 You get what you give
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Location: Texas | You can tell a person to do X, Y and Z and you can tell them to back off if they feel soreness or to call if something minor happens. With a horse, you can't control near as much. They can't tell you minute changes in pain and discomfort that you would be aware of personally if you had surgery done. Also, orthopedic surgery is painful and invasive, so you create inflammation when you do the surgery. You make an incision into the joint capsule (or multiple small incisions if doing arthroscopy), you remove a chip, you clean up any articular cartilage damage that the chip did, all the while the joint is likely flexed in an unnatural position, you lavage the crap out of it, and then suture it all back together.
Controlled exercise and stall rest is designed to keep horses from running, bucking, turning, and acting rough in the critical time period for healing. If your horse is not reacting favorably to being stalled your vet can prescribe long term sedation or get them on zylkene which is a drug free option that some horses respond to well, others not so much.
You do want them to get moving and not be stagnant but you have to do it very controlled and horses will run, buck, and play even in the face of pretty moderate pain so it's hard to tell them to take it easy. And even if they are chill and calm 95% of the time outside, all it takes is one romp in the pasture to mess everything back up. |
Bone chip removal question