Tell me about SI injections with IRAP

[starsandsun]

My 8 year old has been uncomfortable for awhile now. Brilliant trot work, but canter transitions are fairly explosive most of the time. While the canter itself feels ok after a bit, the moments prior to cantering are also very tense, with his anticipation. It is clearly not the canter he was showing me as a 4-5 year old. He’s short-coupled, and can do amazing half-pass and collection, but something seems pretty obviously not right. Massage work has shown persistent, recurring tightness on the right side, and monthly chiro/accupuncture has always shown him a 3-4 out of 5 on the right around SI.

He has always dragged a hind toe (but on the left side), and had surgery last year to remove an OCD lesion in his left stifle.

Since he was 2-3, he’s been on monthly Legend injections, gets 4000 units of natural Vitamin E twice per day, and is on Platinum Performance. No grain, and has a mix of alfalfa and orchard grass. Tons of turnout with his buddy, and is in work 4-5 times per week.

Ultrasound done last month shows a slight abnormality (?) in the SI joint … what I might describe in my non-vet language as a tiny spur. I had a bone scan last year and it showed nothing of concern anywhere, so we didn’t think to look at any potential pain from the SI area … and even that scan that came out of an effort to learn more about his grinding/ulcers that started without a clear cause and went on for months and months (treated for 3 months with gastroguard and misoprostol, and scoped clean). Also, FWIW, there is some thought he’s very tight through his psoas, but only because he is obviously more comfortable when we do stretching exercises (that require 2 people) specifically for the psoas.

We are trying IRAP today to see if we can get him more comfortable, but I’m interested in others’ experiences and how horses improve/recover.

[outerbanks77]

I had my mare’s SI injected this spring. Her backstory is that she probably had an SI injury when she was 2 or 3, and thus her sacrum is not level and she carries her left hip low. I bought her at 4 and improved her a lot through dressage work, then she injured her RH DDFT and coffin bone fall of her 5 year old year, and was laid up for a year (stall rest and hand walking), brought back slowly under saddle for six months, with canter starting in January and the DDFT was cleared for full work around March, but she was clearly having hind end issues as she was brought back into work. She would get tense, shove her neck out and tighten her topline, had trouble with the right lead, etc. I tried to fix it with in hand work, body work, PEMF, laser, etc., but finally went for the SI injections, and she has improved steadily since then. She was back to work within a few days, but it was not like there was a sudden improvement after the treatment, and I’ve continued with her body work to keep things going in the right direction. She was just touching on lateral work before the whole injury, and over the summer she has developed SI/Renvers/Travers and touching on trot HP as well as her gaits improving quite a bit, so I definitely think it was key to getting us on the road back to dressage training.