Sesamoid Injury Success Stories & Advice?

[COeventer865]

Hi all,

I’m new to posting, but I’ve followed this forum for years. I’ve had an unfortunate year for injuries with my 8 y.o. OTTB, who is going to be a fabulous event horse if we can keep him sound! I’m looking for anyone who has advice for rehab with a sesamoid ligament tear and maybe some success stories of horses who have gone on to successful eventing careers!

He has been off the track for three years now, but didn’t get any let-down time after being purchased from the track trainer (NOT my decision; I bought him from a middleman!). He is 16.1hh and built like a WB; pedigree includes Storm Cat, Marias Mon, and Mr. Prospector way back there. The first two years were a struggle trying to convince him that round is a shape, but once he built up his topline and learned how to use his body, he came along really quickly. We did several shows at Intro level and one at BN last year before my trainer moved us up to Novice jumps and more advanced lateral work. This year, he should have been successfully competing in Novice, but in January he wrenched a shoe off and did a number on his right rear ligaments-- several micro-tears in the lateral-collateral ligaments, a straight tear of the distal sesamoid, and exacerbation of what was probably an old sesamoid injury from the track.

We put him on stall rest with daily walks, iced it daily, and did PRP in the affected area. In March, we started under-saddle walking. All of that seems to have worked beautifully, and he was cleared for 5 minutes of trot work, working up to 10 in June. We were having a blast going on trail rides and hacking out! Then, about two weeks ago, he came up dead lame again. It wasn’t obvious which foot/leg he was favoring, but the consensus at the barn was back left. After calling my lameness vet (who lives two hours away), she thought it sounded like an abscess, and even though I couldn’t feel any obvious heat or a digital distal pulse, I went ahead and started soaking/wrapping it (maybe hoping that’s all it was). He was acting like it was the end of the world, and in my limited experience, that’s usually an abscess! I went out of town for 10 days, got back, and he’s worse.

Lameness vet, who is amazing at diagnosing and advocates both Western and homeopathic medicine as well as chiropractic work and acupuncture, came out today. She found swelling right away in his right fore fetlock, and when she sent me the picture, I couldn’t believe it-- I swear that wasn’t there yesterday! She x-rayed it and found a lot of fluid in the fetlock but no fracture. I asked her to do an ultrasound so we could figure out exactly what we’re dealing with— sure enough, straight sesamoid ligament tear. She doesn’t think PRP will help in this case because the tear is so clean. We did electroshock therapy immediately and she will recheck him next week, injecting HA is a possibility.

He has also redeveloped pretty gnarly ulcers, lost weight in the 10 days I’ve been gone, and his coat has dulled. When I left, my trainer had just remarked on how good his body condition was! I’m starting him on 30 days of omeprazole and marshmallow root for his hind gut.

So, couple of questions . . . who else has dealt with sesamoid injuries? I had an OTTB in high school with really long angled pasterns who kept injuring his sesamoid area, and after I went to college he was retired from jumping and went on to a successful dressage career. My fear is that this is something that’s going to keep happening due to my guy’s conformation (although he has much shorter, straighter pasterns), or because of stress put on the area during his race days. Does anyone have a horse that has come back from repeated sesamoid injuried to have a successful eventing career? This guy is so sad not to have a job. His pen overlooks the cross country fields, and he just stares longingly!

Also, does anyone have advice for rehabbing, supplements, feeding a high energy skinny TB without making him crazy or acing all the time, and/or how to emotionally deal with this? He is a really special guy, that once-in-a-lifetime cross country horse with scope for days and not a shy bone in his body. Any support is appreciated!

[Texarkana]

Sesamoid injuries are tricky. For such tiny bones, they sure can wreak a lot of havoc. Also, they are truly something that has to be assessed on a case by case basis. Two horses rarely have the same experience, even with the same type of sesamoid injury.

I had to re-read your post a couple times. If I am following correctly, this new injury on a different leg than the previous injury from track + injury from pulling his shoe? Yes? In which case, as you fear, you may need to evaluate conformation and shoeing to make any predictions for long term soundness.

Layup wise, it’s a slow road to recovery with these things in my experience. I’d not expect him back any sooner than a year. Check out the Nexium thread in the Horse Care forum; it is a very cost effective way to prevent/treat ulcers. Free choice high quality hay and the least amount of grain you can use and still have him maintain weight. I personally like a ration balancer so they get needed nutrition for recovery, plus you can feed it alone if they get portly or add in “goodies” if they need calories like your guy. An outdoor, stall-size medical “paddock” can really help a horse mentally when laid up; building one with four 12’ corral panels can work well. Plus, then you can add in panels to make it larger when the horse is ready for more turnout.

Good luck!

[purplnurpl]

Sesmoid ligament kind if don’t do a ton.

My horse injured his foreleg. Severly brised all the P bones. Put a hole in his sesmoidal ligament and tote the suspensory at the origin cause avulsion fractures.

He was maybe a grade 1 with all that.
what a loser.

My education is in biomechanics. And I’m a kid athlete and have had a crap ton of injuries.

I did PRP in the soft tissues.
He’s fine. I never kept him in a stall. He stayed in a stall with a small paddick. He was sound within 3 months. Then I walked him for 3 months then walked and trotted him for 3 months.
Then rode him at the walk and trot for 3 months.

He went on to event again and then I sold him to a hunter barn where he did 3’6" stuff.

I’ve never had reoccurances with any injuries. I always keep them moving. They may take a lil longer to heal but they heal moving and not tight. So when they go to work stretching the soft tissue out won’t reinjure it.

look into NovaBrace. It cant be used around joints but it’s pretty badass.