DDFT injuries, treatment and prognosis?

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LadyRascasse

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My horse has suspected ddft injury. He is being scanned on Tuesday so until then we don't know the whole picture yet. I am trying to figure the best way to treat him, if I need to look at getting him anything special to aid healing etc. He is insured so money is not an issue veterinary treatment wise. But I am thinking magnetic boots, bandages, ice boots anything that would particularly make a difference that I could invest in. Any stories good or bad would also be appreciated. Never had a horse with a tendon injury before so this is all new territory to me. Depending on the result of the scan he will be coming home (currently on loan) next week, I have the best farrier so feet wise he will have the best care. I have done some read, please don't turn this into a barefoot verse shoeing debate I will be lead by my farrier who is not afraid to go barefoot if it the right thing for him. Thank you in advanced.
 
My horse had a ddft injury in the foot amongst many other things - long story shory - Lame last January,mri in march,field rest until sept (my choice as he is horrendous on box rest) got my referral to Rockley ,horse home in December sound and being ridden (still in light work currently 1.5 hrs walking with 2 min bursts of trot ). He had three round of remedial shoeing which didn't make a great difference and caused some other issues.
 
Where is the injury?

If it is inside the foot, then the barefoot debate will happen on an open forum because the prognosis is so much higher for a barefoot rehab.

If it is higher in the leg, then it's not an issue and rest with graduated exercise to make the tendon fibrils heal in the right way will usually sort the problem out fine if you have enough patience.
 
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My mare had an injury to her ddft in her hoof found by mri. This was 5yrs ago, she did the box rest, remedial shoes and is now in normal shoes and being hacked out. Her prognosis wasnt good atall with pts or being a brood mare as part of the options. We stuck to the Vet's advice to the letter and she is sound and doing well. Unfortunately she injured the sdft in her opposite leg due to compensating for the ddft injury. This recovered and I actually turned her away for a year as I had another horse to ride.
She is still doing well today and we mostly hack out now which she enjoys. Being as she is 19 this year we dont tear around anymore so as to keep any risk of re-injury low. It was a long hard slog but well worth it so dont give up...
 
Thank you, I have no idea where in the leg the injury is until he is scanned. What did people do re magnet/bandaging etc? and what bedding is best?
 
My mare was and still is on rubber matting with shavings, definitely no bandaging as your not supposed to heat tendons up. We did use magnetic wraps to help increase blood flow, she recovered so dont know for sure if these helped but I would like to think so. Time and patience is the real key to be honest, it was in my horse's case anyway...
 
Excellent thank you. I was thinking full bed stable (not deep but compact if that makes sense) of shavings or similar bedding and I have a square mat that goes by the door. Would I be right in thinking straw is probably to soft and uncompact (terrible wording) for a tendon injury?
 
You must have an idea if the injury is high or low? Swelling to the tendon area would suggest high. Lameness with no obvious swelling more likely to indicate in the foot. The DDFT goes from the back of the knee to to pedal bone.

Mine had damaged his just below the knee. 3.4mm lesion (20%) , he'll be getting a 2nd scan in 2 weeks, hopefully to start walking out at that point.
 
If the injury is in the limb I recommend using bonner bandages for cooling .
I use a cool box full of iced water to cool them easily and quickly.
Bonner bandages are great as they provide some compression as well cooling .
Hyderdrug keep them or at least they did last time I needed one .
don't underestimate the power of cooling in tendon injuries .
 
Ive heard good things about EFT (thinks thats what its called) you can get a plate for them to stand on if its in the foot or wraps will find the detail and report back!
 
I had this diagnosed in July 2012. No box rest, don't agree with it if the prognosis is guarded and vet agreed. So rest, tildren and cartrophen, initially wedged heel shoes but by January 2013 still not really any improvement, vet and I had decided to give him a year so I (after lots of research mainly on this forum!) I took his shoes off, after an initial sore period he has stayed in work we started off working in hand up to 30 minutes then riding then gradually introduced school work. He even won a dressage test back in November and has been showing as well. So much happier and freer, moving so much better. It was a long hard road but luckily I had another horse to ride. I do feel that the main factor in his recovery was the taking off of the shoes - sorry! good luck and keep us posted
 
You don't need to apologise, I have nothing against barefoot. I just didn't want my thread to turn into a shoeing verse barefoot debate :) Fingers crossedfor his scan today then we can look at treatment options
 
Just to update you all, The vet came today and did nerve blocks first. He blocked out below the fetlock. My vet feels that it is unlikely that it is his DDFT but he is going in for further tests as he was a little bit of a pickle and was to dangerous when we tried to sedate him.
 
Good Luck Lady Rascasse! :) You'll be glad to know its not the DDFT then! (My mare did it last summer, I can confirm the non existant amount of 'yay we recovered quickly' reports don't exactly cheer you up! The DDFT is just one of those ones that people go 'oooooooo bad luck'.
Here's hoping for some good news for you both.
 
Thank you happy hunter, I had prepared myself for the worst with the ddft. I was relived when he said he doesn't think it's that (though not ruled it out completely) I am hoping it is something easily treated, time will tell. Very interested to see the result of the xrays :)
 
Hopefully it isn't ddft; although if it is mine came sound and back to full work. I field rested in a small paddock rather than box rested on vets advice as she was too hyper and risked doing more damage. she was already barefoot.

I used LIke Ice as there was heat which I think helped and used low dose bute against inflammation initially.

I was told to rest for 3 months, but it actually took 18 months - 2 years to come right and I'm a big believer in time being the best healer, it was in our case.

I hope yours is sound quickly whatever it is - good luck!
 
My girl put a 50% lesion about half way down her hind leg 2 years ago. I treated with small field rest for a significant period of time and am just bringer her back into work now. She's totally sound and I fully expect her to come back into full work
 
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