Soundness: Tell us your success stories!
Jan 03 2009
I have a reader whose young gelding has just sustained an upward fixation of the patella. She has, understandably, been googling like crazy trying to learn more about this injury and the chances of a successful 100% rehab and she suggested a blog topic about serious injuries we have successfully rehabbed. I think that’s a great idea, so we’re going to talk about that for the rest of the weekend!
Here are some of mine:
Lameness: Dead lame, could barely walk. Would only move his feet forward a few inches at a time.
Initial Diagnosis: Navicular
Recommendation: Euthanasia
I got the horse to my place and the first thing my vet did was pull the shoes (egg bars with pads). The farrier had not sealed the pads in the back and because the barn the horse came out of wasn’t very clean, the gelding had developed thrush under the pads. His frogs were gone. The feet were rotting out – totally disgusting. The horse was arthritic (normal for his age, 20 at the time) but my vet did not see navicular.
Treatment: Trimmed and kept barefoot, shot up with Adequan for the arthritis, turned outside to live 24/7 in the snow (no mud – snowy and frozen conditions)
Result: Sound three weeks later. Playing polo again another month after that. Retired sound 5 years later.
Lameness: Yearling had a explosive moment and got loose with his blanket halfway removed. It, of course, came down around his front legs as he was running and he got tangled with one knee bent through the knee hole and one leg down. No apparent injury immediately afterward. Several hours later, found him dragging the leg that had been down like a limp noodle. I mean, dragging. The leg appeared to be totally dead. I was certain I was going to have to euthanize him.
Diagnosis: My vet correctly guessed it over the phone from my description – radial nerve injury. She came out shortly afterward and that is what it was.
Treatment: Rest and bute. He hobbled around pitifully for about two weeks but improved from there. He looked slightly off for about two more months and then made a full recovery.
Lameness: Teenaged AQHA gelding, got his hind end run over in a polo game. Very, very lame and massive swelling all around the hock area. Serious “elephant leg.”
Diagnosis: I don’t remember all the specifics but he sustained a badly strained stifle and torn tendons around the hock.
Treatment: After a period of rest, we started a very specific exercise program involving backing up in hand, ponying at a trot and free longeing and being asked to do rollbacks. He started off still looking lame, and par for the course with a stifle injury, became sounder as he became fitter. He returned to polo probably a year later and played until he started losing his sight with no further lameness. I credit this one 100% to proper conditioning. We built up the muscles he needed to support the injured area and prevent re-injury.
Lameness/Diagnosis: Three year old AQHA mare, both tendons bowed, both tendons blistered – full of pus and infected. Dumped at dealer’s that way.
Treatment: After healing up the flesh wounds and curing the infection with antibiotics, alternated ultrasound and laser treatment. Vet had new machines and wanted to use mare to see how well they worked 
Donated use of machines! Results were absolutely stunning. The mare’s tendons wound up looking close to normal and she came back completely sound. I wish I had before-and-after pictures of this one, because you would never believe it. My friends pulled her off the dealer’s lot in 1989 fully expecting to euthanize her, and as far as I know she is alive and well and may even still be playing polo today!
Those are four of the worst lameness I’ve seen horses come back from. Normally, the ones I’ve failed with are horses who have multiple conditions. For example, I have a mare who has arthritis, ringbone and suspensory damage. I don’t expect to get her sound enough to ever ride again. Right now she is sound enough to trot, canter and beat up everybody else in the pasture and I think that is as good as we are going to get. Her riding days are over, but she is also 23 and worked hard most of her life. However, I think this thread will reassure those of you who are dealing with one serious problem that your odds of a successful result are good.
The main things I have learned over the years are:
(a) you have to slowly and consistently re-condition a horse who has had an injury if you want him to stay sound. That means riding 5-6 days a week and taking it very slow at first. I know nobody likes to get on and just walk for 30 minutes. Listen to your ipod, talk on the phone if your horse is sane enough…but make yourself do it. Ride someone else’s horse if you must canter and jump.
(b) I don’t believe in stall rest. I know there are some situations where it is unavoidable, like a break, but I know I don’t believe in it for any kind of tendon injury. I always keep them moving and walking around. Maybe they just go out in the round pen by themselves, but they walk around. I believe this stops scar tissue from forming and increases the odds that you will be able to return the horse to hard work, even after a bad bow. I also think it keeps them sane and keeps them from exploding and re-injuring.
(c) Check legs every time you ride. NEVER ride a horse with ANY heat or swelling in a front tendon. Swelling in back tendons can be “stocking up” from standing in a stall but that will go away in the first 5-10 minutes of walking if that’s what it is. Know your horse’s legs and know what is normal. I have seen people look at a tendon with obvious heat or swelling and go, oh, that’s not bad, and compete the horse anyway. That is how you break them down permanently. I don’t care if your trainer says it’s ok, stand up to your trainer and say NO.
(d) Overnight, severe, out of nowhere lameness is a hoof abscess about 99.9% of the time. Do not panic. Your horse will be fine and has not broken a leg.
All right, give the readers with lame horses some hope – tell us about your best rehabs!
5 comments to “Soundness: Tell us your success stories!”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment. Not a member? Registering is free, and you do it here!
a couple months ago, my 12 year old QH gelding stepped on a street nail. i wasn’t there the day before because of school so i know it happened in his stall (somehow). im not sure exactly when it happened. for some reason, i didn’t tie him up before i started brushing him, so when he started walking away from me, he was limping REALLY bad on his front left hoof. i picked up his hoof and there was a HUGE nail sticking straight out of the middle of his frog, towards his heel. i pulled it out (later learning i should have left it in so the vet could actually see it and for taking x-rays). it was about 3″ long and went about 2″ into his hoof. the vet came and took x-rays and all that good stuff. she told me it was almost to his coffin joint. she said i should take him to an equine hospital a couple hours away to get surgery. she did mention possibly needing to put him down but we really didn’t talk about it that much. she e-mailed the x-rays to the surgeon at the hospital to see if he thinks we should take him down there. later that day, he told her that he didn’t think he needed the surgery. what we ended up doing was putting him on stall rest, giving bute and antibiotics 2x/day for a week then 1x/day for another week. i had to soak his foot every day for about 2 weeks (i was a pro at wrapping his foot by the end) TIP: my vet gave me a couple of the big IV bags that she had so i can soak his hoof in. i just cut the end off that has the plastic drip thing and put his foot in it and poured the water/epsom salt in and duct taped it around his leg (not on his skin though) and let him stand while soaking his foot. its WAY easier than trying to keep his foot in a bucket of water, the bags are sterile too so you know its clean… unless you have one of those boot things to soak his foot in. the vet came out every week for about 3 weeks to do a tourniquet and give him more antibiotics straight into his hoof. i started walking him for about 5 minutes for about 3 days and then i would make it 10 minutes and so on. i did that for almost 2 weeks. he got his hospital plate once the hole closed up enough, i had to change out the cotton and this stuff that looks like gross sticky dreadlocks (i cant remember what its called) every other day. i started walking bareback on him around the stable for another week or two. once i started putting the saddle back on him, i could jog him for 10 minutes, then 20… and the same thing loping him. the whole time he was never crazy or anything like that from being on stall rest for as long as he was, he was still calm and handled it very well. about a little over a month of that, he was totally sound and doing better than before he got hurt.
My vet has just told me my mare most likely has ringbone. I have not had her X-rayed yet, but I plan to very soon. She got caught in a fence a few months back, the vet came out and it was mostly just superficial wounds and we all thought she would recover perfectly, but apparently she has damaged her joint in the short amount of time she was tangled and now she has high ringbone. The vet told me that she is still good for light riding, but I don’t feel comfortable about riding her while she is mildly lame.
If anyone happens to read this that has seen a certain product work really well for ringbone then please let me know by emailing meganloveslaurie@hotmail.com or go to http://www.operationhorserescue.blogspot.com – This mare is too good to retire and she truly loves her work, it would be nice if I could get her completely sound again, but if not then she still has a home. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
I know this is an old thread, but I really need some wisdom.
My horse (5 year old gelding) injured his hind left suspensory ligament in September 2010. The vet recommended stall rest, so we did that for about 3 months. His ultrasound showed no improvement. So the vet told us to start hand-walking, building up to about an hour a day. So December 2010 I started handwalking about 6 days a week for 15ish minutes. Slowly upped it to about 50 minutes by the end of January 2011. He was sound by February!
The vet still insisted on stall rest except for when he was being exercised, so we complied. We did only hand-walking and groundwork with maybe 5-15 minutes walking under saddle. He was doing great, so in April 2011 we were up to 45 minutes of walking with about 15 minutes of gaiting (he’s gaited). This whole time we avoided small circles as much as possible. He was still sound and doing fine, so in May 2011 we started turning him out, slowly building up to 5-8 hours of turnout a day. We only put him in paddocks/pastures by himself, because he has a tendency to play hard with his friends
Now, June 2011, he is lame again. The vet thinks it’s the same suspensory ligament, hind left again. We’re going to ultrasound next week to make sure. I am completely devastated because I thought I worked him up slowly enough, but maybe I didn’t. Or maybe I should be turning him out 24/7 instead of keeping him in his stall most of the time, in spite of what the vet says?
For now, I’m going to do 100% stall rest with 10-15 minutes of hand-walking every day until we see an ultrasound. But does anyone have any advice about how to rehab suspensory ligament injuries?? We’ve been working on this one for over 9 months, and apparently we are back at Square 1.
Well, I would turn him out and see what Mother Nature does for him. That’s my opinion, but I’m not saying I’m right. It’s just that every single horse I’ve ever gotten with a suspensory injury from the track, I threw them right out in the field after maybe 3-4 weeks of round pen turnout only, and they, 100%, came sound. So that’s my experience on the subject.
Thanks for weighing in, Cathy. I really would rather turn out than stall rest, because I know it’s much better for his mental health. Stall rest made more sense in the winter when it was snowy and muddy, but now we are starting a nice, hot Midwest summer
I love the idea of putting him in the round pen. He’ll be able to see other horses, get fresh air, and can walk around a little.
Handwalking DEFINITELY gave us improvement this winter, so I’m wondering if some turnout would be similar to a religious handwalking regimen.
I might try shock wave therapy this time, but even once the ligament heals, I need to take it MUCH slower when I start riding again.
Again, thanks for the tips. This is my first and only horse, and his first significant injury. I feel like I will never get through it!