Cruciate Ligament Update

["Kathy Myers" <kathy@nvolve.com>]

Hi Gwen,

I'm glad you wrote this morning since we have some new
news this last weekend.  As anticipated this is a very
serious problem and my friend Gale still does not know
how this will play out.  This is what's happened:

[disclaimer... I am a layman.  I am forwarding this info
to the best of my ability with my limited understanding.
Plus, you are all getting this 3rd hand since Gale isn't
writing this.  The info is coming from our conversations.
If something doesn't sound quite right, take it with a
grain of salt...]

1)  Her vet is Dr. Phil (I think) from Pennisula Equine...
which I think is actually on Stanford Property just off
280... where the big $1000 / mo. training facility is.
They have a state of the art equestrian hospital there.
I've not been, but might be almost as good as UC Davis
and a bit newer.  He thought there was no option for
ultrasounding a stifle.  Too big.  Too much stuff.

2)  Gale talked to a "leg man" in San Martin or Morgan
Hill.  Somewhere down by Gilroy.  He said he didn't think
it could be the cruciate since there isn't a whole lot of
swelling going on.  He wanted to "fire" the tendons, ie
inject them with an iodine tincture to tighten them down.
He might have been thinking of the medial and/or patelar
ligaments / tendons.

3)  Phil talked to UC Davis and The Ultrasound Woman there
said she could, infact, ultrasound the stifle.  She just
happened to be at Charter Oaks / Briarwood Equine clinic
(my vet) on Saturday so Gale made the appointment and this
was the route she chose.

I helped her load her horse on Saturday (along with her and
another friend.)  He doesn't like to load, so we were there
3 hours early.  She figured she could always take him to
Briarwood 2 hours early and just let him stand around there.
It took 45 minutes to get him in the trailer.  Besides
his normal anxiety (plus he hasn't been loaded in months
due to the injury), he had a hard time figuring out how to
get his back end up.  She has a low step up trailer (the
axel rides above the floor).  If he put his weight on his
good back leg, then he couldn't weight his bad stifle to
get the rest of him in.  If he tried to step up with his
good leg, his stifle didn't want to hold his weight long
enough to get the good leg up.  He's an Arab though and
figured out he was going to have to "hop up" with his good
leg.  I heard some terrible noises, snapping, and poping
from his bad stifle.  Yuck.

I talked to Gale Saturday night and the ultrasound showed
quite a bit of old damage to both his medial ligaments /
tendons and his cruciate.  There are quite a few rough
torn edges.  We do not know how he did this.  Could have
been just playing out in the pasture.  Could have been
when he got tangled up in a picket line.  Could have been
when he slipped coming down the hill.  We just don't know.

He is being scheduled for arthroscopic surgery soon as soon
as they can get the surgeon down from UC Davis.  The surgery
will be done at Pennisula Equine (Dr. Phil thinks they have
better recovery stalls and a comperable surgery... and if
any of you know the Woodside / Portola Valley / Atherton
area... and the kind of money that floats around here he's
probably right).  The estimate on the Ultrasound was around
$200.  The estimate on the surgery is around $1500 to begin.

ALL THEY CAN DO... is clean up the joint.  That's it.  They
cannot re-attach anything.  When they go in surgically, they
might have a better idea of his chances.  If they can clean
it up good and if there are still some good attachments, then
he probably has a 50 - 50 chance of being sound under saddle
on mostly flat trails.  No more sport horse for him.  If they
find he will not recover to being sound / painfree in a flat
pasture, she will have him put down on the table.  She will
not let him live the rest of his life confined to a paddock
because he can't be in pasture or painfree.  He doesn't like
confinement.

If she does nothing, the knee will tear itself up within a
year.  Adequan not withstanding.  She knows she must do something
since he's hurting just standing in his paddock.  After the
surgery, should his prognosis allow the posibility of recovery,
he'll need to be confined to a 12 x 12 box stall for a minumum
of 5 months.

If this was an endurance prospect and if he wasn't her first
"magic" horse, then his other option would have been to be
put down.  But this is the horse she'd waited 20-some
years for, the horse she's put the last 4 years of training
into.  Her first horse.  So she needs to find out exactly
what's going on and give him a chance.  But we're pretty sure
at this point he'll never be the same.

Let me know if you have any questions.

:( - Kat Myers
in San Mateo, CA with Magnum the TB ex-racer
and Mr Maajistic... resident Endurance Arab
PS:  one more thought Gale's horse.  He panics.  He doesn't
seem to have the ability for self preservation.  I've seen him
panic over water and litterally take out a small tree instead
of continuing on a trail.  I think it's a temperment thing.
He doesn't seem to understand the concept of tearing himself up.