CASE HISTORY
Suspensory Branch Tear
Equine Medical Associates
Jim Morehead, DVM
Peggy Marsh, DVM, DACVIM
www.eqmedical.com

Name:
Signalment

​Breed:
Half Arabian

​Sex:
Mare

​Use:
National Level 
​English Performance

​Age:
2007

Diagnosis/Condition:
Suspensory Branch tear

Site:
LF lateral

Dx Date:
8/18/2016

Lameness Grade:
​1/5

Chronicity:
Chronic
Pre- Tx notes:
The mare presented for a tear of the left front lateral suspensory branch of approximately 10 to 12 days duration for RLT laser treatments. See below for images labeled as April 8, 2016 before RLT treatments.
April 8, 2016

​# of RLT Tx's:
38
​14 x daily, followed by EOD x 8 weeks
​

​Protocols & Settings:
​as per on protocols, initially. then increased by 20%
Rehabilitation protocols:
Handwalking 10 minutes x2 daily
Other Therapies used:
none
June 17, 2016

​Findings and notes here
Initial treatment: The mare was maintained on stall rest with a controlled exercise program consisting of hand walking 10 minutes twice dally, as well as a course of RLT laser treatments daily for 2 weeks. This was followed with 3 times weekly RLT treatments for 8 weeks (see images from June 17, 2016). The mare returned to her training barn for further rehabilitation of stall rest and a controlled exercise program directed by serial ultrasound examinations. 
October 4, 2016
September 30, 2016
Follow-up: The mare returned on September 30 with the complaint of lack of further improvement seen on ultrasound examinations (see images below labeled October 4, 2016) and the recommendation for more RLT laser sessions at a 20% increase in settings. The last images are from October 17, 2016 after 3 weeks of 3 times weekly increased settings RLT laser sessions with significant improvement noted. The mare returned to her training farm with directions as before.
October 17, 2016
Before and After