So my coming 6 yr knucklehead is gelding is not a great candidate for stall rest. He is super attached to his boyfriends and will as likely give himself ulcers, lose weight, get depressed, and cause the farm owner a monstrous headache in the process. Has anyone kept their CL injured equine on live out as they recovered?
It’s such a bummer, isn’t it? I’m sorry you are dealing with it.
I think it depends on what exactly your CL injury entails-- strain or tear? Also just how much of a knucklehead is he when turned out. If he’s going to be running around and wrestling with his friends, that’s going to be different than a placid herd who just mosey around the pasture grazing.
Something that has worked really well for me in the past (not with CL specifically but with all sorts of other injuries) is making a medical paddock within the pasture. Corral panels are great for this, or even step in posts with electric tape. It can be as small as stall-size, or larger if the horse will tolerate it.
3 Likes
Good idea
My donkey is on month 7 of a pastern ligament tear. She was loosing her donkey mind confined to a stall with a 30’ run so after 45 days I started turning her out in the big dry lot for a couple hours each day. My vet okayed it as long as she wasnt running around.
She now gets 6+ hours a day in dry lot turnout in addition to going back into light work.
I don’t see how you all manage confining big horses and I tip my hat to you.
1 Like
Mine did a number on his CL one year - he was never lame and I only noticed it due to the swelling that was big enough to show through his Winter-furry leg. Ultrasound showed enough swelling it was curling around the suspensory. He was, and remained on, full time turnout, and he was fine.
But like I said, he wasn’t lame, so YMMV.
I agree with @Texarkana on this one.
What does your vet suggest?
When I healed the last check ligament tear the vet wanted the horse wherever it would be happiest but not being stupid. They preferred somewhere that the horse could walk around a little. This particular horse did great with a small turn our area with good footing (well done dry lot, no mud), with friends right over the fence line.
2 Likes
Fortunately I’ve never had to rehab a Check - I didn’t have rehabbed other soft tissues with turnout though. My feral thing came off the track with a strained suspensory. He was doing more harm than good on box rest, even with chemistry on board. Chucked him outside with a concoction (ace doesn’t do a darn thing for him) and revisited the injury in a few months. He’s fine. Not everyone’s protocol and plenty of people disagreed with me, but for him it was the best plan of attack.
2 Likes
One of mine had a small tear to the CL last spring. He was never lame, just had swelling just like JB said.
Vet did shockwave every other week for 4 sessions and told me to keep him on turnout. She said that they no longer recommend stall rest for most CL injuries now because it’s counterproductive. You need to keep the ligament moving and stretching so it doesn’t re-injure itself again.
The only thing I did slightly differently is that on really muddy gross days I’d put him in the arena so there wasn’t the strain on his ligaments. It healed just fine and he is back in work.
Do know that the swelling will likely never go away completely. At 6, you have a better chance of it mostly disappearing, but it will never be completely clean.
1 Like
Yep, in the several (10?) years he lived after that, there was always a lump, just smaller than when acute.
1 Like
My old girl (24 at the time?) tore her check ligament (90% tear, IIRC), and the vet wanted me to put her on stall rest. I declined and kept my daughter walking her (under saddle) for 30 minutes a day and kept her in her 25x50’ turnout/stall. She was sound at the walk and only mildly and infrequently lame at the trot (though we never did anything but walk for months). I knew she would absolutely fall apart on stall rest. We were also dealing with the onset of Cushing’s (or maybe “onset” is less accurate than “noticing it”), so the vet was pretty sure that the check ligament tear was related to that as well. She recovered really nicely.
2 Likes
My TB whacked his check ligament but good. He would not/could not live in a stall so I left him turned out with a buddy. I didn’t ACE him continuously, but if someone was riding off the property and I thought he would get worked up, I sedated him. He wasn’t particularly off, but his leg was quite swollen.
He made a complete recovery and went back to his regular job as a foxhunter. There were some Oh SH#% moments where I worried he might re-injure himself, but he came through fine.
You might want to consider cold laser therapy. I have one from this company: https://shop.vetrolaser.com/main.sc
Good for your horse and I used it when I broke my ankle, too.
I actually did not know scarring from CL injuries was that prevalent. My one horse irritated hers (undiagnosed) a couple years ago. It happened during a time I was mostly out of commission after being hospitalized and my husband was doing the horse care. She has a lump but I just figured it was because it was never caught nor treated. Now I feel a little better.
2 Likes
This was what my vet said too. That moving is better so the scar tissue is stronger.
1 Like
I rehabbed a partial CL tear on my field boarded gelding a few years ago. As other have said - I only noticed due to swelling in the leg, caught before any unsoundness presented. Ultrasound showed hole in left front CL. He’s a quiet gelding and was in a group of older, non-feisty horses where he was #2 in the herd. About 6 months off, with ultrasounds every 6-8 weeks or so to check progress. Poltice, icing, etc. At a certain point the healing stopped progressing or he had reinjured it and vet recommended blistering to encourage blood flow to the area. Healing resumed and we were cleared to start slow rehab. Walking under saddle, trotting straight lines on hard ground - increasing trot times weekly. Always icing after his rides. The good thing about our rehab plan was it really brought him back stronger than ever. But it was probably 9+ months from diagnosis to back to full work
I rehabbed one in a medium sized paddock—Cushings horse. Also did shockwave. It healed well. Also rehabbed two SDFT injuries this way. Horse was turned out 24/7 next to buddy. I think stall rest would have been diasterous.
I am rehabbing a DDFT tear right now - could you share the size of your medium paddock?
I think medium = whatever size your specific horse is comfortable walking around in, but is not likely to gallop laps in.
Mine is in a 32’x14’ run-out and he has moments where he is cantering in and out of the stall - not galloping but… UGH.
