After just recently getting the all-clear to resume (dressage) work from another soft tissue injury, a few weeks ago, horse presented with a subtle irregularity at the trot that, at first, would work out of quickly. In the last few weeks, it became an obvious lameness at the trot (but still worked out of too quickly to effectively do much blocking [and totally sound at the walk]), and a recent work up at a clinic (high/low block, rads and US) lead us to find a hypoechoic lesion on the cranial medial meniscotibial ligament (in the stifle). I have no idea how long this injury may have been quietly brewing in the background, since the horse has only recently come back into work, but the last few weeks has gotten worse someone quickly.
Clinic vet didn’t think it was a tear, but didn’t seem to have much more detail in terms of what that meant - is it a strain? How do the fibers look? Who knows. Because it shows up as a black spot on US (hence, hypoechoic), I didn’t get a lot of detail. He recommended two more courses of shockwave (one administered at the clinic), then re-check in 3 months. Horse can stay in turnout (as long as she’s quiet) and stay tack walking a few times a week. Vet didn’t give the impression of being too concerned about it, so I can’t tell if he’s too optimistic or I’m too cynical.
I will talk to my regular sports vet this week to get his perspective, but has anyone else dealt with this? Either a “hypoechoic lesion” or a “cranial medial meniscotibial ligament” injury specifically? This seems to be a somewhat obscure (literally - had to put the leg on a lift to shockwave the right ligament) stifle ligament, so I’m not finding a lot online about it. I’m willing to do all the things to get this to heal, assuming we think it can. But I’ve just spent two years chasing other soundness issues, so want to be realistic of how much more healing and waiting and chasing I want to do here - if this kind of injury doesn’t heal well, I want to know.
