My horse had arthroscopy on his stifle for a meniscus tear this week. Vet found that the tear went beneath the femoral condyle and also chondromalacia. His prognosis was poor. Horse did the 1.50 4 years ago and has slowly been going downhill. It took using a lameness locator to identify the stifle as the issue - he wasn’t ever lame, it showed up as performance issues. Our plan is PRP + laser, then re-evaluate in 3 months.
Does anyone have experience with these injuries?
There’s another thread going in this category “Prostride and meniscus damage” - my understanding is that Prostride is a combination of PRP + IRAP, so a similar treatment. There are some positive accounts as well as some not-so-positive over in that thread. Fingers crossed it works for your horse!
That’s definitely a tough diagnosis. I’m so sorry. I had to retire one of mine with a bad stifle and my older one has issues just from wear and tear.
I’d lean toward ProStride instead of just PRP since it also contains IRAP for anti inflammatory effect.
I did just PRP a few years back for desmitis of the medial patellar ligament. Then 6 mo of rest. It didn’t help and was a bummer. Noltrex helped for a few months.
Wishing the best for your horse. Please let us know what you choose and how he does. May take some prolonged rest to heal- meniscal tears are tough.
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Thank you both. The vet is more concerned about the chondromalacia than the tear. This horse is a little spooky and used to get better as the show week went on, but towards the end of our showing his best day was day 1 and then he would start stopping the more classes he did. This behavior is consistent with what I’ve read about humans with chondromalacia - the more they run the worse it feels. I think it’s a fairly uncommon diagnosis so I haven’t found much to read in terms of horses.
I’m sorry you are dealing with this. My horse has moderate chondromalacia in his stifle and has never been sound enough to ride. I tried stem cell replacement, Prostride, Noltrex. Nothing has helped. When he was first diagnosed, he had 7 months of stall rest. Interesting that your horse was not lame…mine was and is very lame. He has been retired for 10 years and is still lame.
I’m sorry to hear that but thank you for sharing. Did you find it via arthroscopy?
Yes–the chondromalacia was found via arthroscopy. My horse was not initially super lame but had trouble maintaining canter and would switch leads behind. Occasionally he would hike his bad leg. As time went on he became more and more lame. I hope you have a better outcome than I did. Good luck.
My vet injects under the patella and I’ve seen it make a difference. I have been wondering if injecting under the patella with one of the new joint gels would help the chondromalacia? I assume the underside of the patella is roughened and perhaps a gel could help keep it lubricated and sliding. Just a theory.
I agree with pro stride for the meniscus.
Thanks for sharing the symptoms and diagnosis. Trouble holding canter/swapping leads can be one of those mystery lamenesses that are hard to pinpoint.
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I just wanted to check in and see if the OP or anyone else had any updates.
I have a horse who was diagnosed with a pretty large area of condromalacia on the femoral head about a year ago. We did PRP then Noltrex, and gave her seven months off. She has been slowly rehabbing since then.
Just hoping to hear some more experiences. For those whose horses were sound, did they stay sound? If not, where did the wheels come off?
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My guy has been retired since October. We did PRP but it didn’t help.
Better luck to you!
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