Check Ligament
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Check Ligament
Anyone have experience with this problem? Causes and suggestions for treatment? Thanks.
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Strategic Maneuver
- Starters Handicap
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- Location: Texas
Yes, but it's been about l4 yrs and treatments may have changed since then. My trainer caught it early on in a newly turned 3 yr old filly and applied a mild blister and sent her home to the farm for stall rest and then we eased her into moderate turnout for about 3-4 mos. She went back into training and did really well. As for causes, she was a big girl training over Oaklawn's deep track and I always figured it was Mother Natures way of saying slow down and give her more time to develop 
Dealt with it lots on a track where deep footing and loose base were prevelent. You can ice and blister (I prefer sweats myself as a blister is really only short term, and painful) but time is the only real cure. Push and you will lose your whole season, and quite possibly your horse long term as they end up wonky somewhere else trying to protect it.
I have seen them injected, but I am not for that practice.
I have seen them injected, but I am not for that practice.
A woman needs 2 animals in her life-the horse of her dreams, and a jackass to pay for it!
We had surgery performed on a yearling for a check ligament by Dr. Ruggles at Rood and Riddle. 2 weeks of stall rest, 2 weeks of hand walking and 2 weeks of limited turn out and she was good to go 
Those first four weeks were heck though 
Those first four weeks were heck though "We are the people our parents warned us about" - Jimmy Buffett
"My occupational hazard is that my occupation is just not around" - Jimmy Buffett
"My occupational hazard is that my occupation is just not around" - Jimmy Buffett
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ratherrapid
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treatment depends on severity. check ligament is precurser to more serious inj. if you ignore. muddy tracks are frequent culprits.
slight check lig damage--back off the horse. sometimes they'll tighten up over night, usually it takes a week. you can light exercise during the time. trot--then if trot fails to worsen it, go on to light gallop. It will usually, not always, tighten up over a short period of time. some are chronic.
if it's more severe I like to light bandage. check lig is the thin cross hairs of that lig pulling away from bone. never had a severe once. suspect that needs layoff time.
slight check lig damage--back off the horse. sometimes they'll tighten up over night, usually it takes a week. you can light exercise during the time. trot--then if trot fails to worsen it, go on to light gallop. It will usually, not always, tighten up over a short period of time. some are chronic.
if it's more severe I like to light bandage. check lig is the thin cross hairs of that lig pulling away from bone. never had a severe once. suspect that needs layoff time.