Suspensory. Tell me everything.

[Xanthoria]

Ok I saw another vet last night. He has been around forever and is quite conservative but says go ahead and remove the shoes - from a mechanical perspective theres no reason to keep them unless horse is on soft footing and needs support to place less stress on the suspensory.

Yeah you’re probably right that Vet #1 was saying I coukd vs should remove the shoes.

I would prefer to trim horse myself for a bit tho. His quarters need work and he’s wearing shoes that collect a lot of poo in them and thrush is appearing despite cleaning the stall multiple times a day.

[Nevada10]

I’ve dealt with two. I didn’t do surgery on one… just hand walking and shockwave and she never came sound again. I did surgery on the other and he made a speedy recovery… less than 5 months if I remember right.

[AdultAmateur]

This is a very tough injury. Do all you can. Get him injected and do the shock wave series. I am almost at the end of rehab for Proximal Suspensory Desmitis and I did not know how hard it would be to heal. (Sounds like the same as your horse without the tear.) Since my horse did not have a tear, he did not have to have stall rest. Monitor and keep record of the ultra sound reports. Between 3 and 6 months my horse still had thickening of the ligament and there was still some inflammation. His ligament measured 1.7 square cm where the other hind was a very normal 1.5 square cm. At this point, I really freaked out. I figured that if he was still in pain and still had inflammation, the best way to get rid of it would be ice. I bought ice boots from Dover for $75. Every morning he stood in the ice boots for 20 minutes and then I wrapped him in a cold poultice for the day. In the early evening, I cold hosed the poultice off and stood him in the ice boots again for another 20 minutes. I did this for a few weeks and every ride (20 minutes walk with some trot sets) got better and better. I went to the clinic 3 weeks after the ice/poultice routine. After the initial flexions, the vet actually said, “Why are we here?” I was so happy! When the ultrasound vet did her thing she said his ligament looked great. I asked for the measurements. 1.5 square cm and NO inflammation! I felt like it was a miracle. I did end up finding out that he now has some inflammation in the diagonal front leg from compensating for the hind all this time. So, I have a minor setback. It looks like three more months of ice, poultice and wrapping - of walk and trot, and then another ultrasound at 90 days. If everything is good, I’ll start to add canter. If things go as planned, it will be one full year start to finish. The hind suspensory injuries are so much harder than the front. Get him injected with whatever your vet suggests and do shock wave and all the rehab you can. At this point, I’ve decided to buy a Game Ready machine for rehab and prevention. I never want to go through this again.

[Janet_Conway]

I have a horse who suffered suspensory tear in 2008 when he was 7yo. We did rest, meds, and shockwave therapy. 9 months later, he was not better. So, he had surgery (cuniectomy and arthrodesis), and within a few short months he was good as new, and pleased to report that as of today, no issues have returned. Personally, I would go straight for surgery if I could do it all over again.

Best of luck!