Check ligament injury treatment

[50andNewtoRidingandShowing]

Looking for input on treatment recommendations for a decent-sized hole in my horse’s right front check ligament. She’s an 18-year-old healthy, always been sound, Hanoverian who jumped a lot in her early career, was well-maintained, but now is semi-retired, only doing some cross-rails, lots of W/T/C, and hunter pace events over fairly challenging terrain.

Injury appears to be a month or two old, but she was only slightly lame, and not consistently, so we have no idea how it happened.

Vet is recommending stem cell therapy/PRP, light tack walking in the indoor arena, only outdoors on a lead, an onion shoe with a slight wedge to take pressure off her other ligaments.

Who has experience with stem cell therapy with this type of injury? Benefits/drawbacks? Thoughts and advice for this new horse owner much appreciated.

[skyy]

hi. No advice on stem cell but my 16 yo ISH had a good sized hole in his RF check. Vet offered 2 paths - stall rest, stem cell/PRP or turnout and benign neglect. Because this is my heart horse who is very sweet, I didn’t want to run the chance of having prolonged stall rest change his personality (this has happened to me with another horse). This horse would be absolutely miserable in a stall so I went with benign neglect. Nine months later and he was perfectly sound and continues to be at 19. My vet said he has never had a horse come back so well with the size of the hole that my horse had.

[PreppyPonies]

Literally in the middle of rehabbing a torn check ligament right now. My guy also had a rather large sized hole in his check ligament but sounds like we caught is a bit sooner. The horse was slightly lame at the on set and had quite a lot of swelling in his leg.

After diagnosing it, my vet recommended lots of hand walking and a small flat paddock for the first 60 days. Basically encourage as much calm movement as possible without giving him space to romp and play on it. He also said in his experience the different inject-able options don’t do much of anything for a check. The horse is insured and the vet works for a top clinic so we had all sorts of options but really it came down to time off and rest. My vet told me a check often will heal well but they can heal ugly, meaning my guy will likely always have a lump on his leg.

Once I took him home I kind of decided to try throwing anything at it that might help. I kept up an ice, poultice and wrapping routine until the heat was gone. I also used a LaserWrap/cold laser regularly and put him on Osteon from Platinum.

I have no idea if any of that did anything but at his 60 day recheck the hole had closed and he was cleared to start back slowly to work. We are several weeks into working him and thus far he’s coming along well. The plan is to just keep going slowly and get his muscle built back up.

[2horseowner]

My horse tore his check ligament in 3 different areas. This was 4 yrs ago. I had a very simple routine with turning out in a small paddock for a month and hand walking a lot. At 2 months I walked under tack and I walked on the roads. I’m old school and like to walk on hard surfaces,as I feel it is good for soft tissue. I used Smart Pak’s Smart Tendon too. Did ultra sound monthly, and by the 4th month, holes were closed. I also wrapped at the beginning, and by the time I turned him out in pasture, he was good to go. There is a lump, but it has gone down tremendously. Horse is in full work with no issues. Time is your friend, as I was overly cautious while rehabbing.

[fourfillies]

Our sports Med vet advised the jury is still out for stem cell/prp for check ligament injuries. As others have noted, the tend to “heal ugly” cosmetically but well. We did do stem cells and a rehab similar to @PreppyPonies. Mine was a younger mare who did well. I’m not convinced the cells helped. Rather the rehab program. Good luck to you and your mare.