Shiloh's Surgery Update

For those who don't know, Mary's Howell's horse recently had surgery on the ligament on his front right leg. He started feeling "off" towards the middle of last race season, and develped some odd fluid/swelling in the leg. After several treatment options Mary was able to get this surgery for him and while it's not pretty it looks a whole lot better! Here's Mary's account and a current photo of the leg healing:

"Here is a photo of Shiloh’s annular ligament surgery, taken a few days ago before I rewrapped the leg.

Before resorting to surgery, we tried shockwave treatments. I owe a big debt of gratitude to Kathy Broaddus, DVM and also Barb Horstmeier in Fort Valley who made this treatment possible, keeping Shiloh at her place for 3 months last fall.

But the swelling came back a third time (after being drained & injected in August and again in November). By mid-February so much synovial fluid had accumulated that it looked as if someone had shoved a tennis ball under the skin at the back of his leg.

After Doug Daniels at Virginia Equine showed me how much discomfort Shiloh was in (over and above his usual grumpiness!) I was ready for the no-turning-back step and the surgery was done March 4.

So far so good on healing, and after another week of stall rest (Michelle Simpson is giving him a wonderful place to hang out with only chickens for company and no other horses to get upset over) he can come home for gradual “physical therapy” i.e light riding. I’ll need to ride with a beer in hand to keep my patience!

Based on the experiences of my friends who had this surgery done on their horses, I am not expecting Shiloh to be able to handle endurance again, but will keep everyone posted later this spring how sound he is once he progresses to longer outings.

His AERC record shows 80 completions and about 4700 miles. Even if he never makes it to the 5000 mark, I’ll be content just having him around, bossing around my goofy young horse Frank with his wise, world-weary gaze."