DDFT and collateral ligament inflammation

T

tanira

Well-Known Member
Joined
24 May 2009
Messages
87
Visit site
My horse has recently been diagnosed with a tear in her deep digital flexer on the left and inflammation to the collateral ligament on the right. I'm considering some boots to help the injury and looked at vibe boots, magnetic boots etc. As its in the hoof has anyone got any suggestions on what's good?
 
... She was, she's having them off though. I've started looking into barefoot rehabilitation. Being told she needs 6-9 months off she won't be having shoes on.
 
tanira said:
... She was, she's having them off though. I've started looking into barefoot rehabilitation. Being told she needs 6-9 months off she won't be having shoes on.
Click to expand...

She doesn't need 6-8 months off, quite the reverse - a programme of suitable work is essential to many barefoot rehab cases.

She needs walking out, in hand if she cannot be ridden, and plenty of movement in the field, to cause her to strengthen the back half of her foot. Smooth tarmac is a great surface for this.

Have you got her on a low carb/high fibre diet? A no iron/high copper/zinc/magnesium supplement is also a good idea if she isn't already on one.

With a barefoot rehab on a proper diet, and a close eye for thrush, I don't think anything else you do will change the outcome. You have a very, very good chance of success without the shoes off you get her walking at least two days out of three, rain, wind and all !
 
hi sorry to jump in on your thread our pony was diagnosed with a suspected tear in ddft yesterday having been lame since September :-( how was your horse diagnosed ? what treatment are you using we have been given the option of steroid injection or operation ? Is your horse still lame ? sorry for all the questions
 
Lisa2manyponies said:
hi sorry to jump in on your thread our pony was diagnosed with a suspected tear in ddft yesterday having been lame since September :-( how was your horse diagnosed ? what treatment are you using we have been given the option of steroid injection or operation ? Is your horse still lame ? sorry for all the questions
Click to expand...

Check out the much more successful option of taking off the shoes.


rockleyfarm.blogspot.com
 
Lisa2manyponies said:
our pony has never worn shoes
Click to expand...

I shouldn't have assumed, sorry.

Check the other rockleyfarm.blogspot.com rehab horses which have never worn shoes. There have been several. The problem is the same, weak back half of the foot. The cure is also the same, work the back half of the foot to strengthen it.
 
Hopefully it will encourage you to know my horse had exactly the same combination of issues diagnosed by MRI 10 years ago, and after none of the mainstream approaches seemed to be getting us anywhere, I took her barefoot when this was still a radical idea. It does give the foot the best chance of healing which is a natural process given the right conditions. Foot balance is absolutely key, so you do need an equine podiatrist or pro-active farrier on board, it's not just a question of taking the shoes off and chucking the horse in a field, although you may get lucky this way given time!

In the short term whiole there is inflammation and the damage is new, I'm sure you will have been advised to box rest, and this is sensible, but as ybcm says, with controlled walking in hand. Or there are rehab places like Rockley with track systems where horses can be safely turned out without hooning about and undoing the delicate healing that is taking place. In the mid-term, turnout and Dr. Green is the best route to healing, your horse's sanity, and you not being killed by a frustrated horse.

But barefoot is the way to go with DDFT and collateral ligament damage and navicular issues, and there are so many success stories to back this up.
 
I don't agree with box resting them at all brightmount, sorry : (

I've done four, in the middle of a fifth which is going very well indeed after one month (and even the barefoot trimmer said the shoes should stay on!!!) All of them have a hoon around now and then. One of the Rockley posts is of a newly arrived horse going completely bananas while two others stand and watch. It's very funny :)

Hooning can, it's true, result in temporary increase in lameness, but in my experience it's very temporary and more than compensated for by not allowing them to form the adhesions which result in long term or permanent lameness. Plus they don't get better until the foot gets stronger, and it doesn't do that while a horse is on box rest.

There's a real fashion amongst vets for prescribing box rest at the moment. I have a horrible feeling it's far more to do with not being sued for getting it wrong than it is to do with what's likely to be best for the horse on balance of probabilities.
 
Mine did her ddft getting on for 4 months ago now. Prognosis was extremely poor due to the location - she's literally pulling the tendon off of the navicular :( Vets advice was a bullet due to the location of the tear as he couldn't see it healing even if left to Dr Green. She wasn't a candidate for going barefoot - sorry ycbm but it doesn't suit all.

Dad is a farrier, so we took her hinds off which she can just about cope with and have kept her fronts on (her tear is to her offside fore). BUT dad also made her a special shoe for the bad foot, it's reversed to encourage the heel to strengthen up, and is bevelled and flared to create the support where it's needed - basically the expectation was that without it, the tear would continue to worsen as any movement in the navicular would in theory be pulling more of the tendon off the bone.

Anyway - we scanned her last month and instead of a black hole, we've now got a thin veil... to the vet's surprise the tendon is repairing. The vet believes that it will be healed within the next 3 months or so, but we had always said she would have the year off. We turned her out for the first 4 months as some movement is vital, and she did hoon in that time with much hand wringing on my part :rolleyes: but when you see her moving about she looks 90% sound (unlike the other day when she pulled the shoe off the "good" foot and looked lame as a cat scaring me half to death until I got close enough to see which foot it was). She's now in as the weather is so rubbish and she was going backwards in herself but she does go on a walker daily to stop her bunny hopping in the stable.
I'm now hoping I've not jinxed her progress but fingers crossed so far it's working!
 
Lanky lol unless your horse was in a cast to above the fetlock, the tendon would still be pulling on the navicular bone, so I hope you weren't given that as a reason not to take her barefoot. Reverse shoes are a well known treatment (rockley rehabs have arrived with them on) and have a low success rate compared to barefoot rehabs.

As I understand it, you are saying that your mare would have been too footsore, and it is true that there are many which are, for a time. Unless there is underlying metabolic disease, this can usually be resolved with a low sugar high fibre diet and a high copper/zinc no iron/manganese balanced supplement. And sole stimulation. Some horses also need a lot of help from boots at first.

I hope very much for your sake that your father is able to save your horse with the reverse shoes, and your latest scan is very hopeful. Is your mare landing flat in the reverse shoe, or toe first? If she is toe first landing, you might want to have another word with your Dad, because that would make it unlikely she'll stay sound on a return to work. I'm sorry to sound negative, and I know you are very hopeful for her and I'm ruining that for you :( But if I can't help you with your mare, I'm really sorry to upset you, but I want other people to know that they are far more likely to get their horse back to work without the shoes. And unless they are Cushings or something metabolic like that, then the ones which struggle without shoes on when they lose one are the very ones who need the shoes off most.

My first rehab was a horse who had to be shod one front foot at a time, because he was unable to stand on a bare foot for the other to be trimmed and nailed.
 
Ycbm the shoe is there to support I am fully aware that there is no way to stop the movement bug equally want to reduce the stress. The mare is a thin soled flat footed Tb. To send her barefoot would in my opinion be tantamount to cruelty sorry but knowingly inflicting pain when I don't need to ?!? She can't cope in a soft well covered stone free paddock. Besides which because of the site of the injury the vet didn't believe it could heal - barefoot or not this was literally a last resort and the scan was to see if it was worth continuing or if it was that time.
Her foot lands correctly thank you, the vet hadn't seen anything like the shoe that dad came up with - I'd like to think that with over 30years experience, a keen interest in different methods and having worked with various experts in the field helping them to develop different treatments for laminitis, navicular and other problems that dad might know what he's doing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top