suspensory ligament

Wicked

my horse had inflamtion in her leg and i got the vet out to look at it. He said her suspensory ligament is inflamed but she will be fine for a riding horse.

their is no lameness on it and she isn't in pain but he said it will always be a little swelled.

is there anything i can do to help this i.e exercise bandages when riding etc? or have any of you any experience in having a horse with this.

she is a tb.

thanks everyone

biomech

tricky one... id def recommend leaving the swelling go down and plenty rest before you take her out again... did the vet advise on box rest or anything??
without an ultrasound from an expert to be sure that the swelling is not coming from a minor tear or anything... i think your taking a risk... been in the same situation with my mare..
struck into herself one sunday after slipping on a bend.. leg up for a few days and standing in a river every day for a week brought the swelling down... ran 2 or 3 more times and no probs, pulling up sound but we still kept up the river treatment.. flaired up real bad for a finish so just put her in foal while she still had a leg to stand on....
i recall being advised against bandages at the time as im not used to bandageing and it could cause friction that would make the leg worse..

Chindato

Ligaments once stretched do not unstretch. However, time and a good physiotherapist might be able to do a lot for your horse.

Wicked

Well, the plan was to race her but just before her first race last year she swelled up on her leg, so we decided to let her off, let her out for two months and brought her back in this week. She's only four.

Vet scanned it and gave the diagnosis, he said there is no point in training her for racing because she would eventually break down with all the hard work, he did say that she will be fine as a riding horse. I have no problem with this. As i said she is only a four year old and she's never seen a race track so its not in her head,

The retraining part i can do. In my opinion there's no point in putting her in foal now because you won't get the money for the foal, maybe in a few years if the whole economy picks up, she's going back out tot he field today for another rest - maybe until winter and then back in.

so for riding would boots be better than bandages - i'd say she'd need some support on it.

i don't want to give up on her.

convert

As Chindato said, once a ligament is damaged, it never heals properly.

Did the vet recommend to give her stable rest? Or did s/he say it was ok to turn her out? If it's still swollen, it might be an idea to keep her in for a while until most of the swelling goes down and the leg isn't 'gummy' to feel. Some inhand walking (or if you have a walker, it would be handier) wouldn't go astray, as she'd still be getting gentle exercise. The ideal would be 10 minutes twice a day.

Bandaging, although providing support, doesn't really help all that much as the minute you take off the bandages the leg will start to swell again.

As biomech said, if you have a river or stream nearby, standing her in it for as long as she will stay there (15-20 minutes, if possible) will really do the world of good for her leg as it's getting cold treatment and the flowing of the water massages the leg. If you don't have a stream or river nearby, you could try cold hosing it.

That's such a pity about your mare - it's heartbreaking when something like that happens, especially when they're so young. But if the vet is happy that her leg will stand up to normal riding, then you're lucky and have great times to look forward to with her.

Wicked

its fairly gut wrenching alright but at least i can still ride her.

he said we can let her out, she's happier out anyway. the swelling is at its minimum now so when i have the arena finished she'll be back in for some happy hacking

Chindato

Your best friend with a ligament injury is time - plenty of it
Turn the mare out for the winter, then review in the spring. Keep her out of heavy/ loose going - think how hard your own muscles/ ligaments have to work if your footing isn't stable. When you bring her back into work, the key is to build the workload slow, and keep turns down to a minimum - and again don't work on loose going.

Ligament injuries are caused either by a direct blow to the area, or by a mis-step which has resulted in the over-extension of that leg. Bandages or boots might give some protection against the former, but they can do nothing to prevent the latter.

Bandaging can be counterproductive at worst, and non-effective at best - the 'pull' on a leg is vertical - think of a rubber band stretching: it doesn't swell outwards as it works - it stretches out and returns to normal. So how bandages are supposed to 'support' is questionable. A tight bandage may actually interfere with the natural sliding of the tendons (deep and superficial) and make the leg's structures less able to function effectively.

To give you some hope: a horse I bred overextended a foreleg when he was a yearling by stepping at speed into a shallow trench when he was scooting out of the way of a playmate. He strained a check ligament. Anti inflammatories did their work, followed by time and more time. Horse started a little lungeing at three and was fine, then was broken at four. The ligament has never given him a day's bother. He's now 8.

Wicked

i'm weary about leaving her out all winter as i fear it is going to be another wet year and with that brings uneven surfaces and ploughed up fields, thats why i was going to bring her in for the winter and lightly hack her to the river and soft work.

when we were riding her reguarly she had a habit of switching legs the whole time, the vet said this would have aided the injury. although he didn't say to let her off for X amount of time, he was quiet clear that she can be ridden and slowly brought on, which i fully understood.

now that she has been in for a week or more her leg has completely gone down, i know when i let her out again that it will flair up because she's very playful and will want to kick and buck with the others.

p.s thanks for all the advice

biomech

time time and more time... especially when she is so young.. itll do her no harm... double any rest the vet advises... maybe taking the back shoes off her when ya do leave her off might be a good idea... but seriously as has been said.. just leave her and let her heal.

RE: bandages.. we used to use front boots on another mare when hurdleing,, had really good tendon protection built in.. basically steal plates over the tendon..

youll have a lovely energetic, lively and interesting hack on your hands for next summer but not before... hope she comes right for ya.

convert

biomech wrote: »

RE: bandages.. we used to use front boots on another mare when hurdleing,, had really good tendon protection built in.. basically steal plates over the tendon...

Are those boots very heavy or are they the light weight ones?

Wicked

will do thanks everyone