www.horsesring.com - Suspensory injuries

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Suspensory injuries - 2006/09/16 22:59 My gelding was diagnosed with suspensory injuries in both hind legs in 2000. In 2002 a vet that I had ultra sound him said he has Digenerative Suspensory Ligament Dismitis. Since then I have treated him for the DSLD, but after speaking to a vet that is very well known for his amazing work with leg injuries I now question what really is wrong with my gelding. I know he has suspensory problems, but maybe he doesn't quite have DSLD. No matter what it still is a problem with the suspensories no matter if I say he has DSLD or just some injury, so, I'm trying to find some ideas for supplements, wraps, bedding etc that other people have tried on horses that have suffered from suspensory injuries.

Thx
Erika

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equestriart

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Re:Suspensory injuries - 2006/11/13 06:36 I know a support wrap that may help alleviate the strain. If you get wraps that are long enough to reach from the tops of his cannons (under his hocks) all the way down to his coronary band (much like a shipping bandage, actually). I recommend No-Bows for that since they provide a good cushion and are less risk for further damage. If you don’t have extra-long wraps, you may need to use two stable wraps (4" to 6" width ones) per leg to ensure even tension and make a ‘lock’ around or above the fetlock before going down to the hoof and back up again. (the lock is much like you do when you begin the stable wrap from the no-bow). If you don’t know how to wrap, get help from an experienced person before attempting!

As for supplements, I can only say that yesterday, I had a life changing experience (and revelation) with a representative from Horse Sense Herbs at the Royal Winter Fair. They have a good selection of herbal formulas for various health concerns. I’m thinking of trying their ‘Breathe Eze’ on my guy. Anyway, their address is http://www.horsesenseherbs.ca if you want to have a look.

Hope that helps. All the best.
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~Sheri & Jake

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equestriart

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Re:Suspensory injuries - 2006/11/13 06:38 One more thing,

The no-bows.

If you decide to use no-bows and have to go buy a pair, I recommend washing and drying them once first cuz it makes them easier to wrap with a little more 'stick.'
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~Sheri & Jake

Equestriart.com

"The improvement of the horse is its own reward." ~ Charles de Kunffy

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polo

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Re:Suspensory injuries - 2006/11/22 17:00 I will give my opinions again, based on successfully racing horses most of
my working life with suspensory damage. I have very little respect for vets.
They are good about sticking needles in, pushing pills, pushing expensive
procedures at you to pay for expensive instrumentation. I wish I could say
they were a lifesaver in my career of training race horses, but they were
not. I would like to have a dollar for every horse they said that would
never race again and did exactly that.

In my OPINION, one has to stimulate proper healing. It will not happen on
its own, certainly not by the common veterinarian prescribed procedures of
stall rest and bute. Stress is required to be exerted on the damaged
ligament in order for the body to know how to reinforce it. Stall rest will
not tell the horse's body anything other than how to heal a damaged
suspensory to withstand STALL REST. So if you want a horse to heal a healthy
ligament for STALL REST than you are doing the right thing. If you want a
horse's suspensory strong enough to be useful in a working environment, then
you most certainly will fail with a stall rest regime. I dislike bute and
all other pain relievers. Occasionally, they have their place, but on the
whole they hurt solid systemic healing.

Pain is good, particularly a little pain. So don't get excited if your horse
is nodding at a walk or trot. It is unlikely a walk will re-damage any
suspensory damage. The same thing can be said for a trot and even a canter,
further on into the healing time slot of a suspensory. You need this stress
of movement, of ligament strain in order to tell the horse's body how to
place the scar tissue in the most logical and strongest fashion. Some stall
rest is ok when very first injured, but don't go overboard. Let the horse
tell you when he needs more exercise. There is no clean cut, cook book
prescription on how to give all horses the same exercise. So don't ask. Just
know the faster you get the horse moving the better off you and he will be.
Usually, once the initial suspensory damaged inflammation has subsided, he
will need exercise.

A proper trim on your suspensory damaged horse's hoof is all-important. Do
not raise angles. Try to achieve as normal of angles for your horse as
possible, i.e. 45-50 in front and 50-55 behind. If you want to raise angles,
do it only (in theory) by squaring the toe. This will foster an easy
break-over of the hoof's toe without artificially raising the heel angle. If
you have your horse shod, use a half round shoe or some other shoe that will
stimulate a clean easy break-over at the toe. Never use toe grabs. I have
also put a shoe on backwards in front which means the open part is on the
toe end and the rounded shoe is at the back of the frog. Turning the shoe
around will give your horse an easy toe break-over plus mimic a bar shoe.
Not a bad configuration on some horses, particularly performance horses.

Ok, on sports boots and all bandaged support as it pertains to suspensory
injury. Again, my opinion, I would stay away from these things. I have found
that any type of support on the biologic organism will weaken it in the end.
It is ok to use bandages in the first few days of a newly injured suspensory
and it is ok to use it as a mechanism to apply medication to the leg (stable
bandages), but when you try to use it to support the actually ligaments or
tendons themselves, you are making a mistake. For one thing, there is no way
that a boot or bandage will protect a suspensory from being over-stretched.
Impossible. You have metaphorically a limited-stretchy rubber band next to a
bone that is covered by a stretchy bandage or boot. This type of support has
absolutely no control in checking how far a suspensory is stretched. It can
only apply pressure around the outer margins of the suspensory ligament, not
at the origin or insertion of the suspensory. Bandage pressure can sometimes
limit pain in a damaged structure. For instance, if you are hit by a mean
brother, you naturally want to take your free hand and apply pressure to
this painful spot. Pressure seems to reduce pain. It also controls swelling.
So if you are after a temporary reduction in pain or edema, then bandaging
can be of some value through its mechanism of applying pressure to the skin
and underlying structures. The key word here is "temporary". Some bandaging
support may be ok during exercise, but I would try to limit use. Once you
get your suspensory horse back to the races, I do race in vetraps applied
over strapping. My strapping is in the form of common athletic tape as used
by sports trainers. Strapping tends to loosen quickly so one must wait till
the very last minute to apply strapping, then your Vetrap outer bandage. I
have a unique pattern of strapping, I have developed for suspensories and
it is a bit difficult for me to explain here in words. I really need to
build a web page for suspensories and try to show it in drawings.

I do like the concept of "rubifacients" or counter-irritation. There are
also, healing herbs which may be painted on the damaged suspensory that are
helpful, i.e. comfrey, plantain, gravelroot, Solomon's seal, mullein root,
etc. You may make leg paint out of these herbs by soaking 4-6 ozs in DMSO in
a glass jar for 2-4 weeks and then straining and painting it on the affected
leg as an herbal leg paint. You can also make a poultice out of these herbs,
perhaps adding bentonite clay and then using it on the ligament at night.
And one can use the traditional leg paints of iodine or other irritants
designed to increase blood flow and the wbc counts.

Lastly, electro-medicine probably can help quite a bit too, though I have
had much less experience utilizing this latter technology. I would invest in
a good Electronic Muscle stimulator and apply it to the affected front leg,
though I suspect it would be of more value for tendon injury than ligaments.
I would also like to experiment with using a colloidal silver/DMSO paint
which is applied on the damaged ligament, then electrified with low voltage
of around .5 milliamps. There seems a distinct possibity that this could
stimulate much quicker healing from the studies of Dr. Becker.

To summarize: In the final analysis, your horse must be fitter than the
general population to stay sound with a damaged suspensory. They can't be
babied. Use counter-irritation type paints and herbal healing paints.
Religiously keep measurements of hooves and trim for easy break-over and
level landing. Always be on guard of secondary lameness which could have
been the stimuli for the suspensory in the first place or will cause the
horse to get off some where else and just compound your suspensory problems.
A suspensory horse must be hitting sound on all four! Be very sensitive to
soreness in all corners. Many times, if you have a horse off behind, he will
compensate and pull a suspensory in front. And lastly, you still need good
luck. Always, good luck.

doug

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valsgal
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Re:Suspensory injuries - 2007/06/05 15:00 just wondering what the OP's results were or if there are any updates. i have a horse diagnosed with dsld too.

Post edited by: valsgal, at: 2007/06/05 15:01

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whinny
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Re:Suspensory injuries - 2007/06/05 18:56 MY BLUE TB IS AGED NOW AND WAS A JUMPER.BOTH BACK LEGS ARE SHOT. I KEEP HIM SOPPORTED WITH COTTON COVER AND VET WRAP AROUND THAT,JUST LIGHTLY WRAPING HIS BACK LEGS FOR A LITTLE SOPPORT.WE LIVE IN A MOUNTAIN SO THERE PADDOCKS ARE STEEP IN SOME AREAS.HE HAS FIGURED OUT A ZIG ZAG COME DOWN IS EASER THEN HIS BROTHERS ROUTE WICH IS BLOWING UP AND DOWN THE HILLS STRAIGHT ON.I BELIEVE HIS BACK LEGS ARE HANDLEING THE STRESS WELL BUT I FIND WHEN I TAKE OFF THE SOPPORTS WITHIN A WEEK HE IS HURTING AGAIN.SO I CHOOSE TO LEAVE THEM ON,,,HE IS NO LONGER RODE AT ALL.HE IS RETIRED FROM ALL WORK.....I REWRAP HIS LEGS EVERY 3 DAYS AND HES DOING GREAT. BUT AGAIN I DO NOT RIDE HIM AT ALL....
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Esther

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Re:Suspensory injuries - 2007/06/08 14:46 I agree with Polo.
I had a TB who did his suspensory ligament while racing and aggrivated it while he was with us.
The vets didn't do a thing, except for topping him up with pain killers which ultimately don't stop the injury, simply the pain.
We nursed his leg back to health. Ice, rest and TLC.
Lots of bandages etc and he got back to what his leg was before.

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valsgal
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Re:Suspensory injuries - 2007/06/11 13:22 Thanks for the replies. Did either of you have the legs ultrasounded? My horse's ultrasounds look a little like swiss cheese.

I found a new group for owners of DSLD horses and learned that its been renamed to ESPA since it's systemic and caused by an accumulation of proteoglycans (sp?). They've found it in various body organs like eyes, heart, lungs, etc. Makes me wonder what wonder what we're not seeing on my horse. Sometimes I really feel hopeless about his situation.

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valsgal
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Re:Suspensory injuries - 2007/06/11 13:22 Thanks for the replies. Did either of you have the legs ultrasounded? My horse's ultrasounds look a little like swiss cheese.

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valsgal
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Re:Suspensory injuries - 2007/06/11 13:24 sorry for the double post...i didn't post it twice

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KWPN_Lover

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Re:Suspensory injuries - 2007/09/05 20:13 I have to say I agree with Polo completly. All three of my top show horses have had suspensory injuries. My most current battle is with my Dutch horse Neon. For the most part I have also experienced vets who have offered little more then needles and drugs. However because Neon is so valuble to me I recently bit the bullet and took him to the clinic that takes care of the horses for the USET. (Fairfield Equine Associates). They perscribed much of the same recovery plan that Polo has described. I did have his suspensory Ultrasounded and his looked like a pair of panty hoes with a run (Dr Edwards called it a disturbance in the fiber pattern). My Horse is on stall rest with controlled exercise for 60 days. 10 min of hand walking 2x a day for 14 days then increasing it 5min a week to a max of 45 min of walking once a day. He is also alowed 2 hrs of restricted turn out in a 20' diameter round pen. I do however advocate wraping to keep down swelling, I alternate from standing wraps to a magnetic wrap(stimulates blood flow) to polos when turned out. My horse recieved IRap therapy and depending on the results of his ultrasound next week may under go shockwave therapy as well. Both of which I have read are very sucessful. The bigest factor with this kind of injury is patience and time, you have to be willing to give your horse they time they need to heal and have the patience to bring them back slowly, spending alot of time devloping the muscles that will help him to cary himself better. Good Luck!

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FibberMagee4me

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Re:Suspensory injuries - 2008/07/30 01:00 Ok, I have a Trakahner mare that I do the Level 3 jumpers with. They say she's fine and can jump and whatever, but she has a suspensory injury in her front left leg. It's not bad, but we have to get it injected and give her like a week or two off every now and then and I'm concerned. I mean is there anything I can do to help the ware and tare? I'm getting those Eskadron boots that are made with the suspensory protection strap to help, but I mean should I get the ice boots or something like that when I take her to shows? She jumps well and is usually just fine. I've had her for about a year though, and this is the 2nd time I've gotten her injected. Any suggestion?

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