Proximal Suspensory Surgery Advice - Updates at end

[quietann]

Happier update!

No vet or chiro yet, but Feronia has gradually improved over the past week. I’ve gone pretty easy on her, but we’re back up to two 5 minute trots per ride and I am confident I could add a third.

It might be voodoo, but after several people recommended it, I tried a BackOnTrack saddle pad tonight, and she LOVES it. She was genuinely happy to be working, not so fussy in the bridle, and quite forward. She’s still NQR, with tripping and some balance issues going around turns, but no longer dragging her hind toes and moving out much, much better. (And the BOT pad looks a little silly because it’s HUGE on her… she really is tiny, at 850-900 pounds and 15 hands, and the pad’s sized for a big WB. :lol: )

Mesotherapy still scheduled for Thursday but we’ll see what the vet thinks. And still visiting her breeders the first weekend in April and trying another horse there. But it’s nice to be heading in the right direction again.

[merrygoround]

Great!!!:yes:

[merrygoround]

!!!

Quietanne: Hope you good news continues.

As for us. We are OUT!!! Mildly rowdy at first, laid ourselves down once, which encouraged immediate contemplation of the whereabout of the feet.

What would have happened without the assistance of our old friend and accomplice Ace, I shudder to think.

Let’s hope tomorrow goes as well. :yes:

[EventerForever77]

Thats great Vicarioius! Hope turnout continuous to go well!

My mare got her first semi-turnout today too, just in a round pen with lots of hay, and of course ace. Had our 3month check on this past week after having a magnetic boot on for a month with handwalking. Ultrasound is looking good, cells just need to get aligned/straightened out.

Tomorrow we start trotting. Just 5 minutes and 15 walking. Vet is estimating June for back to full work.

[merrygoround]

You are way ahead of us. We are goin slo, more a weather issue than anything else.

Your rehab is far more rapid than most of the rest of us. But I am assuming from your previous posts that your Rx didn’t involve actual surgery. It will be interesting to follow the results of a different approach to a problem which I suspect had a slightly different original Dx. That is; minimal or no involvement of the tendon sheath.

Keep posting.

While it’s great to be able to talk to the vet-in-charge, he/she isn’t out sloggin’ in the trenches. And we are.:uhoh::uhoh:

[merrygoround]

Survived our first day of out. Since its late in the regimen, we went for 4 hours right off the bat. There was no stiffness at night check, when we do aisle walk, and none this am, for the out walk. The trot, which I would prefer not to see, but got anyhow, appears to be sound.

Getting tired of holding my breath. Whoever heard of awake apnea?

Eventer Forever, you seem to be able to move faster than the rest of us. I suspect that not having injury extensive enough to require surgery makes a difference. QA, DB and I all seem to be on a one +/- year protocol, as the injury involved the tendon sheath.

[quietann]

Feronia is continuing to improve; she still looks a tiny bit NQR at the trot, but she feels a lot better. I have video from tonight but am hesitant to post it because while she looks fine, I look like cr*p… she was having a slow, sticky night and needed a lot of booting forward. What she really wants to do is canter, but the vet says not until she can trot comfortably for 15 minutes.

Remember with her, there was no “injury” as far as anyone can tell; her LH suspensory was hugely inflamed, with major degeneration of the fibers, but there was no tear, no lesion, no nothing. The vet honestly thinks she had the problem when I bought her 3 years ago, but she was basically sound for her PPE (flexed +1 on that leg, but otherwise completely fine). And of course who would do U/S on a PPE for a low-level eventer (I never wanted to go higher than Novice) with no known lameness issues and a +1 flexion on one leg?

It may be that the breakdown had been building for a while, since her previous owner was much too heavy for her; she’s a slight little thing with not the best leg conformation, and at 145 pounds I am within 10-20 pounds of the maximum weight she should carry (motivation to watch my weight, let me tell you!) I actually have video from her old owner of a dressage test and now that I know what to look for, I can see she was NQR at that time, which was 4 to 4 1/2 years ago, but it’s SO subtle most people would miss it, and it would not have shown up in-hand, only under saddle.

This has certainly been a learning experience, and not a particularly happy one. Still, I love the little mare and keep on hoping I can get her comfortable and sound again.

[quietann]

BTW I am also thrilled to hear others’ horses are progressing… from being able to be turned out (and yes, Ace is a wonderful thing!) to increasing work under saddle.

[merrygoround]

My observation, which may be erroneous is that this type of injury seems to come on slowly, and involves the tendon sheath, more than the actual tendon. It may exhibit itself in a slight tendency to be reluctant to take one lead or another, or in your case a slight offness that suddenly got worse. In my case when it got worse, it got really worse.

Maybe some of the others can chime in.

[dbamford]

Venture is up to 6 minutes trot (2 minute sets) within a 30 minute workout. We are still doing long straight road work. But - also have him on 2 hours in a larger grassy paddock each night. He has been very tame on Ace, he is so happy to have grass. One run around night that terrified me, and lost him turnout privledges that day. But no visible changes in the leg. I still have not lunged–which is where he looked the most lame pre-surgery. I hope to have him on full turnout middle of April. Most likely do 1 more month of just trot under saddle. Hope all continues to progress postively for everyone!! Thank god I have you guys to commisserate with!

[merrygoround]

Sounds good. I envy you your roads.

With a 18-20m round pen, our turn out has progressed relatively quietly to all day.
The reserpine continues, and along with the increased turn out, except for an occasional rear/buck, things have been quiet. No tearing around.

The next big jump will be u/s walks. But that will be a little way off.

[quietann]

Merrygoround, keep at it! The recovery for these injuries just requires a lot of patience.

Here is maresy from Sunday evening. This was the day after a ride that included 10 straight minutes of trotting, which seems to be what breaks her, but this time the toe dragging is much less apparent. Here is our arty-farty video.

She got worked lightly on Monday, had Tuesday off, had a 5-10-5 trot work last night and only got a little cranky during the 3rd trot, has today and Friday off due to spring shots and dentistry.

And yes, I need a bigger saddle! The hunt starts at Pelham Saddlery tomorrow.

[merrygoround]

Quietann She looks good, the saddle doesn’t look all that bad. I PMed you.

[Samantha37]

Wow this thread has been very uplifting for the most part (quietann- I’m so sorry for all of the struggles that you have had with Feronia! Hope she continues to improve)

My horse was diagnosed with bilateral hind suspensory desmitis on Tuesday and had surgery yesterday. He had the “gold standard” as well- the fasciotomy, neurectomy and desmopathy along with PRP. It was scary scary scary making the decision to go to surgery and then all day yesterday I was on edge (spontaneously bursting into tears) until I heard that he was out of recovery and looking for hay! THANK GOD.

I’m nervous about the hand walking and rehab. I’m so terrified that I will do something wrong, or he will get away from me. Like I said, these stories of recovery have really done a lot for me. Looking forward to more updates from everyone!

This is like the PSD support group

[quietann]

Welcome Samantha… sorry you have to join us

I worried endlessly over Feronia’s post-op but she actually was pretty good. Assuming you are in the US, and not in the desert or far south, this a nice time of year to be doing the initial rehab, because the weather does not suck and there is plenty of grass. How rehab goes really depends a lot on your horse and whether he can stay quiet. Tranquilizers are your friend if he starts getting nutty, and use a long leadrope. I was using a 10 foot leadrope with a chain over Feronia’s nose for a while; I don’t normally use a chain with her and the first time she spooked and hit the end of it, she stopped dead and was very surprised. I am very lucky in that she does not try to run away when she spooks; she typically goes in a circle around me, and sometimes rears. But those first few times she spooked and reared while I was hand walking her were scary!

I’d strongly recommend whatever you can use to keep your horse busy; in Feronia’s case it was a NibbleNet so it would take her longer to eat her hay.

BTW here is video from Tuesday night… we are trying out saddles as I am feeling optimistic about her recovery and I need a bigger seat.

[merrygoround]

Quietanne:Watched your video several times. Feronia looks good. Sent you a PM All of your suggestions to Samantha are on course.

All is going well here, despite a spate of really ugly weather that turned the small paddock into a gumbo bowl. But we survived with no setbacks that I can see.

Samantha: Welcome to the club of nail biters & hair-tearers anonymous.

Our surgery was last November and we should have started turn out in Feb, However the snow was so deep and heavy, and the ice continually treacherous, so I elected to continue hand walking til two weeks ago. Since then thanks to the continued use of medication things have gone well. Where some have gradually increased turn out, I found that, after the first day or two, I could go for all day, and had a happier patient for it.

Medication, routine, and chain shanks are your friends.

[system]

re:

The previous time it was bad enough to get a vet involved, she was put on monthly IV polyglycan, which pretty much took care of the lameness for about a year. But in January, she was limping, and after 6 weeks of trying various things and on again/off again lameness, the suspensory was ultrasounded and the problem was clear as day.What has most likely contributed to his injury is conformation–as discussed above straight hocks, and long pasterns but I wonder if the low heels have contributed as well. We have always squared hi back toes to ease breakover. He wore shoes in the front, but was barefoot behind.

[dbamford]

Hi guys, and I extend my welcome to Samatha as well. Agree with Quietanne long acting tranqs were what got us through early on, and then to Ace once we were riding. Quietanne she looks great, I am SO HAPPY that things have turned around.

Glad to hear all of our spirits are up this spring. Venture’s sure are! He is on full turnout with pony in a 1+ acre pasture. We built him up over the last two weeks with increasing turnout in evenings and took the big plunge this past weekend. We are almost 8 months post surgery. We still give a little ace on chilly or windy mornings, but he is so happy to be on grass he does not even run around when the others are being goofy…even when his pony is running circles around him! Keeping the fingers crossed. Still riding on some straight sand roads, doing 40 minutes right now with 9 minutes of trot, have been adding 1 minute trot per week, with about 5 days a week of work.

[Samantha37]

Glad to hear everyone’s horses are doing well

Mine is doing OK. 6 days post op and he has been depressed and listless… not eating his grain although he is eating his hay well and grazes when hand walked. I’ve got him on ranitidine and started ulcergard yesterday. He also stocked up yesterday for the first time and ran a low grade fever, which seems to have resolved as of this AM. We have gotten a heat wave here in central VA so I think that is definitely making him feel crappy. The only good thing about him being depressed is that he is very very easy to handle… acting totally normal if not even more quiet when walking…

On a brighter note, his incisions look great and he is moving well when I hand walk him. My vet told me he can have unlimited hand walking and that there was nothing my horse or I could do to damage the surgical correction beyond popping staples out. I specifically asked what would happen if Echo broke away and went for a run and he said “nothing.” So that makes me feel better and I’m trying not to worry if we aren’t walking on the best of ground, or on an incline, etc. Like I said, he is moving very well and is happy enough when I hand walk him.

Hopefully he will perk up soon! The temps are slightly cooler today so that along with the ulcergard should help.

[quietann]

First off, my big news: we are CANTERING! Just long sides, and once or twice per ride. The canter is lovely, but the transition back to trot is not (she may still have an SI issue, or she may just be weak), and she definitely hurts a bit for a few minutes after. Feronia would canter in a straight line for a quarter mile if I let her and had a place to do it. Heck, she would flat-out gallop if I let her. I get up off her back, which I suppose is cuing her to go faster. Silly mare, but she and I are eventers at heart even if we can’t jump anymore.

We also had our first ride into the back field on Sunday, and she was so good… very looky, but happy to be out of an arena. Walking downhill was not easy on her, so I just let her go slow.

Next vet exam will be sometime later this month. She’s still in a tiny turnout and I need to talk to the vet about that. May actually have to change barns to get more TO, because the current one is so full that there actually isn’t enough paddock space for all the horses to get 2-3 hours per day.

Anyway… great news for dbamford. Wish I had pasture and a long sand road for my mare.

Samantha … ulcers are definitely a possibility; at my vet surgeon’s recommendation, Feronia was put on ulcergard a few days before surgery and stayed on it for about 10 days after. Are you giving banamine or anything else for pain/inflammation? And are you doing standing bandages for when he’s stalled? Feronia was in standing bandages for about 6 weeks, to the degree we could keep her in them (she hates having stuff on her legs.) I do hope your guy is just having a transitory case of the blahs and gets over it quickly.