So, after losing my sweet gelding earlier this year in March to an unexpected and extremely upsetting situation, I found out my horse, Toast, injured her leg the day before he was put down - stepping onto a spot where a pine tree used to be years ago, and sinking down about a foot deep. The injury was diagnosed on 4/10 as a moderate tear and I was told she would need 6-8 months of healing. We immediately began hand walking for five minutes each day and she was put on small paddock turn out, skipping full stall rest since I guess she had already been through the “cooling off” stage. I was trying to give her about 30 minutes of time to graze up by the house in the small yard first thing in the morning, but she lost that privelege by deciding it was a good idea to run and buck and turn back and forth along the fence line because I was walking down the driveway. But, her next ultrasound at about 2 months post confinement showed her lameness had decreased from a grade 2-3 to a grade 1-2 and about 40% healing of the ligament. She had become quite spooky when I’d take her out for walks, once jumping onto my ankle and then ME having an injury - but we soldiered on. I purchased a magnesium supplement called Nupafeed and that seems to help some with that. She’s not had any big episodes during the 9.5 weeks between that second ultrasound and the third, which was this past Friday, 8/15. I was hoping to see some good improvement, but alas - it was a disappointment. She trotted at a grade 2 lameness, and only showed improvement of between 50-60% on ultrasound. The vet feels that the injury was a big bigger than she originally thought but still puts it in the “moderate” catagory.
I am here by myself. I do all of her rehab by myself. She is in a paddock that is about 20X30 including the run in section. The vet feels it is ok. I’ve read so much here and other places and some say allowing them some movement is good so I opted for that area rather than a smaller area only a little bigger than a stall. She’s tolerating that level of confinement pretty well, although not being able to graze like her buddy is very frustrating to her. I’m spacing out her feedings, using a hay pillow or net, allowing her to graze at least 15-30 minutes almost every day, and our walks are up to 15-20 minutes. Due to the slower progress she has made this time, I’m introducing a product called Optiwize - has anybody tried that? And she is scheduled for a PRP injection next week, and then a follow up ultrasound 8 weeks later. The injury is to her left front lateral branch. At least we are assuming that is the only injury. One problems I’m having is she is no longer wanting to pick up her feet for me to clean them. We’ve had TONS of rain this summer and she has developed some thrush, and that is hard for me to treat when I’m here by myself, and don’t want to risk tying her and having her pull back. The thrush is worse in the injuried foot. But the vet does not think it is bad enough to be contributing to her lameness.
How do you all feel about PRP injections - do they help? Should I be concerned that her healing seems to have slowed this time, or that her lameness has not improved? We are at 4 months post diagnosis/confinement. I am just so upset over this - for her and for me. Any further advice? I don’t think I can afford shock wave - my vet does not do that, and the vet who does do it is the group I had such a problem with regarding the care of my other horse who passed away. I also had SW done on one of my horses years ago, for a stifle injury and it didn’t really do anything. Although that injury may have been misdiagnosed. Any suggestions, ideas for enrichment for her, ways to get through this with the best possible outcome and make life easier would be appreciated. She had no interest in the stall toys I bought for her, and was frightened of the mirrors I put up. We have done some trick training that does not require turning. She’s learned smile, smooch, hug, touch it, to pick up a scarf off the ground and give it to me, and to roll the big ball back to me when I roll it to her. I will be so glad when the weather cools off - it’s been brutally hot which isn’t helping.
Shockwave worked wonderfully on my horse when he injured his suspensory ligament 16 years ago. I kept it wrapped with BoT no bows at night as well.
I know another horse in the barn had a hole in her ligament for several years (she had a foal), then had shockwave and healed up to become a riding horse again.
I have no experience with PRP.
I would go for Shockwave. PRP did nothing for my one horse. I had to retire him
Shockwave and Prostride worked for another horse. This one has been back in full work for over a year.
Both horses were hind suspensory.
Do you have access to a class Iv laser? Or red light pads? The pads are easy to use and you can do that yourself daily.
No, but I can see about buying one. Maybe check Amazon? Is there a particular strength I need to be looking for if I were to get the red light?
I bought the XLR8 boots. I have Schneider’s red light pads but found them difficult to use on legs. Horseware now makes the boots, but I think they may be more expensive. They come w two strengths in the lights. I’d look it up but am afraid I’ll lose this post. There is literature/research on both sites. If you can’t find it, I’ll try to figure out how to link it. I hope this helps you.
Would putting her on something like Trazodone be helpful? It is what we use to take the edge off one who needs to stay quiet. And, I’m very, very sorry about your other horse. 
I’m sorry to hear this! My mare injured her right hind suspensory and we did a round of shockwave (3 treatments) plus Renovo. We took a year to rehab and we had not even 2 months “graduated” from rehab before she reinjurred last July. The second time around we decided to just go with shockwave as the vet didn’t think the Renovo helped her as much as she would have liked the first time, and it was likely to be a long rehab again regardless. We were due to start canter work this weekend (as we have done very sloooow rehab progression again), but she cut her foot two weeks ago requiring stitches, so we are set-back in our rehab plans again and will hopefully begin cantering mid-October.
I do think shockwave really helped her (it also helped with a neck injury this winter!) and I would go for that again in a heartbeat.
I’m sorry you are going through this!
I did renovo injection for my guys moderate tendon tear. for his farrier appointments I would wrap his leg for more padded protection and to try and help add support. It was healing but the bow was staying angry until we started pemf treatments. Then I think it was 4 weeks and it had shown a drastic improvement that had us feeling like he was going to come out of this with a successful return to work and not just a return to hacking out. He also stayed turned out though on a fairly decent sized paddock. But we really did not see improvement until month 2.5-3. Then we saw it really starting to improve.
I had my younger Tb reinjure a high suspensory in the right hind. He was a rescue so I’m guessing it happened at 3 & again at 5. He was so painful we stopped the lameness exam because it wasn’t worth anyone getting murdered over. Ultrasound showed a hole, stepping in the ligament & an odd looking texture to it.
I only have 2 & they are not good with being confined to stalls except for meals. I did prostride in the actual suspensory, hocks, stifles & fetlocks. He went on jiaogulan to increase blood flow, tendon support from whole horse herbs & adored beast jump for joynts. I did the prostride in late spring & everyone was quiet because of Florida summers.
Follow up ultrasound in 6 months showed improvement. I didn’t get to see all of the ultrasound but the odd texture was gone & I didn’t see the stepping either. I would definitely use prostride again in the suspensory if needed.
Are you able to use the boots elsewhere on their body? Like by just laying it flat? The gospel red light wraps aren’t so body part specific and I like the idea of being able to use on the neck or back, etc.
Love that they are cordless.
I bought the Schneider’s red light pads first, so I have those to lay on his body. They were awkward to wrap around the leg, so I searched for the boots. I honestly never thought about putting them on his body. I don’t know why you couldn’t. I think I’ll try that tonight. They are much lighter than the pads and just go around his cannon bones. I stack them on top of one another, so I get his knees, as well. I can’t get his hamstrings very well with the pads, so I think I’ll attach the boots to the pad tonight to hang down over his hamstrings. Thanks for the great idea!!!
I feel your pain. I’m 2 1/2 weeks into strict confinement for a stifle injury with my horse. Hand walking, hand grazing, etc.
Did our first shock wave treatment yesterday. The swelling that was evident when diagnosed 2 1/2 weeks ago is gone. We did an anti inflammatory and topical lotion for 10 days plus started a course of Adequan.
I’m not looking at the calendar, going to allow all the time in the world to rehab this right the first time and hope it’s a one & done thing.
Well, based on everything I’ve been reading, we are scheduled for a PRP injection on Thursday and then starting shock wave a week after. Just resigning myself to the fact that this is going to be a long haul and keeping fingers crossed that she actually does heal. Will also look into the red light.
I have rehabbed the same gelding from suspensory injuries to both hinds… done separately because why wouldn’t I want to do a year rehab twice just a year apart? I’ve posted on her before about my rehab plan and that walking vet bill (said with love) is perfectly sound and back to work, but I’ll list the treatment plan I used.
- Reserpine and Ace powder for stall rest
- Fasciotomy on both hinds for suspensory desimitis
- PRP on one, Prostride on the other
- Shockwave series-- I think it was 5 or 6, but my other post would have the number
- Class IV cold laser (this made the biggest difference in removing the residual swelling)
- Strict rehab schedule provided by vet that lasted months
- No turnout until cantering under saddle; he got a small medical paddock for supervised “turnout”
- Complete farrier overhaul with fancy suspensory support shoes. Horse still has a modified version of that shoe to this day.
- Supplements: I added just silica the second time, but the first time I used a PP product that was too expensive IMHO
Renovo Equine! my guy had a mid with a outer branch tear that was Mod-Severe in December. Renovo Equine is amazing. We did three sets of shockwave too. When doing the Renovo equine, we did a shockwave right after.
We did hand walking 15 minutes twice a day for two weeks then tack walking for 15 minutes. Added a minute each way weekly until we reached 50 minutes.
Added trotting one minute each way each week until 60 min and then started cantering. What i did was trotting in the middle. So walking half the time, trotting, walk. Turn other direction walk, trot, walk. Bul slowly. when trotting a min, I would do 10 second down the long side of the ring and walk in the corners.
We also reset the walking until we got to 30 minutes (15 each way) and added the trotting again when he got the treatment.
The healing from Renovo equine exceeded my vet’s expectations and my guy is sound.
Take your time with the rehab and enjoy walking. I actually learned how to ride my horse with the walking, lol.
There are also some meds you can give longterm if you are concerned for her reactivity and/or your safety. I am not one to suggest meds right away but for some circumstances they make sense. When my guy was cooped up it was either medicate or he or I was going to get hurt. It is temporary, does not have long-term effects, and works out of their system before you know it. Plus, I realized that I definitely needed more meds when he was cleared enough for me to swing a leg over him. Heck no! Let’s medicate for safety. Just another option to consider in your overall healing plan. Keep at it. You’ve got this.
Shockwave is expensive, but it can be very helpful for ligaments. I think there are better biologics than PRP to use for this like ProStride or Renovo.
There are some affordable handheld cold lasers out there.
We opted for Alpha2 and 4 rounds of Shockwave 3 weeks apart for my guy. Rehab was slow and steady. I really love Veredus Magnetik Stable boots vs bandages. They were reccomended by our sports medicine vet. My horse loathes any sort of boot or bandage, will destroy and remove, but adores these boots. He wore them 24/7 during his rehab. They obviously make him more comfortable and now he wears them every night. At the 9 week mark, we added PEMF to aid his recovery. He’s back to showing thanks to our wonderful vet.
I’d also reccomend adding a good amino supplement (ex:tri amino) and we are liking GChill by Synutra (for gut and anxiety support).
