Tie back surgery experiences, did it help your horse's performance?

[aks28]

Hello everyone! My dressage horse was just diagnosed as a stage 4 left laryngeal hemiplegia, commonly referred to as roaring.

I am not so much concerned about the sound. What I am concerned about is his comfort and performance. He use to love his work and would happily move forward. Now, he barely wants to trot most days, I can tell he is struggling to breathe and his frame is now inconsistent. He is a lower level dressage horse. His exercise intolerance is my main concern.

I have tried to read everything possible on the treatments available. Most of what I have read seems to only touch on correcting the noise. What I would really appreciate is input on whether or not you noticed an improvement in breathing, performance and exercise intolerance. Success and failure stories welcome!

More into - I have a great vet, all other issues that would cause him not to be happy in his work have been ruled out, saddle fit is wonderful and readjusted/maintained regularly. He is a happy/healthy horse in all other aspects. 9 year old Trakehner.

Thank you in advance for your input!

[BruBoy]

We had tie back surgery and a ventriculocordectomy (left side) on our 6 year old gelding this past August.

The surgery was complicated because he had very little cartilage to stitch the flapper to. Two stitches instead of three were used (though I have subsequently read that 2 stitches are fine) and a 45 minute surgery ended up taking 3.5 hours.

The procedure was done under standing sedation and this greatly reduced our worry because he is 18 hands.

He recovered without incidence (even though he escaped a couple of times from stall rest, escaped the barn and galloped around like an idiot back to his herd trying to call them with his windy voice) and is treated like a normal horse. He occasionally lets out a cough, has had a runny nose a couple of times and his whinny is a pathetic but it was worth it.

He could not run around the field with his herd or work under saddle without really struggling to breath. His last scope showed a significant improvement in the airway opening and he is no longer winded. He has a lot more energy (this makes him a bit cheekier under saddle because he is really green) and is happy.

My mare is a partial roarer on the left side but if she progressed to stage 4, I would definitely consider tie-back surgery again with a competent large animal hospital.

[Nickelodian]

I would consider a ventriculectomy over a tie back. Much less likelihood of complications, easier recovery time. I have always seen significant performance improvement from this surgery in stage 4 horses.

[danacat]

The 8 yr. old OTTB I recently adopted had tie back surgery for racing – I don’t know the details, was just told by previous owner that it was done quite a few years ago and was successful.

He gallops around the pasture with no abnormalities. Whinnies loud and clear but does cough when eating and gets a runny nose on occasion. Sloppy wet feed + hay fed on the ground doesn’t really seem to help; this is the only complication I see so far.

[BigMick]

My big draft cross had a tieback done at Hagyard (Lexington, KY) almost 2 years ago. He was scoped and identified as a 3 out of 4 - so an ideal candidate for the procedure. There were no complications with the procedure and he was released two days later. The after care is really critical to a good outcome. You have to keep them stallbound for several weeks so they don’t risk tearing out the stitches. The cartilage needs to “lock” into the new, open position.

Once he went back to work, the difference was remarkable. Immediately his work ethic and endurance was improved. He became fitter and stronger because he tolerated work so much better. Out fox hunting, you can’t hear him at all when we’re galloping and he can go and go and go…

I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

[luvmyhackney]

I’ve done after care for many horses that has had it done. It helped on all but 1 of them. Aftercare is the most important part and you must be diligent to keep the horse chill and in his stall quiet. I was in NC and we only used vets in KY preferably Rood and Riddle and Hagyard. They do so many surgeries they have encountered almost every situation possible. The one horse that it wasn’t that successful was done at NC State.

[BroncoMo]

I’m curious about this too as I have a QH hunter who roars. I recently had a standing scope done (though he is scheduled for dynamic scope and surgery at Rood and Riddle in February) and discovered the paralysis as well as some pretty angry inflammation.

I’m hoping surgery doesn’t add to his already hotness, but we are assuming that it might calm some of his anxiety. When showing, he just builds and builds, assuming the more winded he gets as he works, the more anxious he gets. I’ll report back but super interested in how it helps performance. And by performance I don’t mean how he’s scored, but rather his energy, stamina, and comfort level.

[Hokie85]

I am also very interested in this post. I have a 17.2 hand Westphalian gelding that has been roaring for years. I am trying to move up the levels in dressage. We are currently at third level. I had him scoped years ago to confirm the issue. I think he was a 3 or 4 at the time. However the vet told me he didn’t recommend the surgery since he was in dressage and not endurance or racing. He also indicated that care from there on out is more difficult. My question is does asking for the collection needed at this level compromise his ability to breath? At times he has a lot of mucous after riding. He always coughs when we start riding. He has had three occasions of bleeding from his nostrils. These have been very minor and short in duration and months if not years apart. You can hear his breathing at the walk. I am about to have him scoped again. Has anyone had experience with throat surgeons in the TX or OK area? Has anyone had a dynamic scope while the horse is in collection?

[shayaalliard]

My new OTTB was given to me because even after the tie-back he had too many fitness/breathing issues to run XC. No problem with the lighter workload I do. He has to eat wetted food off the ground and he snots on everything. He doesn’t cough much with the wet food, but he does with dusty feed.