you need to look elsewhere.

These are horses. You can't get away from spending thousands.

From what I have heard, hind suspensories are a PITA to rehab. You're looking at AT LEAST 18 months if you had a true tear.

[vxf111]

You need better diagnostics to know what the problem is, so you know how to treat it. I missed that you rested it for 8 months in your original post (still kind og confused about the chronology and what diagnostics happened) but if it's not better after that length of time-- I am thinking it's a soft tissue or bone injury, and you're not going to heal either of those with a supplement.

It sucks that you got a bad diagnosis to start (though I can't say I exactly blame the vet-- without an ultrasound/x-rays/bone scan he was just giving you an educated guess. That's why diagnostics are so helpful) but the only way forward is to get a good handle on what you have NOW. I would go ahead and invest in the diagnostics if you want to fix this horse. It's expensive but then you know what you have. Trust me, I've tried the "guess and try this. Okay now try that" approach and in the long run it's MORE expensive and gets you know where. This horse needs to be blocked and then fully evaluated on the area that blocks out. No other way around it :(

I hear you on how bad stall rest sucks. I hear you, honestly I do. Every day I get to go hand graze a 17 hand high 17 hand WIDE giant angry warmblood who is sick and tired of starting at 4 walls 23.5 hours/day. He strained his DDFT. He's been in stall rest since January. Trust me, I hear you-- it sucks. But if you want to heal a soft tissue injury, I'm afraid it's what you have to do!

It really sounds like a soft tissue injury to me and I am not surprised that 8 months of rest that wasn't 100% confinement/stall rest wasn't enough to heal it. Soft tissue injuries SUCK. :(

[farmgirl88]

we did block him all up and down that lower leg of the injured leg. Vet thought he was 100% better on the suspensory block but i personally saw NOTHING! he might have seemed a little better but to be honest i didnt see much of a change. i really dont think its bone related. he'd be in a lot more pain than that. I was never saying a suppliment was going to fix him because its certaintly not going to. im asking about suppliments that are SUPPORTIVE to tendon healing or if anyone who has used something to help with lameness problems.

I believe that i am going for a second opinion when the next visit is scheduled. theres 2 other vets who have a lot more experience who work for our office and i think im going to ask one of them to come out. i feel like im being run around in circles and i would honestly like to know what they think about it.

for now hes going to continue to go on all day turnout in his little stall/paddock we made for him. i cant have him turn into a dangerous animal right now. he really, honestly did get dangerous and we just cant have that here. i feel bad because hes fine when he gets to go out, but theres really only so much you can do.

Vet was requesting some sort of stem cell therapy or shock wave. im not too keen about the stem cells. i dont feel like spending over 2K on something that isnt truly proven yet and is a shot in the dark. if im going to end up draining my bank account i guess we're looking at something as aggressive as we can get. I was pretty much told my horse may never get better by this vet. theres the possibility that he wont get 100% better. i really dont know what im going to do if he doesnt get better. i guess i might think about donation to a TB retirement home as he is a graded stakes winner of over 111,000. ugh but i dont even want to think about it.

as a college student graduating in a year, i really cant afford to keep a horse around that isnt rideable. we already have 8 other retirees. gosh why in the world did this have to happen to my horse. :no:

[vxf111]

I guess maybe we're just having some communications issues regarding me understanding what you are/aren't and have/haven't done.

I am not aware of any oral supplements "supportive" to tendon healing that I think would work/are worth spending money on. For people or horses ;) Rest is what heals soft tissues. Cold therapy, wrapping, Surpass-- things like that. Hindsight is 20/20 but you have to do what you can with what you have now.

If you don't have a good diagnosis yet, and it's been over 8 months and the horse is still lame-- then yes, get a different vet out and get the diagnosis nailed down and THEN decide how far you want to go with different treatment options. Shockwave/Tildren etc. are not cheap and I cannot believe a vet is suggesting them without feeling confident about the diagnosis. Or maybe I am misunderstanding you?! Does the current vet feel it is a suspensory strain/tear that was not diagnosed previously?

There is also the possibility of sending him somewhere else to rehab, if you can't deal with him on rehab. No shame in that. I considered doing it for my guy. Not every situation is well set up for a rehabbing horse, if sending him off means a better prognosis and the ability to really rest him, I would give that a try before throwing in the towel.

I have my stall rest horse on Calm and Cool. It helps take the edge off. Is it a tranq? No, but it does help a bit. I've used it on a few stall rest horses with good results and others at my barn use it.

I agree with the plan-- get a different vet, spend the money on a better diagnosis, then evaluate the options. Good luck.

I also hear you on the cost. I am the proud owner of not only the stalled DDFT horse but also a retired OTTB who was NEVER really 100% sound from the moment I got him (at least not for any stretch of consistent time) and my retired first pony. And I board. Not cheap! But when I get a horse, I owe it to them to ensure I do the best for them and keeping those guys and stall resting my show horse is what I have to do because it's best for them. What I wouldn't wish for CHEAP, no vet bills horses but it wasn't in the cards for me. I will probably support that OTTB for a long, long time but I feel like it's the responsible thing to do. You have to do what you think is right.

[vxf111]

I am completely and totally confused about the timeline, BTW. He got hurt this past winter. He was stall rested for a week and a half. Then he was rested for 8 months?! Only he was also up to full day turnout by this spring? But December was 8 months ago. I am not understanding how there was time for the stall rest and the gradual turnout between the injury and now?! When was he seen by the vet? When were the diagnostics done? Maybe posting a timeline would help.

[asterix]

You've gotten good advice here.

I do not think there is a way to make this horse better without spending any significant cash, except this:
POSSIBLY you could turn him out -- completely out -- for 6 or 9 months and see what you have. This COULD work.
or not.

Without a proper diagnosis any treatment you do is just throwing money away.
I have a horse with bilateral hind suspensory tears. We did a surgery called a fasciotomy that made a huge difference and he is sound and back to full work a year later.
But we had a very clear diagnosis (imaging and blocking) and we did the surgery RIGHT AWAY.
Your options diminish with time as scar tissue sets in.

I would save up for a diagnostic workup with an experienced lameness vet who can give you a definitive diagnosis and a reasonable prognosis -- how sound is this horse likely to get with what options? Other than that you are just shooting in the dark.

[Einstein]

Eight months of rest and the horse is still lame?:eek:
I would be very concerned and have diagnostic work done ASAP.
Many clinics do accept payment plans, please have your horse checked out.

[CBoylen]

Okay, so, from this and your last post (http://www.chronicleforums.com/Forum/showthread.php?t=199302) about this horse. Do I have this right?

The horse fell at the end of January.
It was on stall rest for two weeks.
He then went out regularly for two months. Still lame in April.
You posted about doing blocks. Said you didn't want them and opted for two more weeks stall rest.
That would take you to the end of April.
Sometime after that he apparently got blocked out at the suspensory and ultrasounded with a lesion in the suspensory.
So, even if you have left him in his stall starting at your last post in April, until now, he'd still have just over three months of stall rest. And your posts don't seem to indicate that he remained on stall rest all that time.
Three weeks ago he was re-ultrasounded with little improvement and lamer on the circle.

My advice is to get some reserpine and put the horse back in his stall. He's not getting better with the program you've chosen. If you have the money, shockwave it. If you feel more comfortable with another vet, since you questioned this vet's credentials in this post and the last post, then have another vet out to re-block him and re-ultrasound him. If you're stuck on the stifle, xray and ultrasound it and rule it out totally. But if you do all that and they're still telling you it's the suspensory, then you have to take the time and do the stall rest for the whole period until the ultrasound says otherwise.

[AmmyByNature]

You have gotten some VERY good advice on this thread.

I also am very confused by the time line here. Can you detail what exactly went on, and where the 8 months of stall rest came in?

Did you get this horse insured with any major medical coverage? If so, you should be able to get shockwave treatments covered. Mine were :)

My horse had a not-too-bad strain to his front suspensory a couple of years ago. NOTHING as serious as you've been describing. He was on 3.5 months of stall rest and got shockwave therapy throughout. He wasn't real happy about the stall rest, but that's why god gave us drugs... If stall rest is what is going to make this horse better, than stall rest is what he needs. YOU are the one who needs to make that happen. He doesn't know that he's hurting himself.

And if you're unhappy with the vet, why are you going to wait so long to get a second opinion? Get a new vet out there NOW if you don't trust your original vets diagnosis.

And why can't you just retire him on your property? I thought that was the point of having your own farm. Sending a lame OTTB off into the world is a pretty dangerous proposition. I'd hate to see this horse end up somewhere unfortunate.

At this point I think that you need to either turn him out for a year, or bite the bullet and actually pay for the diagnostics and treatments that will make him better. You can go on forever with this stall rest/no stall rest, drugs/no drugs, bone issue/tendon issue runaround. All this (pardon the expression) dicking around isn't getting you anywhere!

Hopefully things will go better with your new auction purchase. Maybe you can flip that one quickly and make enough money to get your other OTTB fixed up :)

[Beethoven]

I am sorry about your situation. My horse got diagnoised almost 3 weeks ago with a high suspensory strain, ultasound showed a little bit of inflamation, but no tear. I treated right away with shockwave and he is getting shockwaved again tommorow. Other than that my vet wants him to live his normal life which is stalled during day and out at night. He also has no obvious swelling in his leg and never did. We diagnosed by blocks as an FYI.

I agree get a better vet and figure out whats wrong with him and treat it from there!

[farmgirl88]

alright sorry guys. i knew this was going to get confusing.

He got injured the end of december. i must've typed it wrong in the other thread. I came out to get him and bring him in after comming home from school and work and he couldnt move; he had fallen so hard. Vet came out that evening. he is an extremely good vet and is the owner of the practice. He palpated him, nothing was broken that he could feel. they cannot x-ray them that big as it wont come out lookinf right. he felt around his pelvis, etc and all was fine. There was absolutely NO swelling in the legs, at all. There was no heat. he was just very body sore on his right side where he had fallen. He asked us to keep him on stall rest for almost 2 weeks. he called before we turned him out and we told him how he was doing. still a bit sore. he was visibly, horribly lame. just stiff and sore. He was on a bute/banamine regimin and i forget what else. there could've possibly been one other thing in there.

He told us to gradually put him back on turnout. so we did. its winter i dont ride or work horses in the winter here. He's not the type of horse to run around. we walk him to his paddock and he goes out and eats his pile of hay. i come home and he gets walked back in. He was not visibly lame to me throughout a few weeks. He was a little stiff through his hind leg, but no head bobbing, extremely noticable signs that he was hurt badly. just signs that he had fallen and was obviously sore. i went to put him on the lunge line and he was noticeably lame a few weeks later. so i, myself, put him back on stall rest. vet came out to look at him and she told us to stall rest him for a month and she'd come back out and check on him and block & ultrasound him. so then we get to the first ultrasound and the block.Block didnt do anything in the upper hind leg. lower leg it looked a tad better but he was still lame. the vet thought he had made leaps of improvement with the suspensory block. i thought she was crazy. ultrasound revealed some scar tissue, but some obvious signs of healing and progress. ok so then hes stall rested for however many more months (people i have 10 horses here and college and work all going on at the same time, i can't keep track of the exact timelines of everything, so im going to give ballpark figures of how everything has gone).

So then hes on stall rest until June. we re-ultrasounded him at the beginning of june with some signs of more progress and healing, a little less scar tissue. on the lunge line he looked much better. we opted to keep him on stall rest until mid july and the reultrasound him and see where we were at. He had an ultrasound again last week. the amount of scar tissue was measured and compared to the last one, and again, it has gotten smaller and the inflammation had gone down that was apparently in there (not noticable to the naked eye). BUT he was more lame on the lunge line.

In between the 2nd ultrasound and the most recent we did light handwalking so he could at least get out because he was becomming dangerous in his stall. The vet did say that horses with injuries like this have off days and better days so it could've just been an off day she said when he was more sore than other days. but there was improvement on the ultrasound. We cut out the handwalking and she said to just put him outside (gradually) back to his normal routine in a small, slightly larger than stall-sized paddock. She said as long as he doesnt jump around like an idiot, he should improve and maybe the small turnout and little bit of walking he'll do will actually help him out and help the tissue heal better.

She said to make another appopintment in the beginning of oct. I think this time im going to request that one of the other vets come out so i can get a second opinion. the hard part is that she's been on his case since the 2nd visit over this injury.

I can tell you that when walking this horse he track up normal, no different than the left hind. There is no heat/swelling in the lower leg. only swelling that occured was in the stifle area. vet said she cant block the stifle area because its too large. He does walk a little stiff and straight through his hock when going to push off that leg at the walk but otherwise when watching how he tracts on that leg compared to the other, there is no difference. i guess we are goingt o wait to the oct app't and then possibly do shockwave depending upon where we are at. maybe we'll make some leaps and bounds now that he has gotten to put some exercise on it. thanks for the advice everyone. its very much appreciated.

The one odd thing as i pointed out- was that when ever he was lunged or did throw a buck, his stifle area would look as if he was back in race training. his muscles would bulge our and when standing behind him, it was obvious that there was a difference between both sides. Im thinking that when he fell and crashed on his side he would've hit harder on his stifle area and side compared to his lower leg. By the look of him when i found him in his paddock it looked as if he just lost his footing and fell flat on his side.

[vxf111]

That does help a lot and makes things a lot clearer.

One, I kind of question some of the things the vet is saying or else something is lost in translation. You most certainly CAN block out the stifle. I've had it done on my horses. I don't know why a vet would say otherwise.

Two, you may ALSO have a stifle issue going on but the repeated ultrasounds are showing you that there is a problem in the suspensory. And it appeared to be getting better with stall rest. But it wasn't healed all the way and the vet had you turn him out? That was odd advice. If the resting was improving, why oh why would you take a chance on him reinjuring/regressing my turning him out before he was fully healed. Not blaming you but my vet would have been a LOT more conservative. Also I am surprised no one suggested cold therapy, wrapping, Surpass when this injury first happened. The injury was never cold hosed/ice booted?

I think you need to get a different vet out. I would actually get someone from a different practice. I suspect the horse is going to need a LOT more stall rest, actual stall rest without turnout (it only takes 30 seconds of trotting with concussion to reinjure the tissue-- unless you're standing there 24-7 you don't KNOW that he never gets to trotting for a moment on turnout). And that you've set the process back by not doing cold therapy, real long term rest in the first place.

Crossing my fingers for a good outcome for you. Let us know what the new vet says!

[farmgirl88]

If this horse is going anywhere into the world its to a TB retirement place. he only had about 3 months of light undersaddle work since he came off the track and that was just light flat work. He wasn't insured. he wasn't doing anything like showing or anything, just hanging out in the backyard. Dont worry; hes not going to get dumped off somewhere. i would NEVER do that to a horse and i keep close contact with everyone who owns a past horse or pony of mine.

He really cant be retired here as i am getting ready to go out into the world on my own, its my parent's farm, not mine, and the parents are already complaining about the amount of retirees that are living here. my parents have been very tolerable over the years on keeping all my old horses after their show days are over. They have helped me throughout the years beyond belief and also helped shell out some cash to save my new guy at the auction as well as come pick him up at 1am.

the new guy is already up for sale as i just need to make some money to pay for the OTTB's vet bills. its just so unfortunate that something had to happen to such a great horse. he was such a fresh breathe of air to ride after my last looney tune i had. i will keep you all posted on what is perfromed in oct and how he is doing. thanks again so much for the advice

You have gotten some VERY good advice on this thread.

I also am very confused by the time line here. Can you detail what exactly went on, and where the 8 months of stall rest came in?

Did you get this horse insured with any major medical coverage? If so, you should be able to get shockwave treatments covered. Mine were :)

My horse had a not-too-bad strain to his front suspensory a couple of years ago. NOTHING as serious as you've been describing. He was on 3.5 months of stall rest and got shockwave therapy throughout. He wasn't real happy about the stall rest, but that's why god gave us drugs... If stall rest is what is going to make this horse better, than stall rest is what he needs. YOU are the one who needs to make that happen. He doesn't know that he's hurting himself.

And if you're unhappy with the vet, why are you going to wait so long to get a second opinion? Get a new vet out there NOW if you don't trust your original vets diagnosis.

And why can't you just retire him on your property? I thought that was the point of having your own farm. Sending a lame OTTB off into the world is a pretty dangerous proposition. I'd hate to see this horse end up somewhere unfortunate.

At this point I think that you need to either turn him out for a year, or bite the bullet and actually pay for the diagnostics and treatments that will make him better. You can go on forever with this stall rest/no stall rest, drugs/no drugs, bone issue/tendon issue runaround. All this (pardon the expression) dicking around isn't getting you anywhere!

Hopefully things will go better with your new auction purchase. Maybe you can flip that one quickly and make enough money to get your other OTTB fixed up :)

[farmgirl88]

he was cold hosed 2 x daily (Am & PM)( before id go to class and when id return the evening. he has been cold hosed ALOT, right up until about a month ago when she told me it was useless to even bother with anymore.


That does help a lot and makes things a lot clearer.

One, I kind of question some of the things the vet is saying or else something is lost in translation. You most certainly CAN block out the stifle. I've had it done on my horses. I don't know why a vet would say otherwise.

Two, you may ALSO have a stifle issue going on but the repeated ultrasounds are showing you that there is a problem in the suspensory. And it appeared to be getting better with stall rest. But it wasn't healed all the way and the vet had you turn him out? That was odd advice. If the resting was improving, why oh why would you take a chance on him reinjuring/regressing my turning him out before he was fully healed. Not blaming you but my vet would have been a LOT more conservative. Also I am surprised no one suggested cold therapy, wrapping, Surpass when this injury first happened. The injury was never cold hosed/ice booted?

I think you need to get a different vet out. I would actually get someone from a different practice. I suspect the horse is going to need a LOT more stall rest, actual stall rest without turnout (it only takes 30 seconds of trotting with concussion to reinjure the tissue-- unless you're standing there 24-7 you don't KNOW that he never gets to trotting for a moment on turnout). And that you've set the process back by not doing cold therapy, real long term rest in the first place.

Crossing my fingers for a good outcome for you. Let us know what the new vet says!

[vxf111]

Cold hosing now is progrably useless, agreed. Glad it was done in the first place.

I think you'll have a better idea of what to do when you get a second opinion. Look on the bright side, although stall rest SUCKS-- it's not expensive. ;) Right? Just more mucking/bedding/hay. But it doesn't cost much extra. There has to be an upside :):)

[Equilibrate]

Have you considered getting a chiropractor out to make sure his pelvis is correctly aligned? After a fall like that he could easily be out somewhere in his hips. Worth a shot perhaps? Ask you vet for a recommendation.

As for nutritional support there are things you can do. First off you need to make sure the base diet is balanced. Our hays tend to be low in copper and copper is needed for collagen formation. Antioxidants can also be helpful. I would be happy to help you put a protocol together for him. If you are interested drop me an email.

Best of luck,

Clair

Independent Equine Nutritionist
www.equilibrateequine.com
info@equilibrateeuqine.com

[SonnysMom]

My horse has a hind suspensory tear. My vet has Sonny on Recovery EQ. Like you the hind suspensory is taking forever to heal. I don't know if the Recovery EQ is helping or not but it really isn't that expensive compared to what else I have spent to treat him.

[vxf111]

Sonny is not improving?! :( I am so sorry to hear that. Friday is the Rick's Sale and I feel like it was last year at the Rick's sale that you were telling me about Sonny's injury :(:( HUGS!!!

[Buffyblue]

Did your vet recommend anything like shockwave therapy? Something to speed the healing? Hope you find a remedy for your boy!

[AmmyByNature]

Were you not satisfied with the responses in your other identical thread? Why did you re-post the same OP in the same forum?