Yo Horse’s Leg So Phat
Yo horse’s leg so phat you get a three week vacation. Oh snap!
So – Simon saw the vet yesterday. This was a new vet to me, but I really liked him. He was patient, thorough and seemed respectful of my finances which is always appreciated. Anyway, you don’t exactly care about my impressions of the new vet so let’s move on to what’s wrong with Sir Simon Pants.
The short answer is a strain to the suspensory.
When I arrived at the barn Wednesday night, the leg actually looked pretty good. First the vet looked it over, and said he felt some fluid still in the upper part around Simon’s cannon bone. Next we moved on to jogging & flextions. Simon jogged out pretty damn sound, but flexed very lame for a few steps for the suspensory. After the lame steps, the vet palpated the leg even more and narrowed down where the inflammation was. He had me feel the difference, and although it was slight I could feel that the tendon was fatter in his left leg.
Even before we got this far, I had wanted to do an ultrasound to know 100% what we were dealing with. To me, there’s too much soft tissue in that part of the leg to mess around when swelling has been present for more than a few days.
When Simon was standing, the ultrasound didn’t show much of anything. I hadn’t actually had a vet walk me through how each tendon looks on the ultrasound before, so that was educational. After the vet looked around with the tendons tight while Simon stood, he picked up the left front leg to relax the tendons.. which shows a more detailed shot.
This is where we saw the inflammation area. It wasn’t huge or scary or torn in any way, but it showed up on the ultrasound. Honestly, I was expecting some kind of soft tissue strain so the news doesn’t phase me very much. I’m actually happy with the suggested treatment, which isn’t as severe as I thought it would be.
Simon will be on stall rest for another week with icing and a mud poultice to his leg daily. After that, he’s allowed limited turnout with standing wraps in the round pen for two weeks. When that is over, I can hop on and see how he feels. Assuming he feels good (we think he will), I’ll slowly leg back up to full work. No crazy treatments or injections or mysterious diagnosis. I’ll put him on Previcoxx to help with inflammation for a month, but we should be good to go in three weeks.
Granted, should is always iffy with horses.
The good news is that we caught this really early. Granted, he did get ridden once and turned out a few nights in the middle of the off/on swelling but the ride was light and he’s not typically a terror in turnout. If I hadn’t gotten it checked out, that strain would eventually tear or snap and then we’d be in for a lot of trouble. So really, I’m viewing this as a three week vacation in the hottest part of the year when I have a lot of personal stuff to attend to. Not a bad outcome at all.
27 thoughts on “Yo Horse’s Leg So Phat”
Roz has had the same injury and it did heal pretty easily. I’m glad it’s not something worse!
Glad it wasn’t more serious! Hope the recover is smooth.
Well at least you have a plan 🙂
What the heck is a mud poultice?
It’s like a wet clay that draws the heat out of limbs, I use it every time I do an event of XC school. It dries hard and then flakes off. Pretty cool actually although it gets on EVERYTHING!
A very positive outlook for a situation that could’ve been a lot worse. 🙂 Hoping for a speedy recovery for Mr. Simon!
Ugh, frustrating. Still a suspensory is the thing you REALLY want to catch early. Best of luck to the Simon
Phew! I am so glad it isn’t worse. Ice/cold hosing and rest will do wonders for him, I think. And honestly, you’re totally right. While layups suck, this definitely isn’t the worst timing ever. I’m proud of you for looking for the positive in this <3
Wow, good thing you had the vet out! So glad it wasn’t anything major. Wishing him a quick recovery!
Hope you have a speedy recover Simon. Sounds like you’ve got a good vet. Good vets are worth their weight in gold.
Well, Simon pretty much picked the BEST time of year to be layed up. Glad it wasn’t something more serious and you caught it early!
One of mine had the same injury, and was sound and back in light work within a month. Fingers crossed Simons is just as easy! Enjoy your vacation 🙂
Glad you caught this early while it is relatively minor! Taking a few weeks off in the hottest time of the year, while you have other things going on is not the worst thing in the world. I’m sure it must be hard to balance everthing, so maybe this forced riding break came at an opportune time, life wise? Love the pics of Simon lounging in front of the fan, with Pasqual nearby. He does live the life 🙂
So glad you caught this early! And a 3 week vacation in this weather is not a bad thing.
So glad it’s an easy fix!!!
So glad to hear you caught this early. I get so scared when it comes to suspensory issues- so it’s a huge relief that you were in tune with Simon enough the detect it before anything else happened!
Not bad at all, indeed!!
I literally exhaled for you. I hope it’s not crude to say I’m glad it wasn’t any worse<3
Glad the prognosis was good!
Definitely better news than it could have been. Glad you were so on top of things.
Sounds like about the same treatment plan Robert got for his SDFT strain. Fingers crossed the recovery process goes as smoothly as ours has so far! Well, as far the ligament goes. Fingers also crossed Simon doesn’t get some weird skin infection and freak you the fuck out.
Very glad it’s not worse, that you like the new vet, and have a great plan of action. Get well soon Simon!!
Glad it sounds so minor!!
Also, Preicoxxxxxxx has more than one X? You’d think I’d know that by now 🙂 but I guess that’s what I get when I just feed her little pills the vet leaves in baggies…. sounds rather sketchy when I think about it that way 🙂 Hope SImon-pants enjoys his vaca!
Nope, it’s just 1 and I can’t spell 🙂
glad it wasn’t worse – fingers crossed he behaves himself and heals up nice and politely!
My horse is also currently on previcoxx for navicular. I hope Simon gets better soon. 🙂
Happy 3 week vacation … Totally a great way to look at it!!
Here’s to simon feeling 100% in no time!!
As an owner of a horse who prides himself on tearing ALL THE SOFT TISSUE EVERYWHERE! I can say this is pretty good news in the realm of injuries. Hope all goes smoothly and he’s feeling 100% within those 3 weeks.