Take a good…long…look…at the horses hind hoof angles. Are the heels a little high? Did you xray them?
I will tell you that I had a highly vet recommended farrier for my herd, and slowly, over time, hind end suspensory issues became a problem in several of them. It wasn’t obvious what was happening until the damage was done. I got a new farrier and over a two year period, most of my horses returned to soundness, it was too late for a few of the aged ones.
The chronic…inflamed…hind end…suspensory problem in one horse was mis-diagnosed by multiple vets…over and over again. What fixed him was carefully lowering his heels and keeping everything properly balanced. Again, it was not obvious, but this is my story…since you asked.
Thank You very much! I have had a very rough year! It started with my beautiful new Hanoverian Import from Germany dying during colic surgery. I stayed with him all night long in the freezing cold because I wasn’t sure if he was okay or not. Symptoms elevated at 3:30am and had the vet out within 15 minutes and he was in colic surgery by 8:30am. Unfortunately they could not save him. and that day was supposed to be my vet appointment for my other horse who had been slightly off. She thought I was calling her at 3:30am for my appointment that night!
It’s been really tough going to take care of my gelding Kieko. But I figure he is only 13years old and I don’t want him lame for the rest of his life and if I rush things it will end up with me repeating the process and I don’t want to do that!
I am continuing to gradually increase his program. Doing trotting poles and cantering poles. I am still riding him between 45 to an hour 5x a week. its hard! Because I imported a new horse in July. But I love this horse to death so I religiously keep up with the program! I am thinking about asking the vet if he could be ready to go to a dressage lesson to help with slowly engaging the hind end because the stifle still needs strengthening but at a slow rate so I do not cause injury. I have learned great patience this year! And my horse is very happy with his program. He feels sound to me, but you can see slight not bending as much with the left stifle as the right and a bit of wear off the hind left hoof toe.
I have used Equioxx and Estrone. Not sure the Equioxx did anything but maybe the Estrone helped a little bit. The plan is to inject the stifle and hocks in march if he doesn’t keep improving with exercise!
Late to the party but I followed the same program for my gelding 2 years ago! To this day he’s still going around and jumping, I completely believe that this program was the difference between returning to the horse he was and ending his career as a jumper.
It is a long, thorough process but I’d do it again in a heartbeat and highly recommend at least looking into this program.
My mare just went through the double neurectomy procedure for hind suspensories at the Marion DuPont Scott Equine Medical Center in Leesburg, VA. When she was diagnosed with a 3/5 lameness in RH due to suspensory injury with thickened suspensories it brought all her soundness issues full circle. This mare had been having chronic back soreness from the time she started training with our first trainer and had been diagnosed as well as treated for SI and front end problems for six years.
As one horsey friend told me, we had been playing vet whack-a-mole trying to figure out what the problem was. It was not the vets’ faults for not finding the underlying suspensory issue. This mare is very athletic and extremely capable at compensating so she can continue to please, and suspensory injuries are notoriously hard to pick out of the crowd of symptoms the horse is displaying.
When Dr. Adams in Leesburg diagnosed the hind suspensory injury, he gave us a choice of treatment options. One was to stall rest her for a year with a less than 70% success rate and the other was neurectomy surgery with a more than 80% success and I would be riding in 60 days.
I instantly went to the place of logic where the person whose quote I have included at the top of my post went. Which is to say, cutting the nerve does not heal the injury, it just makes the horse numb to more injury. However, in this case, that is not true and this is how Dr. Norris Adams explained it to me.
The nerve that serves the top 3-4 inches of the suspensory ligament in the hind legs runs down through the hock and then into a compartment bordered by bone, the suspensory ligament, and the fascia. When the suspensory is injured, inflamed and swollen, it presses the nerve into the bone (because of the encapsulating fascia, there is nowhere for that nerve to go) and causes extreme pain and injury to the nerve itself.
The suspensory injury itself only needs a few months to heal. I’ll say that again because I was shocked by that statement:
THE SUSPENSORY ONLY TAKES A FEW MONTHS TO HEAL!
But healing the nerve takes much, much longer. Also, the once the suspensory is past the acute injury stage, it continues to heal more correctly and with more strength when it is under strain (rehab work). Giving the horse a year with extremely limited movement creates scar tissue that does not have the flexibility or strength of suspensory tissue and this is why there is a 30% reinjury rate with hind suspensories. With the nerve pain removed, the rehabilitation of the suspensory can occur at a pace that gives the tissue the optimum opportunity for healing.
Also, there are situations where horses have regained feeling after having had nerves cut in the front feet. This suspensory neurectomy procedure has never had a situation where that has happened because there is no nerve branch or path for nerves to reassert themselves. Also, Dr. Adams used to cut the fascia to give the suspensory space to heal. Further research as proven that the fascia layer does not need to be cut for complete healing to occur, even when the suspensory is thickened by chronic injury.
In our case, the thickened suspensories and sonogram evidence proved our mare had been dealing with chronic suspensory issues for many years. I believe this was due to her first trainer using incorrect lunging practices - only lunging in one direction at the canter for 40min several times a week. Once we realized this was happening we changed trainers and the mare’s soundness improved, but the damage was done so her soundnsss was spotty and fragile with constant but changing symptoms that could not be resolved.
We are at week four since the surgery, and today was our first day of turn out in the medic paddock. The mare’s 6 year chronic back pain is gone and her back end musculature is showing signs of physical improvement. It was evident that her comfort level moving around was much improved in the first week while hand grazing, although when we started the hand walking in the soft arena footing, she had obvious moments of discomfort toward the end of our walking time. This proved to me that she still had pain in her suspensory, was capable of still feeling pain in her suspensory, and we needed to be careful rehabbing in the softer footing. There was no swelling or heat so we just backed off the rehab schedule and went more slowly.
Today during her first opportunity for free movement in a larger area than a stall since the surgery, she walked easily and comfortably, and moved in a more balanced and free manner than she had been. We are still four more weeks from starting our riding rehab schedule, but her over all attitude and patience with the stall rest (she is a horse who is most happy to be out 24/7) has convinced me that the comfort and relief has been dramatic and for her, this surgery was the right choice.
Thank you for sharing. I am considering the same surgery for the same issues and appreciate your vet’s explanation. Could you update on how this all played out?
I did not do surgery. my horse healed up by following Carol Gillis rehabilitation program. he still was a bit unflexible behind not bending his hocks enough. weak stifles. I now do poles all the time with him and it really helps his soundness more than anything else. I had him on equioxx for awhile and pentosan, but not anymore. I never really felt a difference. I find keeping him fit really helps his soundness behind.