Visible (and Permanent) Evidence of Ligament Damage?

[Hevonen]

A little background:

On Jan. 25 I noticed that my TB had a swelling on the outside of his LF right below his knee, towards the back (on the side of the flexor tendon). Easily visible from standing five feet in front of the horse, looked a lot like a splint. Long story short, got the vet out and ultrasounded it and found out it was a minor check ligament strain. Horse was never lame (and doesn't understand why he's been on stall rest/handwalking! :D ). Vet said to give it a month and we'd see what's what.

It's now been a bit over a month with daily handwalking and wrapping, along with an application of Alco-gel to the swollen area. The swelling is way down, the area is hard, no sensitivity to palpation and no lameness. However, the bump is still there, though it's more of a very minor bulge on the outside of his leg near the flexor tendon.

My question is - will this thickening of the ligament go away when the ligament is fully healed, or will it always persist? The vet is coming out to look at some other horses in our barn (apparently there is some sort of a random unfortunate lameness epidemic right now...) and I wasn't sure if I should have her look at my boy. If the thickening will go away when the ligament is healed, then obviously it isn't healed yet and there's no point in paying for an exam when I can visibly see that something is still wrong.

However, if there will always be permanent thickening, then obviously it will be worth it to consult with the vet.

Just wondering what everyone else's experience is! Thanks for your input! :D

[JB]

It depends :D

Not all minor damages will be blemish-free, and not all major ones will be blemished. It so much depends on where the damage was, how minor/major, and just how it healed. Scar tissue, even on the most well-healed ligament, can be a bit lumpy.

[egontoast]

You will likely need to ultrasound again in order to find out. Ask your vet what the next step should be.

[Hevonen]

@JB - I suspected that it wouldn't be a clear yes or no answer. :D Thanks for your input!

@egontoast - She actually wouldn't have had time to do an ultrasound today even if I had wanted one - I've got one scheduled for a few weeks from now. :) I was more curious as to whether it was worth it to even have someone look at it when the evidence of damage was still there, or if I should wait to do the check up ultrasound when there is no bump at all anymore.

But it would seem that sometimes everything tightens back up and looks normal, and sometimes there permanently remains a hard bump near the site of the injury.

So I suppose I can't judge the amount of healing by the obvious physical signs! Or at least, those signs don't always mean what I think they might mean. ... I hope I'm not rambling. XD

[JB]

You're right, you can't judge the amount of healing from the outside.

When Rio ruptured his peronius tertius tendon, he'd been sound to the visible eye for weeks before he went back for his checkup. He jogged sound, the vets were quite pleased, and one rookie vet said "put him back to work!"

The head vet eyeballed him and said "without even ultrasounding?" Sheepishly, the first vet said "let's go" and we did the u/s.

It showed nicely *healing* tissue ;) It was about 75% healed - plenty enough for him to jog sound, but they wanted another month of full-time turnout before going into forced work.

both injury sites on that leg - the ruptured PT and the previously severed extensor tendon, have lumps at the site of the separation.

[Gry2Yng]

Edgar did a check lig in June 2005. It was healed and we were back to full work by Jan 2006 (prelim/interm eventing). The blemish remained until at least May or June 2006, IIRC. And by blemish, I really mean the thickening of the ligament. There was never anything visible to the eye and he only occasionally took a bad step, but he was not forward. Best of luck. If you are going to injure soft tissue, a check ligament is the way to go.

[egontoast]

Yes you could be left with a blemish but no way to know if it is fully healed or not just by looking.