Bad start to 2009 - torn tendon

B

Butterbean

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How can one horse be so unlucky? Last year Brooklyn was diagnosed with kissing spines, had surgery, we got the go ahead to ride again then a few days later his eye got sore & swollen. Spent 9 weeks in hospital, in the end had to have his eye removed, meanwhile developed gastric ulcers and had terrible colic. Oh and had puncture wound to his foot resulting in recurring abscesses. A week after coming home from hospital had more pus in the foot, when that cleared up he was still lame so has just had more investigations and ultrasound has shown a tear in his deep digital flexor tendon!!
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Apparently tear is in a place where it is likely to be slow to heal. So looks like that's it for 2009.
Sorry for long moan but am feeling rather fed up.
Postive stories (if there are any) about DDFT injuries welcome!
 
Both my marea have had flexor tendon injuries and both are 100% sound and in full work.

One had a massive hole in hers caused by a wound and the other got kicked in the field and also had infection in the tendon sheath with surgery to follow.

It was hard work with the hole in the tendon but our vets were brilliant, both were referred for hydrotherapy and i'd fully recommend it (think you need a vets referral for it and have to tell your insurance co in advance as its an alternative therapy).

The surgery was back in riding after 3 months, the other was much longer as it was a far worse injury and they were concerned she'd never be sound. Lots of in hand walking with that one.

Hydrotherpay is said to speed up the healing process and it certainly helped in both ours. They went to full livery at the equine clinic and everything was done for us, vets visited daily, it was such a huge help. If you can get on something like that i'd do it, I would certainly ask (were in Yorkshire and have a clinic here).

Good luck and hope he gets better, time and patience required i'm afraid but both our stories show it is well worth it. Hope its a quick recovery for him xx
 
our daughters Dressage horse rolled in to a ditch just before the regionals!!
We box rested her before finding out it was a tear in the tendon. So she had a year off, had fun with a syringe and had beautiful colt!!!
She came sound eventually but will never compete BD again.
Good luck with yours it sounds like he has been through the mill!!
 
My mare tore her DDFT (2cm below and along the length of her navicular bone) almost two years ago now. She also had bad cartilage erosion around the pedal bone and I was told to shoot her. I gave her 18 months off instead, and despite such a poor prognosis (20% chance of return to full work... which she actually hasn't but she's 50% of the way back to full work!) she is now happily hacking in walk and trot. In a couple of months time we'll get her vet out to MOT her and see if we can start cantering
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She was an RC all-rounder and she will never jump or school again (jumping due to the tendon, schooling due to the cartilage) but she makes a fab happy hack and loves her new pressure-free life
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DDFT injuries are notoriously worse than SDFT injuries - the more time off you can give the horse the better chance you give them, as a rule of thumb... my vet suggested 9 months so I doubled it to be sure! There came a point where it was either be too scared to ride her again, or just start walking her in-hand and see what happened, so I started walking her and never looked back.
So hope is not all lost! I spent a year researching all the info I could on DDFT injuries so would be more than happy to give you more of my experience (still limited I hasten to add, I'm no expert!)/just general support via PM if you would like
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Thanks everyone, all support is much appreciated. Will definitely investigate the hydrotherapy options but being realistic will probably need a lot of time to heal.
 
Be positive 5 years ago my horse pictured below tore both his DDFT and SFFT. (Caused by a kick in the field above his fetlock) He had surgery where both were debrided (Basically cut completely through, to enable a new fibres to grow correctly ) I've included a picture as he is Showjumping, Showing competing at dressage and doing all the things he used to.
Hope you start getting a little luck as it sure sounds like you need some !
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Thanks Chestnutcob, your horse is lovely! The vet did mention surgery re debriding the tendon, but as B has been through so much I don't think more surgery would be the best option for him.
 
I know I was unsure at the time but he was so lame I just had to try anything. Don't get me wrong its not a guaranteed success but I guess we were very lucky.
Having had a bad experience wtih an unsuitable horse I brought Flash (as pictured) he is an absolute gent in all ways. I went from a nervous rider not jumping a trotting pole to competing with confidence, and its all thanks to him.
He's my number one !!!!
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PS wouldn't you die to have hair like that ! And its all natural.
 
Well after the surgery he was still quite lame so I did the box rest etc but he was going mad. I decided to turn him away for 2 years which I did and he was as sound as a pound. I would say probably about a year but I decided 2 years and stuck to that. I was fortunate I had another event horse to bring on.
Good luck in whatever you choose to do.
 
Hi,

Sorry to hear about your bad luck. There seems to be a small club of us on here with horses who have DDFT injuries! My 13 year old mare went lame in March last year, but kept showing up sound whenever the vet came out. She was finally diagnosed with the deep digital flexor tendon in June, very annoying that it took that long to diagnose. Apparently the first two weeks are crucial and box rest is advised. My mare was put on box rest and then turned out on field rest, the vet thought she would be ready to bring slowly back into work at the end of last year. Unfortunately she overdid it in the field and was diagnosed with more box rest. All this happened whilst she was out on loan, and at this point the loaner gave her back to me.

Since I've had her back she has trotted up sound again, despite going loopy in the field when we first turned her out. I had a completely conflicting piece of advice from our vet last month, who advised buting her up and bringing her back into work as field rest hadn't worked so far-in fact I posted on this a couple of weeks ago if you have a look for it. I hopped on for ten minutes once the bute had kicked in and luckily she appeared to be sound, however I have not ridden since and don't intend to-I see what the vet was saying by bringing her back into work but I think it is too soon-I don't want to end up with a crippled horse at the end of it! So I am sticking with my loaner vet's advice to rest, rest and rest some more-he said that tendon injuries are particularly complex and take a long time to heal. I am in the process of getting her referred for an mri scan-this is the only thing that will tell you the percentage of the tear and a long term prognosis. My insurer (petplan) luckily will pay for it in full so thats the next step-I'm not sure what I will do though if the outcome is bad though. I am just hoping and praying that it will turn out ok-it does put you under quite a bit of stress.

Sorry if I've rambled on-these stories are never short! Keep us updated and good luck with Brooklyn.
 
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