Re: Club Foot Surgery

["Joan Ruprecht" <ruprecht@tidepool.com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Linda_Merims@ne.3com.com <Linda_Merims@ne.3com.com>
To: ridecamp@endurance.net <ridecamp@endurance.net>
Date: Thursday, October 07, 1999 9:44 AM
Subject: RC: Club Foot Surgery


>
>
>
>
>Lauren Horn <4horn@home.com> said:
>
>>I know some people who sent three of their horses (home raised) to get
>>surgery on the horses club hoofs. Range from very mild to moderate. Is
>>this surgery a cutting of the tendon? These horses are from 3-5 years
>>old. What are the performance aspects after healing? The bottom line:
>>Does it work and is horse 100% usable for hard work?
>I wrote a very long post to Ridecamp on club foot several months
>ago that answers most of your questions:
>
>http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/archives/past/99/31/msg00076.html
>
>See also several short follow up posts under the "Pastern Angles"
>title.
>
>The surgery is called desmotony (severing) of the inferior check
>ligament.  This is a ligament about 1/3 of the way down on the
>inside of cannon bone that attaches from the cannon bone to
>the deep flexor tendon.  Its purpose is to prevent the deep
>flexor tendon from hyperextending.  (I.e., the horse lands
>heavily on its hoof and the deep flexor tears and stretches,
>collapsing the hoof and pastern to where the horse eventually
>comes down on its fetlock).
>
>3 to 5 years is very, very late to have this surgery.  At *most*
>severing this ligament gives about 1/4" of "give."  This can
>be enough to make a difference.  My filly had it at age two.
>Before surgery you could see a crescent on the bottom of her
>foot that was the rim of the coffin bone (grade III club foot).
>After surgery, the crescent had disappeared (grade II club foot).
>But by no means did she become a sound, square-moving, using
>horse.  She was lame before, and lame afterward.  Just a bit
>more comfortable.
>
>The thing is, every structure in these horses' legs has grown
>since they were sucklings to accommodate the rotated coffin bone.
>Snipping the check ligament will not correct these adjusted
>structures.  It may relieve some tension on the deep flexor,
>but everything else is going to stay pretty much the same.
>They were club.  They will stay club.
>
>"100% usable for hard work" is a very high standard. I know
>of two studies done on the long-term soundness of horses that
>have had check ligament surgery.  There was the original study
>done at Washington State back in the mid 80s whose publication
>popularized the surgery in America.  As I recall, some 15 horses
>of various ages and severity had the surgery and something like 12
>of them were being used for *something* two or three years later.
>Pretty vague.
>
>The other longer term study was done recently on Standardbred foals
>that had check ligament surgery to correct contracted tendons.
>Again, the numbers were fairly small, less than 50 horses.  Of
>those 50 horses, no foals that had check ligament surgery after
>6 months of age ever started a race.
>
>Ultimately, people do the check ligament surgery on older horses
>because it is the only thing they can do that might make the
>situation a little better.  But it does not work miracles.
>
>Linda B. Merims
>lbm@ici.net
>Linda_Merims@ne.3com.com
>Massachusetts, USA
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
>Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.    
>Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/RideCamp   
>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
>


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.    
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/RideCamp   
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=