This is an archived Horseadvice.com Discussion. The parent article and menus are available on the navigation menu below:
HorseAdvice.com » Diseases of Horses » Lameness » Diseases of the Lower Limb » Degenerative Suspensory Ligament Desmitis (DSLD) »
  Discussion on Suspensory is Diagnosis, but can it be something else?
Author Message
New Member:
kmckee

Posted on Sunday, Sep 23, 2018 - 2:33 pm:

Confusing Medical Results. They call it a Upper Suspensory Injury – but I just don’t know and I think it is higher from stifle up.

12 Year Old Foundation QTR Horse – Very Stocky 1350# 15hh

Horse started short striding and bunny hopping late 2017.

February 2018: Lameness Examination: Left Hind – Xrays of Hock no issues. Referred to Specialist
March 2018: Circle Oak Performance Horse Rehab Clinic: Full Lameness Examination, Blocks on hoof (partial and full) no improvement. Blocks up leg before Hock, minor improving, block up to stifle – 30% Improvement. Xrays of stifle – Joints look good but there is inflammation. Ultra sound – large inside swelling. Injections done on both stifles and hocks. Told to start cavalleti work to strengthen stifle. Fluid in stifle was clear but xray shows debri. Recheck 60 Days. Start him on Adequan. Lame 3/5 on left hind.
April 2018: No Improvement, now left front is off. Tripping and can’t get up over poles. Stop all activity. Back on Bute. Setup up appointment and full bone scan at UC Davis.

May 2018: Bone Scan – No impressive findings but a minor glow on left shoulder – but no physical issues to support further investigation. UC Davis starts full lameness exam all over. Blocking and they narrow down to upper suspensory. Ultra Sound done on stifle and suspensory – left suspensory are enlarged but no lesions or tears. Check right suspensory – enlarged but not as much as left limb. Inflammation of fluid still in stifle. They decide full stall rest. 15 minute hand walk 2x a day, recheck in 60. He has been on stall rest since February FYI with hand walking. Front left Lame 1+/5 and Left Hind 3/5

June 2018: Still off on left front and now he is three legged lame on right hind. No swelling, no digital pulses, not responsive to hoof testers. I assume abcess an start to treat. Day 3, have farrier check foot thinks it is not an abcess but is scratching head too. I continue protocol after leaving message for local vet. Next morning, fever of 104.6 - I call vet again and she will head out in a couple of hours. Upon arrival, the questionable abcess burst through upper heel bulb. Fever DrOps quickly.

Farrier is changed as his toe is slightly long and heels a little under but for weight and down hill confirmation it has a big impact. Have corrective shoeing started. Historically, all four shod and done exactly every 6 weeks.

July 2018 recheck at UC Davis: Suspensory size has decreased by 50%. They are in awe. He is 2/5 lame on left hind and 1/5 left front. We start him on Thyro L – he is gaining too much weight.
Mid July 2018: Three legged lame again on right hind. I do full examination, but this time I feel digitial pulses and he is reactive to hoof testers. I call local vet an say I want xrays. She comes out and he has two gas pockets trailing to heel bulb. He blows it out the next day.

July 2018 back to Circle Oak Performance Horse Rehab Clinic – have left front looked at. Xrays look good a slight possibility of remodeling on the navicular but after reviewing prior xrays – seems to been done years early when in performance work. We block foot – heel area no improvement. Front – full improvement. So I have his hoof injected. Within three days – no more lameness. I also had Osphos done as a let’s just try it and see.

August 2018: Muscles are tight and his whole body seems in pain. I call vet and want to address from disease base rather than mechanical. We test for IR and lymes – send to Cornell. No lymes and glucose is just fine. Leptin is through the roof due to his weight gain. He is not HYPP positive either. We did not test for EPM as several preliminary workups were done and he is not suffering from any never related problems.

Here we are in September: Front left limb is off ever so slightly. Left Hind is still DrOpping an he could careless if I palpate the suspensory but is very offended at the stifle. If I do other side, he does not care.

I feel like we are missing something because one week he looks to be improving and the next – we are going backwards.

Various pictures of body, hoof angles and shots of hoof are before corrective shoeing started.



https://kmckeeco999-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/g/personal/kristine_kmckeeco_com/EnsvB i6xXz9PoxGzjq_PgkoB29DDd4yIAmIQFv4FT31ZxQ?e=97H5ba
Member:
lsweeney

Posted on Sunday, Sep 23, 2018 - 3:45 pm:

Just some of my experiences from the past:

I had a yearling that came off a hill and landed on the pavement overextending the suspensory that splits and attaches to the pastern. On/off lameness. My vet did partial blocks, missing the front of the pastern. - Couldn't get her to go sound and thought it was in the elbow. Took her to a race horse specialist. He did a ring block around the pastern and most of the lameness disappeared. - But then also had to numb the suspensory for her to go completely sound. With x-rays they determined that she had a hairline fracture in the pastern where the suspensory attaches to the front of the pastern in addition to a suspensory injury.

Stall rest for a yearling was virtually impossible. She went from sweet to vicious. She would buck in place. They had me blistering her skin to get inflammation going to assist in healing (Do they still do this?) After 7 months the fracture wasn't really healing.

I was moving up to where she could be out in a pasture. I told the vets that horses don't tend to run around in a pasture once they have the freedom.

I turned her out in an arena and for about 2 weeks, she would run as fast as she could around and around in the AM. Eventually, she got the energy out of her and she quieted. The bone eventually healed.

She was a trail horse and lived into her twenties. I always thought I could see something in that leg....but then....was I imagining it? ;-)

I'm a firm believer in barefoot horses. I had a horse with ringbone. They tried pads and rocker shoes, and she was in excruciating pain after that. - Had to pull them off.

I had a horse with founder. I read a lot, rejected shoes, and I learned to trim her myself - just touching her up every 3 weeks. I got really good at it and her hooves repaired. I got complements from vets when they learned of her founder history. She was rideable for a good 15 years. Never looked back, and now I do all of my horses (barefoot - Easy boots for riding over rocky terrain).

My Friesians were abscessing occasionally. They both have really flat feet so I was letting the wall go longer. That was a mistake. It was allowing their wall to spread and stretch the white line which encouraged abscesses. I now trim the wall flares really short, and the walls grow straight down keeping the white line tight.
The abscesses have stopped.

My sense is that you might pull the shoes and just let the horse be a horse for a while out in a dry lot.

I have HUGE respect for UC Davis. I have spent oodles of $$$ there on surgeries and other issues. But I also believe that horses were meant to be range animals, covering long distances every day. We have put them in very artificial circumstances that may not be great for them in the long run. I know I sound a little bit like a hippy, but stress even in people can do a lot of damage to the body.

Good luck with your diagnosis.

Laurie
Member:
lsweeney

Posted on Sunday, Sep 23, 2018 - 4:14 pm:

Found this: https://horse-canada.com/magazine_articles/the-underrun-heel/
New Member:
kmckee

Posted on Sunday, Sep 23, 2018 - 10:04 pm:

Hi Laurie

Thanks for sharing. We did the entire barefoot effort. Trims every 4 weeks, diet balanced, regular exercise, pasture and boots for transition. Barefoot specialist brought in. We even did baseline xrays. Tried for 18 months. Complete fail and actually he had significant pain in back and constant discomfort due to thin sole and his overall size compounded with a size 0 hoof. He needs balanced support.

We thought fracture, but after full body bone scan. We are no longer concerned. He is now in a 90 x 400 paddock. But with no tears or lesions, we expected it to be a nonissue at this point. Luckily he has insurance as his medical costs this far are close to 15,000. I just want to help him. But I'm at a loss.

He was not significantly underrun. I'll take a look at the link. It was corrected in three 6 week trim cycles. But with his size is seems to amplify the impact.

With his sensitivity on the left hind stifle and no where else. I'm thinking there's more going on there. But it is too hard to get in there clearly with ultrasound or xrays. Maybe time to consider MRI.

Thanks for all the ideas! Now off to read for link.
Member:
lsweeney

Posted on Wednesday, Sep 26, 2018 - 12:17 am:

Anymore, insurance is really important. Good for you. At least you have had a ton of diagnostics done, and didn't have to forego them due to $$. Unfortunately, I have had too many animals, and it gets pretty pricey covering everyone.

Big horse and small, tender feet is not a good combination.

When we bought my husband's Friesian who was 15.1 as a yearling, I noticed that she had clodhopper feet. As a more sage horseman at this point, I thought good. She's going to be carrying a 6'4" 250 lb guy, so she is going to need those feet. ;-)

Please keep us posted. I'll be interested in what Dr. O. has to say.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Wednesday, Oct 3, 2018 - 9:57 am:

Hello CC,
Sorry for the slow response we have been riding in the Ozarks and internet access practically nonexistent. Reading the above it sounds like you have had problems with Suspensory Desmitis (possibly a chronic problem) and a hoof abscess and then a localized but undiagnosed foot disease. Now the generalized stiffness may or may not be related. Being an overweight Metabolic SynDrOme (conjectured) certainly makes you suspect for laminitis but for more on possible causes of such stiffness see HorseAdvice.com » Diseases of Horses » Lameness » Localizing Lameness in the Horse and pay particular attention to the section on "Stiffness".
DrO
Home Page | Top of Page | Join Us!
Horseadvice.com is a BBB Accredited Business. Click for the BBB Business Review of this Horse Training in Stokesdale NC