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 Straight Shooter
Posts: 5725
   
Location: SW North Dakota | My daughter's horse has had on/off swelling in her left front leg for several years. It will puff up for a day or so, then suck down with no real lameness. We've had it utrasounded a few times and have never been able to find anything- until this summer. It swelled up, with heat and I was able to get her to our trusted regional vet who found that the check ligament was swelled and irritated. She was still never lame or hesitant on it. I just had it checked again last week, as we were there for a separate issue, and the ultrasound indicated it still had some swelling and she did not flex sound (3/5 on a very aggressive flex test).
They want to surgically clip the ligament, with the hope that it heals longer. I've done a bunch of internet research, but I'd really like to hear some first hand experiences, preferably from the surgery done on competitive barrel/pole horses. I feel very reluctant to consent to the surgery, as she is still performing well and has no associated behavioral problems. Please share your stories! |
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 You get what you give
Posts: 13030
 
Location: Texas | It's done quite often to correct club feet in babies. Usually no complications and they go on the be 100% normal.
Now, for competition horses with injuries of the check ligament the results aren't as straightforward.. Since the ligament is already damaged you have the chance for adhesions to form post op... well any time you have surgery there's that chance of scar tissue forming.
The surgery itself is not very long. I've done it to a couple weanlings I owned and I've done it on a barrel horse I had who had the swelling show up, start ducking off, and ultrasound confirmed he tore his check lg. For him, he never came back from it. But by the time we found it he was already ducking off the pattern so there's no telling how long he toughed through the soreness before we did anything about it. He did require steroid injections on the surgery site afterward... we feel like he did form some adhesions that would sting him from time to time.
The other part of your story is this- the fact that there is swelling, heat, and she was positive to flexion tells me you need to do something. Whether that is to just get off her for a few months and rehab her, or do surgery and then rest/rehab, in my opinion something should be done. If it hurts enough to show up on flexion, it's real to me, even if she is otherwise not lame. While she is performing well now and not showing behavioral issues, she does tell you something hurts when her leg is cranked on. |
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Straight Shooter
Posts: 5725
Location: SW North Dakota | casualdust07 - 2017-09-19 10:56 AM It's done quite often to correct club feet in babies. Usually no complications and they go on the be 100% normal. Now, for competition horses with injuries of the check ligament the results aren't as straightforward.. Since the ligament is already damaged you have the chance for adhesions to form post op... well any time you have surgery there's that chance of scar tissue forming. The surgery itself is not very long. I've done it to a couple weanlings I owned and I've done it on a barrel horse I had who had the swelling show up, start ducking off, and ultrasound confirmed he tore his check lg. For him, he never came back from it. But by the time we found it he was already ducking off the pattern so there's no telling how long he toughed through the soreness before we did anything about it. He did require steroid injections on the surgery site afterward... we feel like he did form some adhesions that would sting him from time to time. The other part of your story is this- the fact that there is swelling, heat, and she was positive to flexion tells me you need to do something. Whether that is to just get off her for a few months and rehab her, or do surgery and then rest/rehab, in my opinion something should be done. If it hurts enough to show up on flexion, it's real to me, even if she is otherwise not lame. While she is performing well now and not showing behavioral issues, she does tell you something hurts when her leg is cranked on.
This is exactly right! The swelling was a lot less frequent, but has been occuring over the past few years at least. The first time, we gave her serval months off, rehabbed her back slowly- and that was before the check ligament had even been identified. The vet seems to be very confident that after the sugery, she will be able to rehab back for the spring rodeos in April. He said he's done a bunch in performance horses and has a very high success rate. I DO really trust this vet, but cutting into a leg is pretty scary! (BTW, we are committed to whatever the recommended rehab is) |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 509
| I had it done by Dr. Brunk back in 2001 and had a full recovery
Just needed to wrap and change bandages
And treat it like a bowed tendon. |
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I am your favorite rash and you know it
Location: Being pushed over the edge, NM | I personally haven't seen it done in older horses, just foals, and it's been very successful if the aftercare is done correctly. |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| My understanding is ligaments don't heal as well as tendons. If I went with the surgery I would be asking for stem cells to be injected into the incision to prevent scar tissue from occuring |
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 Livin in the Dinosaur Age
Posts: 1993
Location: the other T-town, Oklahoma | I had this done on my filly when she was 4 months old. She was club foot on both feet, left being worse. She limped on both fronts going into the vet, had both check ligaments done and never limped again, since then she has never taken a lame step. She has no scar, no evidence of the surgery. She is 6 now and has never taken a lame step. The recovery and aftercare was super easy. I asked the vet about an arena career since we compete and don't do a lot of trail riding. The vet told me most horse go on to be competative race horses, barrel horses and rope horses. For me there wasn't another option. Super glad I did it. |
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Straight Shooter
Posts: 5725
Location: SW North Dakota | cheryl makofka - 2017-09-20 1:16 PM My understanding is ligaments don't heal as well as tendons. If I went with the surgery I would be asking for stem cells to be injected into the incision to prevent scar tissue from occuring
We've talked about Shockwave & stem cells both independantly (trying instead of surgery) and as a part of the post-op therapy. They just gave a brief overview of expected rehab... 2-3 weeks of stall rest, then light hand walking for a while, progressively increasing until expected return to conditioning/competion in 3-4 months. I still need to get the full details (type of surgery, etc) as to how she'll be healed enough to compete in that short of time frame. I would expect it to be closer to a year. |
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You get what you give
Posts: 13030
Location: Texas | ND3canAddict - 2017-09-21 9:55 AM
cheryl makofka - 2017-09-20 1:16 PM My understanding is ligaments don't heal as well as tendons. If I went with the surgery I would be asking for stem cells to be injected into the incision to prevent scar tissue from occuring
We've talked about Shockwave & stem cells both independantly (trying instead of surgery) and as a part of the post-op therapy. They just gave a brief overview of expected rehab... 2-3 weeks of stall rest, then light hand walking for a while, progressively increasing until expected return to conditioning/competion in 3-4 months. I still need to get the full details (type of surgery, etc) as to how she'll be healed enough to compete in that short of time frame. I would expect it to be closer to a year.
I sent you a PM. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 670
Location: Running my kids somewhere. | I had a yearling done years ago for a club foot. We ended up doing both front legs. He heal up fine and went on to run great. |
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