Rehabbing a suspensory tear

[RedFox5]

Roughly a month ago my horse ended up with a minor tear in the suspensory most likely in the field. I have looked everywhere but could not find any descriptions of how the horses leg looked throughout their journey and while you really can’t tell anything definitive without ultrasound it can still be comforting to know your horses leg doesn’t look grotesquely different from other horses healing. Especially for an older horse.
So here is our timeline so far.
Week one
Week one: due to excessive heat he had been stocking up all week but that day there was minor swelling that didn’t go down with turn out. No heat or sensitivity. No reduction with cold hosing and work. Completely sound
Week two: Still no improvement but no getting worse either. More flat working but figured it was from the heat and just being more tired. End of the week on a Sunday we had a lesson and he just was not moving forward and felt off riding but from ground looked maybe a touch short on the left front. We pushed him into the extended trot to see if that would give a more clear lameness and it did. Vet was scheduled to come out Tuesday.
Week three: Vet examines the leg and ultra sounds him. There was no concern for abscesses as he’s never gone lame from one and his current shoe set up would make one very difficult. He also was X-rayed and the only clean spot on my 21yo leg was where the injury was(small bone spurs here and there but none in areas that affect his comfort or movement). Upon US a very small tear was discovered and rehabbing options were discussed. This horse does not stall rest well and we had access to a smaller individual paddock that’s roughly 1/3 acre. Walking twice a day starting at 5 min increments and increasing each week. Coldhosing/icing twice a day and poulticing at night. With this we saw immediate improvement of the swelling Week three
Week four: Minor hiccup in manners walking because he is fit and enjoys working so we were having some baby rearing and trotting in hand (perfect gentleman in the field) so drugs were onboarded. After a couple days he was behaving much better but I swear he aims for the most uneven parts of the concrete driveway. Progress slowed down as the mostly solid feeling lump where the injury is was not going down. Que minor freak out and scouring the internet for everyone else’s experiences with rehabbing and finding no one mentioning how the leg looked as it healed. Logically I knew it wouldn’t. The vet also confirmed it would look this way for a long while but it didn’t help a ton being in the middle of rehabbing and not yet on the other side knowing how this will turn out.
Week five
Week five: This brings us to today. Starting our 15min walks twice a day with incoming rain so this will be extra fun. I feel like his leg almost looks worse but he’s walking sound and mostly resigned to his fate of hand walking and only seeing his buddies on our walks. The vet reassured me again it looks normal for where we’re at and our recheck will be in roughly 2 weeks to see how it’s healing. Part of my anxiety is due to my own physical health issues of Graves’ disease that literally started treatment last night and it’s rough. Even if everything were peachy and perfect I’d be an anxious mess. Add ontop my pony reminding me even during my own health crisis it’s never my turn and it’s a great little recipe for anxiety overload.

I’ll update as we progress each week in this journey but everyone also please share your experiences especially on the other side of this. Knowing there’s a light at the end of the tunnel can really help.

[Foxglove]

We purchased Hail Caesar knowing he had a previous suspensory tear in his hind leg. The PPE vetted sound, and we bought him. He was an upper level 3-Day horse --lots of work over really big fences! Two years later, in January, he bowed the other hind leg. Did everything recommended (shock wave was the new thing then) and had him ultra sounded weekly. He did 4-5 months rehab then limited to dressage for the rest of that year. Cleared to return to jumping.

We continued for the next 8 years taking him to about 10-12 horse trials a year all over the Mid-West, East and into Canada. After 10 years his rider (DD) she felt she was asking him too much to continue at his Intermediate (CCI**) level. He moved to another rider for the next 3 years. Eventually he bowed in the front, returned to dressage, and at 25, bowed the other front. He retired to my farm, friends, nice kids to wash him and braid his hair (he was snow white by then) and give him endless treats. I think he was 29 when he stopped walking to the barn to be fed. That’s my line in the sand. We did feed him in the pasture until his people could come and say goodbye.

For an upper level 3-Day horse, 10 years is a long career. He never refused a fence, and the kid never fell off. He is buried in a sunny spot in the pasture by his best mate.

Here is a video of him with 3 bows --but still flying high. Start at 3:31 for CC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcxzZlMvGRc&t=248s

[RedFox5]

That’s beautiful and heartwarming

[RedFox5]

Mini update: he caused my soul to leave my body yesterday. The drugs seem to have worn off last week but he’s still minding his manners just a little extra enthusiastic but yesterday there were horses riding behind the paddock in a different field that he hasn’t met yet and he thinks he’s the welcoming committee. So across the field he goes in one of the loveliest trots I’ve seen from him…. After it’s been raining. Thankfully that was the only dramatic act from him and after watching them for another minute he went back to eating like he’s the most innocent creature to walk the earth. His 30 day recheck is today so fingers crossed it looks good

[sara78]

How long has hé been resting? How long did your vet told it would take to heal?

[RedFox5]

So we’ve been rehabbing for a month, we didn’t stall rest him as he has a bad track record of escaping and tearing around uncatchable when you ask him to stay in. He’s been in a small 1/4 acre pasture and behaving himself. We started with 5 minute hand walks 2x a day and increased by 5 minutes each week with daily cold hosing and poultice at night during turnout. I also found a get with arnica in it which is supposed to help plus collegen 2 scoops every day in his grain. He did have a very small tear that was hard to locate to begin with but it’s mostly filled in with a high likely hood of being completely filled in by next recheck in a month. We will be starting tack walking at 10 minutes a day for 2 weeks and just slowly going from there with monthly ultrasounds to monitor progress. He is 21-22 with cushings so a lower prognosis of healing but he has been healing well by any standards and very well for his age and health conditions. He was in full work prior to this so already a fit horse with good nutrition.

[RedFox5]

He will be getting another check up next week to see if the hole is filled in or not. This cooler weather has him a bit spicy so he threw out a few canter steps coming to the gate(of course on the left lead same as the hole in his suspensory ) and looked great. But otherwise he’s behaving great still and we’re expecting good progress. Hopefully I’ll be well enough to attend his appointment as I get a total thyroidectomy on Friday but my mom will be there regardless to pass along how everything looks. Overall he’s happily walking and we just do a little collection and free walk on our walks to help. Never realized how much lateral we did until we weren’t allowed to anymore lol. Everyone’s very pleased how he’s been coming along especially considering he is 22 this year with cushings

[RedFox5]

We have one more month of walking then the trotting and turning back out to his field begins. The vet couldn’t even find the injury on scans last week and he’s been going great. We didn’t trot him because she was sure he’d be sound and there was no point in rushing it and to just recheck before we trot to make sure everything is still looking great.

[RedFox5]

We started trotting last Wednesday and have another 10 days of the 5 minutes of trot before he gets to turn out back to his buddies. The first trot was a bit stiff and a little lazy after the first 30 seconds lol but he seemed quite pleased and the following days he felt much looser and swinging nicely. He is only starting at 5min every other day for 2 weeks just because he is 20s but the injury itself looks to have healed beautifully. Can’t be found on ultrasound anymore, of course it is scar tissue which isn’t as strong so still a long way to rehab but the progress feels more like progress now rather than chasing after improvement and healing. Because this injury most likely came from a kick or some type of pasture roughhousing and had no signs of weak points or wear and and tear we are expected to be fully cleared and we will be able to go on mini hunts and paces once he is back to full shape!

[RedFox5]

He’s been back to full turn out with his buddies and his leg has been looking better than ever. He needs his hocks done again (it’s been a year since non steroid hock injections so not too shabby) we start 15 minutes of trot on Wednesday as he is still very serviceably sound and mostly works out of his hock stiffness. He’s been getting a day or two off just due to my life but he seems to be happy being back to doing more work and holding up to it really well. Hopefully in a couple weeks we’ll move to our next check up and see what our timeline looks like

[Mango20]

I’m rehabbing a check ligament tear now. I also didn’t do stall rest, but used electric fence to confine my horse to a smaller, flatter area of the pasture. She was never lame on it but the ultrasound showed a 30% tear. We did three shockwave treatments over six weeks and the final ultrasound shows good healing. She’s supposed to have another week of rest then start with the 10 minute walks. In the meantime, my 12 hand pony has been my trail horse.