[QUOTE=ljc;2804946]
I
Good luck – the whole thing is a royal pain, no matter how you do it!!![/QUOTE]
AMEN!!!
I will get that book, thanks. And it sounds like he probably needs to be handwalked at this point… oooh boy we’re gonna need some drugs for that!
How long were you guys told to stall rest before handwalking, and how bad was the injury? I’m trying to treat it as if it was as bad as it gets, since we don’t know. Thanks everyone 
My mare’s collateral ligament lesion was 70% tear (and I think that is a pretty big tear). I was told to start the handwalking immediately on hard footing 2X a day initially for about 20 to 30 min. each time. I think the more the handwalking the better, as it promotes circulation/healing (if you can keep them calm :winkgrin: )
Same here, no stall rest, immediately begin hand-walking - 20 min/day 1st month and 30 min/day 2nd month.
jan
Maybe I should qualify that! No turn-out and confinement to a 24x24 stall or less, in addition to the hand-walking. For those in the-land-of-pastures, I suppose that could count as “stall rest.”
More Good News
So we re U/S Rubs today and fiber allignment (per regular vet) looks good and there is no real defect evident. So he sees no reason why we can’t begin CANTERING!!! I have been working her pretty hard at the trot now and we are doing poles and more intensive flatwork and no problems. So, I’ll send everything back to the radiologist and if he is O.K, I should be cantering in about two weeks. From there, we will give her another month or so and then Re U/S and if that is good, then it’s jumping caveletti. Well, you get the picture. Anyway, I am so happy. This has been so difficult. It looks like there may just be a light at the end of the tunnel.
Congratulations Rubs!!!
I am so excited for you.
Especially since I am at the other end of the tunnel in the stall rest stage.
Keep updating. I love hearing good news.
Congrats, Rubs! You are leading the way!
My big accomplishments are that she is out of eggbars and back to regular shoes this week. (Don’t know if that is ultimately a good/bad thing, but it was vet-recommended and a step on the path to normal), and we are now on 10 min of mounted walk, hope to be at 30 min by January 1st and then I’ll actually trot her out and see if she is still off and do a vet consult as to whether we begin trot work.
It feels so good to be on her again,
jan
jan
Wow Rubs- Such great news!!! I am soooooo happy for you both
I do know what a long, long, long road it is…it looks like you and your girl have finally turned the corner
Laney is still doing great as well She sometimes starts out a little stiff, but always works out of it, and is actually still moving better than ever!
Thanks for being so supportive. I can’t believe it. I am soo excited!
I did progress to longer mounted walks quicker than some of you. We added 5-10 minutes a day till she was walking with a rider for 1 hour. We did this for three months. In the end we will have only trotted two months before cantering (assuming it’s O.K with the radiologist). Rubs too is moving better than before. She is atill in the half round shoes and is fone religiously at 4 weeks. Let’s try to keep everyone posted on our progress.
We are CANTERING!!!
The radiologist concurred and found no real difference in fiber allignment between the medial and lateral collateral! Poor Rubs was so happy to canter and was well behaved. (well at least for the first two days…then the weather changed and she apparently went a little wild on one of my non barn days.). We are currently drying out from major rain and I don’t want to chance working her at all in any mud, so I put her on on our handwalking list at least until it dries out a little more. But, so far, so good!
Woohoo, Rubs!
It seems like it is progressing so quickly for you now. Are you going to do the “add 5 min canter per week” program? Fingers crossed that she stays managable, lol!
We are up to 15 min mounted walk this week; but I tell ya, after reading your message, I am tempted to go faster!
jan
Recent Collateral Ligament Injury
My horse was diagnosed wiht a Collateral Ligament Injury at the coffin bone.
She has been in a 24x 24 pen and handwalked 30 mins a day for 60 days. A recheck was done at the end of the 60 day treatment. She was still lame and she was given another 60 days of handwalking. I have done 5 recommended shockwave treatments. I will have her re-checked at the end of the second 60 days and hope all goes well.
Hey Dancer,
I am in your neck of the woods – did you use Carter at Alamo?
jan
3 spots, Don’t go faster. Remember, I treated very differently than you. I really believe in the Game Ready, Stem Cell and gradual weighted work. I’ll never know why, she’e come back so quickly but it really has been 7 months since stem cell and a month before that while she was getting shockwave. Then it was another few weeks of looking for an answer. All in all, it will be almost a fell year before she sees anything other than flat work.
3Spots
Yes I used Carter, he did the MRI on my horse. I would love to hear your story.
Was your horse lame or sound after the first 60 day re check?
collateral ligament Injury
3spots
Yes I used Carter. He did my horses MRI. I would love to hear you story.
Was your horse sound after the first 60 days recheck?
Dancer,
I didn’t do a 60 day recheck. He recommended it, but the ultrasound wasn’t going to show the full ligament, and I couldn’t rationalize how seeing the top of ligament was going to be indicative of the healing process, so I skipped it. He also told me not to expect much healing the first four months, so I didn’t even trot her on a circle to see how she was doing. Instead I handwalked for four months. At the four month mark, I STILL didn’t trot her out, because I decided that even if she were lame, I would add mounted walk anyway – I just believed that I had to do something more than continued hand-walking.
I will be at 30-40 min of mounted walk in January, and at that time I will finally peek under the covers and see if she is sound on a tight circle to the right. If not, I will just continue mounted walk, but add going out on nice trails where the footing is good. I’m not sure I can do much more than that. I won’t do another MRI, so there is not much to go on other than how she feels and reacts to adding weight, adding trot and finally adding canter.
Mine is a 25% tear, how significant is yours?
jan
Hi dancer,
Welcome to the club. Not a great club to be in, but at least you are not alone.
My horse was finally diagniosed with a ruptured collateral ligament. DAmage all along the ligament and possible damage at the insertion point on the coffin bone. I still have not asked for a % on a return to use. In some ways I don’t want to know.
My horse is on 4 months stall rest and is half way through. The inital injury occuredin turnout. How no one knows, but he came in 3 legged like he had an abcess. After trying various different diagnostics to figure out what was wrong I took him to a lameness specialist.
By the time he had his MRI he had been in a stall for 7 weeks, with 20 minutes of handwalking a day. He pretty sound on a straight line, but lame tracking left on a circle on the pavement. 1 out of 5 with flexions and straight line/2 out of 5 on a circle. In the round pen on soft ground he was 90% sound.
We were all a little surprised to see how bad the damage actually was on the MRI. But since he was so good clinically we, the vet and I are a bit more optomistic than we would have been.
At the moment I am exploring treatment options, stem cell is probably out of my budget, and the vet was not sure if shock wave would actually make a difference. He did mention ACS treatment, but I am still unfamilar with that.
My next recheck in at the end of January. Then I hope to be doing some mounted walking. If everything goes well.
Collateral Ligament Injury
Dear Bluehorsesjp,
Where did you have your MRI done? I did mine at Almo. I am almost at the end of 120 days of hand walking. I have to say my horse has been very good about this. She is very young (4yrs old) and is really trying hard to be good. I am hoping at the end of December she will pass the lameness recheck, and we can start walking under saddle.
Your mentioned something about ACS treatments I don’t know what that is?
I did shock wave therapy. I have been hearing alot about IRAP treatments. I am not sure if that would help my horse at this point. It starts to get so expensive. She is also on Platimum and Oseton.
It is getting closer to the time that I can have her recheck. I am feeling very emotional about it. If she is still lame at the recheck I do not know what I am going to do.
Dancer
