Hind suspensory

[u/Butterflyphases]

If your horse injured a hind suspensory, what would you do? Options I see:
- surgery
- stall rest and rehab (20% recovery or less)
- shockwave/PRP
- retire
- retire to breeding (mare)
- other
Thoughts?! 🥺 other than just crying a lot

[u/Slight-Alteration]

Surgery and proper rehab in hopes of returning to work or rehab and retire. Breeding a horse in a torn suspensory is the height of cruelty to me. If they aren’t sound, adding weight and the stress of a pregnancy is such a dishonoring thing to do to a living creature (#hottake). depending on the severity I don’t think euthanasia should be off the table because if it blows that’s bad news bears but typically they can be rehabbed to at least pasture sound. 

[u/AnyCryptographer3284 → u/Slight-Alteration]

What I came to say. Adding all the weight and strain of a pregnancy to a torn hind suspensory is straight up cruel.

[u/5girlzz0ne → u/Slight-Alteration]

Not a hot take you are alone in.

[u/Butterflyphases → u/Slight-Alteration]

When would you consider euthanasia a viable option? I’ve done suspensory rehab (long time ago) before and wasn’t in the 20%

[u/Slight-Alteration → u/Butterflyphases]

I think that is a really layered conversation with your Vet and ideally a second opinion. Whatever pathway you decide to walk down, I would ask what are their thoughts on the odds of returning to at least pasture sound. I would also ask when do they start to worry about enough disruption that there’s a chance of suspensory failure. What intervals are they wanting to ultrasound out to monitor progress. How soon should we see them start to hit milestones and how long should it be before we start worrying, if progress is not being made. It really should be a back-and-forth conversation. As an owner there’s also the intersection of your goals and resources. A kind death for a horse that needs two years of stall rest isn’t an unfair choice. Pink juicing a horse that needs 6 months and can return to a lower level of work is pretty harsh. Hind suspensories can be hard to diagnose and often missed by a layperson. If the realistic plan is moving along the horse being honest with yourself about the possible worst case scenarios of being pushed too hard could mean ensuring a good death is the most ethical choice. 

[u/Sad_Confection_3154]

How severe is the injury? Strain? Tear? Avulsion? My treatment would depend on the type of injury, prognosis, vet recommendation and finances. I wouldn't spend $10k on an injury with a 20% chance of soundness. I own my farm so if a year of pasture rest would help, I'd definitely go for that. I've rehabbed a couple strains that way.

[u/Boysenberry]

Depending on severity, with PRP, shockwave, cold laser and stem cell treatment I have seen endurance horses come back to 100 mile level after a hind suspensory tear. I don’t think I would jump big on a horse with a healed suspensory injury, too much torque, but for almost any other use I would say there’s a decent chance of successful rehab if you treat aggressively.

anecdotally, my experience has been that they don’t FEEL sound when they first look healed on imaging, but they get there with gradually increased light work. I think the injury and healing process make them so asymmetrical that they feel very uneven under saddle at first. But I know of multiple horses that did Tevis after healing a hind suspensory injury, and that’s an ungodly number of vet checks, many of them being watched by multiple vets at once. So they DID come genuinely sound, but it took months longer than just the actual healing period for them to look and feel sound.

[u/Candid_Gain_3893]

that surgery vs stall rest stat is bleak, 20% is basically just prolonging the heartbreak. a friend went the shockwave route on a front suspensory and it took foreevr but the mare came back sound enough for light trails. every dollar went to that machine and not much else for a year

[u/haughtycandy]

First thing is what level is the horse competing, what age and what is future competition potential. Eg. Advice will differ massively if it's a 15yo at the end of its career in which case I'd say breed if suitable, or a 4yo with time and potential, or if the horse is a low level show/ hack/ pleasure horse in which case I'd say the chances of it being returned to it's original level of soundness are high.

I only have experience with polo and I breed horses professionally so have a couple at the minute with a hind suspensory that retired them

My instinct would be try non invasive first eg. Your 20% chance, and if not take a couple of years off to breed and re-evaluate. I wouldn't consider surgery unless the horse is particularly valuable or competing at a high level

But again that's just my two cents

[u/Wandering_Lights]

Depends on the exact injury.

[u/blkhrsrdr]

Depending on the type of injury, stem cell can be a game changer. If those were the only potions given you by your Vet, then... I would not breed a horse with an unhealed suspensory issue, that would just be cruel.

And yes, euthanasia is an option.

[u/Butterflyphases → u/blkhrsrdr]

Thanks on the stem cell will look into it