Saving this to read through later.
My 5 YO I got in February managed to tear both his suspensory and one of the branches in his stall in late June (officially diagnosed in July). Several rounds of shockwave therapy with little (but some!) improvement. We are going down the neurectomy/fasciotomy route in November. My heart horse died in January, I knew I would need a total project or I wouldn’t ride so I bought my new boy in February using my baby’s insurance money. 
This poor boy has already been through so much this year and has the most phenomenal mind (Artful Investment baby) I really just hope he can be sound enough to ride again. On top of my gelding dying, my lease mare nearly ripping her leg in half, and now this, I would love for some horsey luck this year!
My mare had surgery 3 weeks ago. This Fri is her last shock wave treatment. I don’t know how it is healing as we won’t do ultrasounds for a few more weeks. She is on stall rest with hand walking and hand grazing. She is 17.2, almost 1400 pounds, young, still fit and hand walking her is like water skiing! I dusted the cobwebs off of my 14 year old TB and told him, “Your up!”. We have started jumping. We are up to 8"! :lol:
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Hello Friends. So I guess I am the newest member to this tribe.
I bought my boy last year, Feb 2015, and around middle of March he was just NQR. After chiropractors, saddle fittings, new saddle, more vet visits, they finally (December) found the culprit. PSLD in his left hind leg with a cannon bone avulsion (I hope I’m spelling avulsion correctly!). Anyhow, we did the PRP, shock wave therapy, stall rest regime and no improvement after 75 days so our next step (before his insurance coverage of that leg goes out) will be surgery.
He is being a horrible patient but that seems like most of you have had horrible hand-walking stories, so at least it’s not just me! Every time we try to hand walk, even with Ace and reserpine on board, he spends the majority of the time on his hind legs which can’t be any good for him.
Well, this completely stinks but at least I’m not alone, right? Thank you all for posting your stories. You’ve given me some hope!!!
Another survivor of a hideous rehab period, mine complete with a relapse when we were sure we were home free.
The second rehab was done differently, with no stalll rest but simply turning out in a small area alone. By then there was no problem being alone as so much time was already spent alone. After things cooled out under saddle walking proceeded, and progressed to trotting.
I now again have a sound horse but am no longer sound personally.
An update on my horse (pretty sure I’ve posted on here but don’t feel like looking through it!)
He had this surgery on BH legs in April 2011. Since then, he has competed up to Novice level eventing, the 3’ H/J, and we are currently getting ready to show 2nd Level straight Dressage
I had him re-ultrasounded in December 2015 and the vet said that his suspensories look normal for a horse his age and size! Pretty incredible!
OP how did your horse recover?
I’m going to bump this thread to ask a question:
Are suspensory injuries hereditary? Or environmental based?
I’m starting to suspect my mare has this issue - went insta-lame on Friday of last week, little to no improvement as of now. She is scheduled for clinical work at Purdue shortly.
Was thinking though - if she’s got to rest for a long time, would breeding her to a reputable stallion be completely irresponsible?
soundness is hereditary - however… lots of things can contribute to the likelihood of a horse developing a suspensory injury… from poor farrier attention, to working too hard in inappropriate footing, or too hard, to the horse having a systemic disease like EPSA/DSLD… so it’s about finding the root cause of the injury.
however in my frank opinion… unless the horse is a race-horse and is racing or training, i think a horse that has suspensory troubles is usually a horse that might not be being helped by their farrier - i see it more often now with horses with some really bad angles.
She was a race horse up until relatively recently. http://www.equibase.com/profiles/Res…277®istry=T
The lameness is a bit out of the blue - I competed her all summer long with no issue, went camping with her on some wicked trails, take her out on hacks often. Perhaps the footing I free jumped in the night before was inadequate? I honestly don’t know what caused it, the fence was not “big” in any way - about 3’. We did it 4 times or so, and she wasn’t even sweaty when done, and was still high as a kite swishing around for her cool out. Same arena we always ride in, and I’ve jumped her under saddle higher than that.
Just trying to think how I am going to handle this if it is in fact a suspensory.
Thanks for the input, I appreciate it!
that is not necessarily a pedigree of unsound horses. she raced 47 times over the span of four years - an unsound horse wouldn’t make that cut.
jingling it is nothing major. make sure her feet are all in order and the angles are good - that often can really make or break a horse’s soundness after returning to work, too.
I bought her sight unseen based on her race record alone. Just barely missed the warhorse cut!
Will do - I put hoof testers all over her to make sure it’s not an abcess, and it looks like we’re dealing with “something” in the fetlock. She’s pretty darn lame though, unfortunately. She’s on stall rest for now, just in case.
Sounds like a pretty neat mare.
I don’t know a lot, but injury to fetlock and dead lameness almost sounds like a fracture or bone cyst. Will you be able to get X-rays, if you haven’t already?
(Update on my own mare: 8 1/2 years after surgery, she’s still doing pretty well. I did a lot of trail riding last year, and accomplished some new things (like going through a river!), but she was getting uncomfortable going down hills. Trails are closed from December 1 to roughly May 15. This year when I started up trail riding again, she was much worse, so I ended up with a new farrier who has improved things tremendously by shoeing to X-rays. She was rideable in the indoor for much of this time, but I’ve only been back trail riding for a month and am still pretty careful with her. Not 100% perfectly sound by any means, but just the fact that I can ride her at all is pretty great! She is 20 and not ready to quit.
Some progress between two days ago and today, but none between yesterday and today. I don’t like leaving wraps on for long long periods of time, so she will stay nekkid with some liniment and a prayer. Looking into those equisleeve things - does anyone have any feedback on those?
I’m going to give this a couple weeks, as she was scheduled to go in for a lameness eval for a NQR higher up (was planning to do a bone scan, but Purdue’s equipment broke down or something) that I believed to be resolvable as it was so so minor - very hard to see. Now with this, we won’t be able to do a true lameness eval as she is overarchingly lame on the left. If it doesn’t resolve in a couple weeks on stall rest and hand walking, she will go down to Purdue get a diagnosis as to what is going on on the LH, and we will go from there.
Hi all - having recently had a diagnosis of bilateral hind limb PSD, I have been reading through every single post on this thread with interest and have felt the highs and lows you’ve all experienced, thank you so much for sharing your journeys. Really interested to hear where you all are now, never heard anything more from Kiwi? I’d be keen to hear all your updates! I’ve had my lovely 7 year old gelding for only 4 months (he’s my first horse too) and we weren’t getting along in ridden work anyway (could be pain related?) so am absolutely gutted. Would be lovely to revive this thread, reading your stories has given me comfort and made me feel less alone in my struggles!
Would OP care to come on and update this? Many were following it and concerned about it in their own horses. Kind of a Hot Topic these days.
I am curious for updates, too.
Feronia is trucking along at almost 22. Definitely not as sound as she once was, but fine for my purposes. She was favoring the LH again in December. My current vet practice had hired a new vet – one who had been involved in her care way back when this all started 10 years ago! This vet was quite pleased to find Feronia rideable at all, so that’s something. Her hocks were sore, but avoiding steroids seemed wise as she is now borderline IR. She had ProStride injections 5 weeks ago, which improved things, but she is not where I’d like her to be. Her chiro highly recommends… continuing to do what I am doing, and maybe consider shockwave for higher-up arthritis. Says that riding as I do, on varied terrain and footing, will keep her going.
I am taking advantage of our mild weather to get out on the trails when I can.
Did you find that the turnout helped it heal faster?
Bumping … I have a 5 year old diagnosed with left hind PSD in March. We are currently tack walking 55 minutes/day. He did not have any of the surgical procedures done. The treating vet was not ready to go there yet. If this is a chronic issue I’ll no longer have insurance coverage for the surgery by the time he needs it as it will be excluded by then. So far, other than progressive hand and tack walking he had 4 shock wave treatments. The vet is very optimistic, so that’s something, There were no tears or holes but there was some tiny bone involvement. This was to be a sale horse so it’s really changed my plan.
Another thing, I don’t feel he’s had the best farrier and shoeing but I can’t definitively point to that.
Is it inevitable he’ll need surgery?
I think if he’s tack walking for 55 minutes without showing soreness or lameness, that’s a very good sign. Hopefully he’ll continue to improve.
Not sure what you mean by bone involvement - a bone chip? Or something else?
