bruised tendon sheath anyone?

[georgiegirl]

Just looking for others past experiences or advice really!

You may remember a couple weeks ago I posted saying autumn had clonked herself pretty hard in the field. Never at any point has she been lame but you know when you just get a nagging feeling that somethings up........? The leg was stone cold, she was sound but had the very TINIEST of thickening up behing her knee and on the inside (so small in fact if you didnt know it was there you wouldnt find it)

Anyway as we had a few BE's lined up (and the fact I'm ultra paranoid about legs) I decided 'sod it' and took her to the vets for a scan just to find out wether we were ok to carry on or if something more was going on.....

So, vet said she was 100% sound and the scan showed all tendons and ligaments are perfect. However she did have some fluid/swelling of the tendon sheath sustained from the blow. Thankgod we took her and didnt carry on as we could have ended up with a serious tendon injury. Vet has us on walking only for 4 weeks and then back for a rescan where he is very very confident we shall be able to carry on as normal after that. Means withdrawing a couple of events but all the secretarys have been lovely and we have recieved refunds which is a bonus! Again vet is super confident she'll be fine and says it wont have any long term impact on her.

So management at the moment is turned out at night (with george who is quiet) brought in during the day. Compagel put on the area and a friend has very kindly leant us her bioflow rug too (we figured it wont do any harm). Walk ridden work in the afternoon for about an hour then cold hosing/cool gel afterwards then turn out quietly with george once the rest of the yard is in.

Does this sound reasonable? Is there anything else we could be doing? Have you had this experience and had it managed differently? Do you think we should be doing more with the cooling therapy? The swelling is still there for now and is ever so slightly warmer than the other leg - hard to tell though!

I have been and invested in a set of polypads polar rappas for her today. We have a freezer down the yard so they could be used twice a day and quite liked them as theres no risk of ice burns or anything like that. They'll come in handy for when we start eventing again too so thought what the hell and bought them - whoops!

 

[Cynorian]

My horse has done something simliar.
He came back from the vets yesterday with the following

2 weeks box rest with 10mins twice daily walking and twice daily equine spa treatment.
I will also put the magnetic boots on too
He is not happy about the box rest, so I did hand graze him for a while today. He was quite lame so fingers cross he makes a full recovery.

 

[sv-masterchef]

Our 6 year old mare kicked the stable wall and bruised her tendon sheath. The fetlock was very swollen and she was unsound. Our vet was confident it was just bruising and recommended cold hosing and icing. She was on box rest for a week and then very light work ( no cantering) for 3 more weeks . She was sound again quite quickly but there was swelling for almost 8 weeks , so she didn't, return to full work ( show jumper ) until all the swelling had gone.
It did take a long time and felt frustrating at times because she was sound but I am glad we followed vets advice as she is now fine and fetlock is normal.
Hope this helps and I hope your horse recovers as well as ours !

 

[Birker2020]

when my horse did this I used ice cups to reduce swelling. I also had him in magnetic boots overnight, and he had an injection of steroid into the tendon sheath. Was some years ago. Cold therapy is brilliant on these kinds of injuries.

 

[star]

mine has done something a bit similar at the moment. he got his leg caught in electric fencing in the field and came in with a puffy leg last week. completely sound but i rested him and cold hosed for 3days and it went completely back to normal so hacked him Wed and schooled Thur but it all swelled up again yesterday. We were meant to be at Borde Hill last wkend, Eridge yesterday and RC Champs this Sunday so all off and have got him on bute now and rest for a week. If there's any swelling left after the bank holiday I'm going to get it scanned for peace of mind before going back to eventing. I'm entered in 3 events coming up (BCA, Rackham and Tweseldown) and not sure what to do at the moment. He might be ok in which case I dont want to withdraw but I guess if I withdraw now I have a chance of getting some money back which would be nice as already lost 2 full entry fees and the thought of losing 3 more is quite painful!

 

[Orangehorse]

Mine did this and it was a more serious injury than I realised. At first I thought a few days off and he would be OK, but an ultrasound scan showed quite a bit of damage. I was able to graze him in hand, even though he was on box rest. I was told than when it had been re-scanned and it would be OK to start work, he would have to be up to 1 hour's "steady work" (whatever that means) before he could go out again.

The good news it that he made a complete 100% recovery and returned to full work and is completely back to normal 2 years later.

The bad news was that he was a complete and utter dork when I tried to start to work him again after being the all clear. and Tearing, bucking and galloping round in circles, bucking and leaping, so much that I had to send him to a livery yard because I thought that a) he would reinjure himself, or b) kill me - fortunately the insurance paid for some of it.

So the fact that yours can go out at night is a good thing. It sounds as though it won't be long until you can get going again.