RE: fibrosis myopathy

["guest@endurance.net" <guest@endurance.net>]

Barbara Thomas thomas@amgen.com
Hi,
I heard about the thread on fibrotic myopathy in the archives and thought I'd share my experience with it.  My mare developed it after tearing a muscle pulling back while tied.  It took about 4 months from the injury for the scar tissue to develop.  I spent the next year rehabing her with massage, riding, and chiropractic to keep her as aligned and balanced as possible.  Her's was pretty severe, the vets at Alamo Pintado rated it a 4 out of 5 with 5 being the worst case.  She walked with a severe goose-step but appeared normal at the trot and canter.  I brought her along and in the first part of this year completed the Fire Mountain 30 in good shape.  Then the troubles began.  While the horse may appear balanced at the trot and canter, there are compensatory changes going on all over the place.  She showed diaganol shortness on the opposite front leg, changes in muscling in the hindquarters and stress in the left (good) hind leg and back problems.  It was obvious that the kind of work required for even LD was too much.  I was ready to breed her or sell her as a pleasure horse.  At the AERC convention, I takled over options with Jeanne Waldron.  She told me of a surgical method that has pretty good success and I arranged to have it done at my local equine hospital.  It involves making an incision at the scar tissue and going in and severing it from the surrounding muscle.  The incision is less than 2 inches and the scar tissue is simply separated, not removed completely.  This creates less trauma and chance of the tissue to re-scar.  The wound is left open and the follow up treatment is...get this...RIDE!! Ride daily, a minimum of 10 minutes trotting (piece of cake!!). We went straight back into our conditioning program and exactly 2 months from the surgery we were Best Conditioned on the Malibu 25 mile ride!!  Thanks to Jeanne for her advice and to Dr. Sullivan for his expert surgery, my endurance horse is back on track.  I don't know that I would recommend purchasing a horse with it since there's still a chance 
will reform but if you already have one with it, the surgery is well worth it.