Anyone have experience of thickness of the equine superficial digital flexor

[Lexi 123]

I was just wondering is there any success stories of them getting better with just the tendon injection. I was given 3 options tendon injection a shock wave or surgery . I opted for a tendon injection as the other option are very expensive. For the shock wave it’s €150 a go the vet said if she isn’t sound from the injection in 2 weeks she will have to get shock waves therapy than surgery if the shock waves don’t work.

 

[Birker2020]

Yes it can definitely get better but has a poorer prognosis for ridden activities then for retirement which is where Lari is. It does depend on the injury though. When the vet scanned it at retirement when he hurt it originally - he said it had 'significant damage' and would be career ending as the DDFT was damaged as well as the SDFT. This was April 13th this year. I opted to take him home, back to the livery yard I'd had him on and iced and iced it like crazy and used my friends therapautic ultrasound machine which helped it get better. The leg looks better than ever now and hasn't caused him a problem.

The best thing to do with any injury like that is ice the bejesus out of it, it makes a huge difference. As well as anti inflammatories and ice vibe twice daily, I also carried out bandaging, initial box rest, hand walking programme, small paddock turnout and then large. It took around 2.5 to 3 months before he went back to retirement, that was 1st July and you wouldn't know he'd pulled it. This is it now, the before photo looked like a tree trunk and he was so painful on it when he came in from the field (it took us 30 mins to walk him up to the yard) he was shaking like a leaf with pain. It was awful, I honestly thought it would be a pts job. He was intially on 4 bute a day which went down to 2 after about five days. It wasn't plain sailing and caused me worry but then he is always causing me worry

Did you opt for PRP OP. Is that what you mean by tendon injection? That worked really well for my previous horse who did a suspensory branch injury and she went back jumping for a number of years afterwards. But a branch injury is different, and more minor then that of a SDFT injury.

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

Racehorses often have either no treatment beyond rest or prp and rest and go on to successfully race again. The injury is not career ending if you can prp it. Time will be your best friend.

We generally work on a 3,3,3,3 basis. 3 months box rest, 3 months walking inhand, 3 months turnout, 3 months coming back into work to full fitness. So 12 months on from the initial injury you would race again. But many vets these days recommend walking out from 3/4 weeks in to get the blood flowing and stimulate the healing process.