More questions about my gelding's high suspensory injury on his left hind... He has been on stall rest for almost 3 weeks, we did PRP a week ago and he will be starting shockwave treatments in a few days. I have been using Runners Relief with BOT wraps at night, 5 days a week 2 days off. He is on stall rest with no hand walking. I have been doing a lot of reading and research and most say that handwalking is a must at the very beginning. My vet wants to keep him stalled with no handwalking until we do an ultrasound in 30 days... His hind legs are stocking up and cold hosing hasn't helped, is handwalking crucial in the beginning or should I keep him stalled? There are so many different opinions on when to start handwalking so I'm torn on what to do. Ideally I would like to make a small run off of his stall to somewhat walk around, but knowing him he would use that to his advantage to run and buck as much as he could. 

My mare was in a stall without hand walking the first week.  Then I started for 10 minutes twice a day for 2 weeks, then 20 minutes twice a day for the next 4 months.  She also had PRP, Shockwave, and was Bioscanned every other day during all this time. 

She's still not sound and it's been over a  year now.  Good luck!

I left one in a stall for a month without the hand walking and it ruined his leg. But his issue was lower, just above the fetlock. Because he was stalled the scar tissue grew horizontal and not vertical. Ended up wrapping around and bound all the tendons & ligaments together. He had been stalled longer due to some of the exposed areas having stitches. He had also exposed the side of his knee on the same leg. I had gone to a much better vet almost 45 days later because I knew things weren't right and he told me what that vet had me do ruined his chances of being a performance horse. Ended up having to give him away, he's sound now though but probably not performance sound. They kicked him out on a 10 acre pasture and let nature heal it & it did way better from there. If you question your vet don't be afraid to get a 2nd opinion. With yours being a high suspensory issue it may be a different game plan than lower tendon/ligament issues. I've really only dealth with lower i guess. I had a gelding strain his sacroilliac ligament and we didn't catch it until a few months later which I had kept running him. He was sound for 2 months to run and hasn't been sound since. Incident was October. Keeping him as still as possible made the biggest impact, so it's possible stalling for yours for 30 days might be ok. I realize mine were two totally different injuries from each other and from yours, but just kind of showing the way different treatment plans. My gelding is just now getting to start 10 minutes of walking daily besides what he can do in his smaller pen he lives in, and we're 10 months post accident 

I know how frustrating and scary this can be hoping they’ll come back sound. I had a gelding with a high tear in a hind several years ago. I tried testing and treatments but with very little progress after months of resting I chose to opt for surgery. One of the best vets in Washington State did a faciotomy and neurectomy. I then stall rested and began hand walking as directed. In 90 days he was at the aqua tred rehabbing and I was  beginning to do light riding at 4 months. He came back 100% sound and it never was an issue again. Good luck it’s really hard to have them hurt and to feel like it could be career ending. 

I'm from Washington so I'm curious what vet did the surgery? Was the aqua tred in Washington? I would love to send him to a place with an aqua tred when I begin to rehab but don't know of any in Washington!

It completely depends on the individual situation. I’ve had some stalled with no exercise, some hand walked, and have one now turned out. Depends on the horse, the severity of injury, how old the injury is etc. some can’t handle being stalled 24/7 and hand walking is the vest thing for them mentally and physically. Have one of those now, if he can go to walker or be hand walked 2x a day he’s much better with his stall confinement.

Sounds like you've got a really good vet. IMO the only thing that slows healing on a suspensory is too much movement . I would follow the vet instructions . 

As mentioned earlier, each case is different. Whether the location of the tear is in the origin, or the body or branches. Also whether it's compartmentalized or not. Performance vets see this injury a lot so they have the best ideas on how to handle each case. If you're concerned about stocking up, call the vet and ask for input. 

My boy had the same injury. Surgery is your best bet of recovery. Thats what I did. Surgery and the very strict 1 year recovery program. Hours and hours of hand walking and stall confinement. A year later he was back to work for 6 months and re tore in in the pasture. We just put him down this week. The reason I am making this comment is that just therapy and stall rest has a small percentage of recovery rate. I would Get the surgery done  and get a jump start to his recovery. Suspensory injuries suck. I hope you have a better out come then me.