Has anyone had luck healing soft tissue damage?
I adopted a horse that I’m very attached to. He has an old broken splint (looking at surgery) and waiting on an ultrasound for secondary soft tissue/suspensory damage. I don’t mind waiting and taking the time he needs, but will he ever be trail walking sound again?
It depends on the severity of the injury, but my horse injured his suspensory in two places (high hind and partial tear away from sesamoid bone) seven years ago and he is perfectly sound on it.
I did shockwave, stall rest, cold therapy, and Back on Track wraps. And Pro Choice boots when he returned to work. The vet said the post healing ultrasound looked like that of a horse half his age.
[QUOTE=Melansontl;8766428]
Has anyone had luck healing soft tissue damage?
I adopted a horse that I’m very attached to. He has an old broken splint (looking at surgery) and waiting on an ultrasound for secondary soft tissue/suspensory damage. I don’t mind waiting and taking the time he needs, but will he ever be trail walking sound again?[/QUOTE]
Sure, it is absolutely possible. And as RedHorses said, it depends on the nature and extent of the injury, your horse, his age, overall health, and ability to rehab properly. There are lots of success stories about healing soft tissue injuries on this site.
There are several schools of thought for soft tissue injury and all have merit. Rest is probably the key, and you can support the rest with adjunct therapies like shockwave, laser, or something like PRP if warranted. These treatments may hasten healing. Given enough rest, many horses self heal just fine.
Sounds like you need to gather some more information on what exactly the issue is and of course, see what is recommended to your case. Good Luck!
Most horse owners will have to deal with a soft tissue injury at some point in their lives - those actively competing at the upper levels of any discipline probably see more than their fair share.
Don’t panic.
Most horses are able to recover from most soft tissue injuries to at least the level you are seeking - pleasure horses. If this is an old injury that was not properly treated when it occurred, that will make it more challenging, but certainly not impossible.
Get the vet out to ultrasound, and write down the results. You want to know what tendons and ligaments are injured, what type of injury is it, where on the tendon/ligament is it located, and if it’s a tear - what percentage is torn.
If it is in the hoof, you may have to discuss other diagnostics besides ultrasound.
Then you want to know all of your options. To help you organize your thoughts before you talk with the vet, here’s a partial list of things to discuss:
- confinement/controlled exercise (stall rest, small paddock, hand walking, etc.)
- Cold therapy to reduce inflammation (ice or cold hose multiple times per day)
- Heat therapy for circulation if you are past the acute phase (Back on Track)
- External therapies (therapeutic ultrasound, cold laser, shockwave)
- Injectable therapies (PRP, IRAP, stem cell, Pro-Stride)
- Wrapping (for swelling)
- Surgery (if the horse has a splint, perhaps you’re dealing with suspensory involvement from the scar tissue. If you’re going in to remove the scar tissue, consider what can be done for the suspensory surgically, if anything)
