Hello! I can find tons and tons of questions and articles about suspensory tears, but not strains… Has anyone rehabbed one? Did your horse return back to 100% after rehab? My horse’s prognosis is amazing, but I would just like to hear other’s experiences.
Front or hind?
Mine is just now back into work after suspensory strains (slight damage, no tears) on both fronts. He was diagnosed in March. So it’s been a long road, but the last scan (2 weeks ago) was normal.
My horse strained his suspensory, no tears. Front leg.
He got his leg iced down every day, and did a dmso wrap with plastic wrap on the outside to get the swelling down. He was on bute. Once the swelling was down, did poultice nightly, stall rest with hand walking/grazing. it took like 6months if I remember correctly before I started riding him(lightly). just walking for the first two weeks and added like 2-3 minutes of trotting ( on firm footing), I didn’t bring him back to full work for about 9-10 months total.
He mad a full recovery and has no limitations in work.
Uughh! I have been doing this for 8 months! The only saving grace is that it is not my horse.
He had surgery Jan. 20 on what turned out to be an old injury. All was well, dealing with the “program” and a horse who did not want to be on stall rest. Then there was the riding part on a horse who was a bad actor before this started but it went well and had a good ultrasound May 31. Proceeded with the program until he started going lame in late June. Find out in late July he has reinjured it!!!
New program. Progressing.
I highly recommend Zylkene. It keeps them quiet!! Way better than Resurpine.
Still on “stall rest” with walking on a gravel road and now trotting. With my vest on in this terrible heat. So done with this!
Good luck!!!
We had a horse at our barn with a suspension strain and he was on stall rest for a while. Then was allowed to slowly start doing some light work after it had healed. He returned to 100% normal after it was healed.
My horse strained the suspensory branch last April. My rehabbing experience seems to be much different then everyone else that has posted. My regular vet and the ultrasound vet both gave their blessing for him to continue turnout, since he is so quiet. Ultrasound showed abnormal fibres and no tears, and a nerve block confirmed the diagnosis. He had two solid months of no work, icing, and wrapping with a poltice for the first two weeks. There was never any swelling.
Once we got the go-ahead to start riding, we did two weeks of walking with straight line trotting once in each direction towards the end of those two weeks. We did straight line trots for another two weeks, gradually increasing the number of lines we did. He was back in w/t/c work by November. He also had a slight rocking motion with the hoof of the injured leg, which the vet said would aggravate things, so the farrier put him in a 1 degree lift pad to stop the rocking.
He is 100% sound now. I do baby him a bit more now, icing after hard rides, and Voltarin gel.
Ugh. Suspensories can suck! We had a nice hunter mare slip in the mud at a horse show landing off a jump and blow both her front suspensories at once. It was horrific to watch. Two partial tears, right front was worse then the left. We immediately had her ultrasounded and x rayed by the horse show vet then shipped to a clinic for better imaging. Ice therapy, anti inflammatories, corrective shoeing, therapeutic wrapping and total stall rest were prescribed. She went back for a stem cell treatment on her right front, the worse of the two tears, and had several shock wave therapy treatments on both fronts. She was on total stall rest for eight months. Then on stall rest with hand walking increments for four months. She was then allowed into small turn out for three months and then we pulled her shoes turned her out with two quiet retirees for a year. We put her back into light work after getting new ultrasounds last year and slowly built her back up. She’s now packing an adult around the low modified hunters and you would never know that she could barely walk two years ago. We are incredibly cautious about the footing she works in (she’ll never even trot a cross rail in slightly muddy footing ever again!!) but she hasn’t taken a lame step since we started back to work. Her example was pretty extrem but I’ve found with enough patients most suspensory injuries, especially strains can be rehabbed successfully. Good luck! 
I’ve rehabbed quite a few strained suspensories…haven’t had one not come back 100% but we also didn’t rush them back to work and had vet recheck once a month so we knew how healing process was going so we could alter plan as needed.
My mare strained a suspensory almost 2 years ago after being trimmed slightly unevenly for a while, then a show in super sloppy footing. Per the vet, she was on stall rest for a few months but I was allowed to tack walk her on straight lines for that time. We slowly introduced short trots down the long sides of the arena and eventually built back up to large circles and canter. She’s fine now and back to work 100% (different farrier though!).
BrookdaleBay : Your time margin is EXACTLY what mine is supposed to be! Strained suspensory in April, is supposed to be back WTC in November. No swelling or tears, and a nerve block confirmed the diagnosis.
