contracted tendons

[halo320]

hi, i hope some of you can help me!
my 8 mth welsh sec c has just been diagnosed with contracted tendons (this happened last week). after speaking to my vet, i cut out his feed and now just give him a feed balancer and a handfull of safe and sound and hes now turned out in a bare field. ive got him on msm and he gets a haynet of haylage at nite as he wont eat hay. but hes got worse.
ive looked on the net about it and it talks about remedial trimming and shoeing. has anybody used these forms of treatment and if so what were the results? this wee pony is for showing and id do anything to straighten up his legs as much as poss.
any info much appreciated!! THANX

 

[jomiln]

We had a yearling in last year with contracted tendons which had started at 5 months old. The farrier had managed to get 1 back to normal with remedial trimming but one was beyond this so a visiting australian vet recommended cutting the tendon to allow everything to drop - he then came to us for spa therapy, laser & ultrasound and remedial exercise with continued remedial farriery.

He is now fully recovered, sound with a great future ahead of him - on arrival with us he was around 7 out of 10 on the lameness scale.

I would certainly recommend talking to your vet and farrier as to a course of action for your horse.

 

[halo320]

thanks for ur help. ive spoken to another vet whos going to come out and see how bad he is. the other vet didnt seem too concerned. shes going to take some off his heels and see how he responds to that. cutting the tendon or ligaments would be a last resort but ill see how he goes. as you dea' with recovery of injuries, is there any excerises that you could recommend i could do or should i just see how he goes with the trimming? many thanks

 

[jomiln]

With Ben (the yearling we had in) even in a field he wasn't moving around a lot so we used the horsewalker for him to make sure he had a certain amount of walking each day. Obviously with your horse you would need to be careful as you haven't yet got the problem sorted fully - we were working with a leg with corrected conformation.

We had to retrain him to use himself properly and in hand we used pole work to make him pick his legs up further and the poles helped him place them down correctly. Also a scrunchie placed around his pastern helped him think about his foot placing.

 

[cazza]

We had that problem with one of ours on both front legs, he had both ligaments and tendons cut and we are currently only allowed to keep him on concrete and his feet are going through remedial trimming at the moment he looks heaps better now. The prognosis on him was either he was to be shot or would hopefully come right with the operation. He was majorly over at the fetlock due to someone overfeeding him through last winter. I really wish some people would bloody listen and not think they know best all the time. (sorry that was my mini rant)

 

[halo320]

thats wots happened with my wee man. i changed his field with the bad weather weve had as the one he was in was waterlogged. the grass was so rich that hes had a massive growth spurt and its just too much for him, though im hoping its been caught in time. sometimes he looks like hes on his toes and others he seems fine but with a tremble in his legs. how long ago was it he had the op?

 

[cazza]

He had the Op the beginning of November, the right leg is now straight and the left is getting there. It's a real shame as he's a real sweetie, even now we are not sure if it's going to come right or not yet. TBH it's best to get is sorted sooner rather than later, but the best advise I can give you is try to keep him on concrete so he has to put his foot flat otherwise digging his toe into the soft ground will not help stretch the tendons in line with the growth in the bone, and I am having the farrier take back my boy's heels every two weeks. He's looking heeps better now but we have to bite the bullet and keep him on the yard, he wanders around and only get's put in a stable when there are other horses around, he's left to wander around with his stable door open the rest of the time.

 

[halo320]

its such a shame. poor horses dont understand. unfortunately i havent anywhere to put him onto hard ground. his field is extremely boggy in places which wont help. i presume more excersice is better than little, to help stretch his tendons?