Suspensory Injury

[Highflyer]

[QUOTE=Flying 5B Warmbloods;8543715]
Update: after about a week of standing wraps, pain medication, and rest, I have seen a substantial improvement in the amount of swelling on her leg and her pain level seems to have decreased. However, she is definitely still hurting and the swelling is still present. Obviously I am not expecting any immediate improvements and am in this for the long haul, but I was researching different treatments and I came across several articles talking about fetlock support shoes to help relieve the stress put on the fetlock to help speed the healing process. I am definitely willing to try the aforementioned treatments but I am really intrigued by this, and was wondering if anyone has tried these shoes before and if they have found success with this extra leg support? Thanks in Advance!
Here is the link to one of the published articles: www.americanfarriers.com/articles/218-fetlock-support-shoe-helps-suspensory-ligament-injuries[/QUOTE]

Have you ultrasounded it recently or not? While I have seen something similar done it was a last ditch effort applied by a very, very knowledgeable farrier at a vet hospital. It’s not something I would do under other circumstances. It also wasn’t successful and the horse was euthanized.

[IPEsq]

It used to be that you’d put on special shoes to raise the heel and support the fetlock when you were dealing with a soft tissue injury to the structures that are put under stress with fetlock extension (flexor tendons and the suspensory ligaments, etc.). This is no longer SOP for most injuries of this kind because you need some controlled stress on the structures in order for them to heal in a more elastic manner. Otherwise, you just keep the injured tissue in a shortened state for it to develop inelastic scar tissue and become more prone to reinjury.

[mroades]

What IPesq said is what I have known to be true. Seems like a good idea but doesn’t work for the long term

[joiedevie99]

I knew a horse with a very bad DDFT tear. I know nothing about the veterinary care the horse received early on - but I met the horse about 3 months post tear, with a custom patten bar shoe. The horse recovered enough to be pasture sound with a large wedge on, but could not place the heel on the ground while the farrier was resetting the shoe.

[LittleLegsBigStride]

My horse had a tear in a hind suspensory AND one of the lower branches. The branch only took a few months to heal but the actual suspensory ligament took MUCH longer. My horse tore his in June 2014 getting cast in his stall (only months after my other horse died, suspensory boy was supposed to be my project to keep me into horses).
His first months were basic: stall rest, then hand walking, then slowly increasing time, then in hand trotting. The show barn I was at wasn’t equipped to handle rehabs, so I ended up moving him to a closer barn with smaller paddocks (luckily the owners are well off and SO kind, and actually had pastures/a barn built for one of their hunters with the exact same injury. He made a full recovery and is still jumping, now in his late teens).
So, our progress has been slow, but I have another horse to work so I’m in now hurry and we’ve been taking our time. I finally rode in August (14 months since our last ride). Ace can be your best friend. First cantered late September and we’re now up to 45 minutes of walk/trot/canter under saddle. Absoltely NO small circles.

I’ve found that the hardest part isn’t actually healing the dang thing, it’s keeping them entertained. A slow feed hay net only goes so far. My horse had a million toys to play with. He even learned how to play a 4 key baby piano and would go up and down the keys with his upper lip. Loved baby rattles. I would also hang empty milk jugs or kitty litter jugs in his stall and he loved to crush them and seemed to like the interesting smells.

Just to add- we did do shockwave therapy, ultrasounds, and even an x ray to make sure it was ONLY the ligament. He is barefoot and has been his entire life.