Suspensory ligament injury
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April's Fool
30 Apr 2010 21:07
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Hello all,
I'm looking after a horse, who suffered from high suspensory ligament injury in 2007. He was successfully operated on and has been back in full work since. Please could anyone let me know if there is anything extra I could possibly do to help support him? For example, should I cold boot him after exercise, etc. The owner has told me that she isn't doing anything extra at the moment, but still, I'd like to know if there is anything I can do. Thanks very much. Everything / anything would be greatly appreciated.
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Horse Hero Guru
04 May 2010 10:24
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Hi Aprils Fool
If the injury took place in 2007 then it is fully healed by now and the leg should require no special treatment that you would not give to the other three!
I presume that the leg was scanned following treatment and that the vet declared it correctly healed and did not say that there would be any inherent long term weakness.
Many people use cold hosing, cooling boots or stable bandages after fast work, particularly on heavy or hard going, but the fact that some of these methods cool the legs and others aim to keep them warm shows that there are several fields of thought on the matter.
Personally I believe that the best way to prevent injury is to make sure that the horse is fit enough for the work it is doing, and this is achieved by doing a lot of roadwork at a walk. By this I mean work at a walk – well balanced, not a slop along on loose reins.
The best way of treating the legs after exercise actually has two stages. You must make sure that you warm the horse up properly before starting work and that you cool down properly afterwards – that means that you start and finish and work with a good five minutes of walking.
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joallan
27 May 2010 16:12
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I have a standardbred pony with weak conformation behind, this could pre-dispose him to ligament strain (the vet wrote him off as a driving horse, and a riding club horse).
I have experience of thoroughbreds, and have got worse than him on to the racecourse!
All winter, I fed him at one third recommended amount of glucosamine.
If i had one who had already strained ligaments i would give him half the daily amount recommended every day for ever... its an economic weigh scale.
It is up to the owner to make a decision.
Also make sure that he is shod every 6 weeks or according to farrier's recommendation.
Walking and more walking is the answer, keep developing muscles in the hind leg by walking up hills, my boy has gaskins to die for after 7 months of track and hill work, all slow work. He is young (a weak six) and I anticipate he will be sound as a pound for the next 12 years.
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DressageSpain
27 May 2010 16:30
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Can I strongly recommend that as a precaution, you feed him a supplement for joints. I have a horse who suffered from a tendon injury in 2008, and to cut a very long story short, poor vet support, and a non helpful farrier meant the injury kept happening and healed as scarring tissue.
I was extremely lcuky to find the Olympic team vet had moved down to our neck of the woods and after 2 months of his care and a fish collagen supplement combined with msm, my horse is nearly as good as new. The vet was amazed, had never heard of feeding collagen to horses and now has found out where i bought the collagen from in order to feed it to the team horses!!
There is a huge amount of reasearch being done in USA about this very topic and they found that collagen is far more effective than traditional Glucosamin/Chondrohtin supplements as these only help to promote the production of collagen in the body.
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