Update on Q's Suspensory

I dropped Q off Thursday morning last week for her 120-day ultrasound appointment to wrap up our monitoring of her suspensory injury.

To recap in the most concise way possible: Q came up lame at the end of August and was diagnosed with lesions near the origin of her suspensory in her left hind on September 19. (Due to a wicked year of repeated abscesses in 2 out of 3 of my horses, I had suspected it was an abscess at first. But after she didn't regain soundness after blowing a massive abscess on her RF, off to the vet we went!)

The 60-day ultrasound appointment showed improvements though there was still disorganization in the pattern of fibers.

This most recent ultrasound however showed huge improvements!

Q was very alarmed by the AllEarsApp

When I picked Q up, the vet was out to lunch, so I didn't get a complete download of information beyond the techs telling me, "We can't tell you much other than it's definitely looking better." And hey, that's all I needed to hear at the time! Trending toward "better" is all I care about. I don't mind it taking awhile so long as it is *improving*.

Due to some turnover at my vet's practice (her second vet is leaving/has been working at another job), they've been outstandingly busy for a few months as is wont to happen with these kinds of things. I didn't anticipate dropping by to get a download on information until Monday afternoon. However, to my surprise, my vet took a few minutes Sunday morning to call me and give me an update! She reported that Q looked a LOT better this time around and that it was very hard to see any disorganization in the fibers at all on this round of ultrasounds. HURRAH! She also told me she'd be attending a specialized lameness workshop in Lexington in coming weeks that was centered around suspensory injuries. She's got me and Q in mind as she plans to attend and I'm looking forward to hearing more about the latest and greatest in the realm of suspensory research.

I'm psyched to hear that Q's doing so well and hope she continues to heal and get stronger in coming months. So far she's had four complete months off due to this injury.

She'll get a year off from true work, but we'll be doing some short (5 to 10 minutes) in hand sessions once every week from here on out. These will not be anything exciting or crazy at all, but instead will serve mostly to remind the mare that she is NOT in charge. Her herd status coupled with the time off (read: complete freedom from anything beyond getting her hooves trimmed once every four weeks) has unfortunately resulted some very rude behaviors (e.g., biting me, excessive fidgeting when tied, protest to (read: pinned ears) having her feet handled/certain body parts groomed, and constant wide-eyed and ear-swiveling concern for where her herdmates are at all times) that I absolutely do not tolerate.

I'm so relieved we've had a nice linear healing trend through these first 4+ months following the injury. I hope that this trend will continue into the future.