Ddft injury and how soon should you see an improvement?

applestroodle

applestroodle

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As the title says, how soon should you see an improvement? Obviously I realise every injury and horse is different but on a time scale of say six months should you start to see an improvement? Thanks in advance
 
Where? In the leg or in the foot?

In the foot is statistically likely never to come right unless you do a barefoot rehab.
 
Then unless there are other complications something is going wrong. Is she toe first landing? Are her frogs in contact with the floor on a flat surface? Can you post ground level side and front shots, and sole shots for us to see. What are your trimmer and vet saying?
 
I've just checked your previous posts and the horse was box rested. The injury is unlikely to resolve without movement to allow the horse to build up the back of its feet. Is she off box rest now? What movement is she getting?
 
Sorry I maybe should have gone into more detail, 6 months ago horse was diagnosed with a 6cm tear by MRI scan. Four months box rest barefoot as he was on a thick deep litter bedding, my farrier thought no point in putting wedges on as vet advised. Was getting very bored on box rest so turned out after four months. Fast forward a couple of months and horse had another MRI yesterday, vet is still to write report but told me yesterday that there is no improvement and the lesion is almost worse than before. Horse is walking happy over stones etc, but still two tenth lame.
 
Ok so current system hasn't worked for him :(

Would suggest either looking into Rockley treatment or chucking in a field for 6 months- presume you have insurance so you have a year to claim for it all.
Pretty sure that Rockley offer advice so even if you cant him there no harm in a conversation!
 
My friends horse had this injury in the hoof as a 3yo, might have my dates slightly out but had MRI in early 2012, had 6 months of turn out (restricted enough so as he couldn’t get any speed up but still had space to move around) and controlled walking in hand (barefoot) on tarmac. Think the 2nd MRI in Oct 2012 showed a little improvement but he was still lame. He then began ridden work walking on roads. Progress was very slow but I think he came completely sound this spring / summer. So well over a year. My friend worked with a NHC Practitioner from the outset and followed their advice, as well as that of the vet.
 
cptrayes said:
Where? In the leg or in the foot?

In the foot is statistically likely never to come right unless you do a barefoot rehab.
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My pony had a tear to his DDFT in April. He had one month box rest and then 3 months of restricted turnout with wedges put in his shoes.
In the last month we have been out and got 67% scores in Novice dressage tests and next week we start jumping again.
He hasn't had any barefoot rehab and he is 100% sound with normal shoeing. So I'd have to say you are incorrect in your statement, thankfully!
 
bounce said:
My pony had a tear to his DDFT in April. He had one month box rest and then 3 months of restricted turnout with wedges put in his shoes.
In the last month we have been out and got 67% scores in Novice dressage tests and next week we start jumping again.
He hasn't had any barefoot rehab and he is 100% sound with normal shoeing. So I'd have to say you are incorrect in your statement, thankfully!
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Unfortunately I am not incorrect in my statement at all. You are just one of the lucky ones. There are some, no-one says they all fail. I also suggest you wait a year before you can say with certainty that it has worked, and if your horse is in bar shoes the outlook is at best uncertain.

The success rates for a return to full work with a ddft injury in the foot treated with medication, box rest and 'remedial' shoes is abysmally low when compared with barefoot rehabs.
 
applestroodle said:
Sorry I maybe should have gone into more detail, 6 months ago horse was diagnosed with a 6cm tear by MRI scan. Four months box rest barefoot as he was on a thick deep litter bedding, my farrier thought no point in putting wedges on as vet advised. Was getting very bored on box rest so turned out after four months. Fast forward a couple of months and horse had another MRI yesterday, vet is still to write report but told me yesterday that there is no improvement and the lesion is almost worse than before. Horse is walking happy over stones etc, but still two tenth lame.
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Some of these horses need gentle work, walking in hand if necessary, to recover. Your horse has had no decent movement at all for six months, so you are starting right from square one. You can't count the six months so far at all as a barefoot rehab.

I took on a horse last year who had been on and off lame for four years, including two long spells of paddock rest. He was sound in two months of walk, walk, walk, and hunted after another couple of months.

Standing doing nothing simply weakens the back of the foot further, and makes it even more difficult for the foot to support and repair the injured tendon.

Who has been doing your foot care, they should have known this really?
 
cptrayes said:
Unfortunately I am not incorrect in my statement at all. You are just one of the lucky ones. There are some, no-one says they all fail. I also suggest you wait a year before you can say with certainty that it has worked, and if your horse is in bar shoes the outlook is at best uncertain.

The success rates for a return to full work with a ddft injury in the foot treated with medication, box rest and 'remedial' shoes is abysmally low when compared with barefoot rehabs.
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He is in normal shoes, no bar shoes at all. I shall be keeping my fingers crossed but still don't think barefoot is always the only option, unless of course that the injury is caused by a foot imbalance in the first place. Obviously it depends on the horse and the injury and the rehab programme.

OP - was the turnout restricted, as in just about double the size of a stable? Mine was not allowed out on anything bigger than 3 times the size of his stable in the hope that he would not be able to run around and that size turnout was kept until he was cantering in his rehab. Luckily my lad just wanted to get his head down and didn't once attempt to do anything other than walk which I think aided the recovery.
 
Agree with Bounce, not all cases are the same. My mare had a tear to her DDFT in the hoof 4yrs ago. She was box rested, wedge shoes, hand walked, egg bar shoes, now in normal shoes, and is sound. I followed the Vet's at Horsepital advice to the letter and the only hiccup we had was when she had to have her navicular bursa re-medicated 2 months after the original injection.
We did do some dressage after her injury and today she feels great. Time and patience in my experience are key.
 
my tb had a ddft tear amongst many other things - lame January,MRI in March ,field rest until sept whn I finally got my vet referral for Rockley, he comes home sound in 3 weeks :) Wedges were the final nail in his foot coffin so to speak (h had 'typical' TB feet)
 
I think removing the shoes is one thing, but doing a shoe-less rehab. is another.

Also, I was wondering why another MRI was done relatively quickly? 6 months isn't that long in terms of healing a tendon injury fully, a year would be more realistic.

My own horse had an MRI in May this year and there was a 2cm split in the DDFT at the insertion point, as well as bursitis in both front feet and some minor bone remodelling. So, basically navicular. He spent the summer in a tiny paddock, had his shoes off in early July, having been shod with wedge heart bars in May. He was a lot sounder within about 6 weeks, I presume this was as the acute injury subsided a bit. He was never bilaterally lame.

Since August he has been walking, first of all in hand for up to 20 mins per day, over gravel/concrete etc. Now he is walked (little bit of trotting :)) mainly over stubble/grass/tarmac, for up to 50 mins most days. I guess he does about 15 miles a week. He is moving well and his feet are looking 100% better. The only other thing I did was to minimize his sugar intake and add Pro Hoof.

The reason I decided to go the shoe less route was that I could see that farriery might help in the short to medium term, but this horse is 8 and he could have a lot of years ahead of him, I felt it was worth trying to get him sound by strengthening his feet, which were underrun with the pedal bones lying flat to the sole. Building up the back of the foot internally should mean that he is less likely to suffer from the same type of injuries as he has been having.

I don't know what he will be able to do in the future, but he is looking like being able to do something, which is better than the vets were predicting.

I can see it would be difficult to walk a lame horse, I didn't have to do that, could you start walking him in hand?
 
My horse was diagnosed with DDFT tears in both front feet 18 months ago by CT scan. He is no better now than when he was first diagnosed after following instructions from the vet at the hospital. He did 6 months box rest in wedge shoes with 2 x 10 minute walks a day on concrete. Followed by 6 months in very small paddock over the summer. During this period he wasn't lame and didn't need any pain killers i thought it would only get better but how wrong i was. He started looking footy, and i had to start giving him bute again and he is still on it now. He is retired and doesn't do anything at all. 6 weeks ago he got laminitis but not due to grass the vet says it is because of the damage already inside the feet. Back on box rest since then. Removed the wedge shoes and is now in normal shoes and pads. He is in a worse state than when it was diagnosed as now nobody seems to know if and when the laminitis will re occur. I am at my wits end and can't believe that 18 months down the line after basically nothing but rest and remedial shoeing there is no improvement and he is also now prone to laminitis. I have read about barefoot and would love to try it but every time i mention it to my farrier and vet they say it would never work as he is a Thoroughbred and has very flat feet which are sensitive and have too much damage. When he is eventually over the laminitis i personally don't know what i'm going to do with him where do you go with a retired horse that is only 15 and fit and well but just won't come sound enough to be off pain killers and if gets turned out is at risk of further lameness and laminitis. All i want is my poor horse to have a pain free retirement with turnout during the day and a nice warm stable at night but how can i achieve that when any kind of movement makes him lame and now prone to laminitis it is a living nightmare. I do not want to have him put to sleep and feel confident that there must be a way as i have read countless posts on the internet where horses have a decent life after so why can mine not be the same. If anybody at all can help me please get in touch as this living nightmare is driving me insane.
 
alhijaz said:
My horse was diagnosed with DDFT tears in both front feet 18 months ago by CT scan. He is no better now than when he was first diagnosed after following instructions from the vet at the hospital. He did 6 months box rest in wedge shoes with 2 x 10 minute walks a day on concrete. Followed by 6 months in very small paddock over the summer. During this period he wasn't lame and didn't need any pain killers i thought it would only get better but how wrong i was. He started looking footy, and i had to start giving him bute again and he is still on it now. He is retired and doesn't do anything at all. 6 weeks ago he got laminitis but not due to grass the vet says it is because of the damage already inside the feet. Back on box rest since then. Removed the wedge shoes and is now in normal shoes and pads. He is in a worse state than when it was diagnosed as now nobody seems to know if and when the laminitis will re occur. I am at my wits end and can't believe that 18 months down the line after basically nothing but rest and remedial shoeing there is no improvement and he is also now prone to laminitis. I have read about barefoot and would love to try it but every time i mention it to my farrier and vet they say it would never work as he is a Thoroughbred and has very flat feet which are sensitive and have too much damage. When he is eventually over the laminitis i personally don't know what i'm going to do with him where do you go with a retired horse that is only 15 and fit and well but just won't come sound enough to be off pain killers and if gets turned out is at risk of further lameness and laminitis. All i want is my poor horse to have a pain free retirement with turnout during the day and a nice warm stable at night but how can i achieve that when any kind of movement makes him lame and now prone to laminitis it is a living nightmare. I do not want to have him put to sleep and feel confident that there must be a way as i have read countless posts on the internet where horses have a decent life after so why can mine not be the same. If anybody at all can help me please get in touch as this living nightmare is driving me insane.
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How awful for you. : ( Obviously I haven't seen your horse, and I'm no vet, but horses can and do cope without shoes, even TBs! It just takes work. Not sure where you are based but we are in the south east and my friend worked with Lucy Priory. There is lots of info on Rockley Farm's website. Good luck : )
 
bounce said:
He is in normal shoes, no bar shoes at all. I shall be keeping my fingers crossed but still don't think barefoot is always the only option, unless of course that the injury is caused by a foot imbalance in the first place. Obviously it depends on the horse and the injury and the rehab programme.
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While horses will vary I'm afraid the stats bear CPtrayes out. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.2042-3306.2010.00081.x/abstract. I've seen a copy of the breakdown of this study and specifically DDFT injuries come in at 21.8 %

It's great that your horse is one of the 21.8 but statistically most will be one of the 80%

Mine had a ddft injury (though strain rather than tear) and we 18 had months of box rest and trying to bring back into work and he didn't come right, in the end he went to Rockley and came back into full work including jumping.

alhijaz mine was a tb who all the vets and farriers said would never cope barefoot. He later had to be retired with a shoulder injury but footwise he still stomps over everything.
 
alhijaz said:
My horse was diagnosed with DDFT tears in both front feet 18 months ago by CT scan. He is no better now than when he was first diagnosed after following instructions from the vet at the hospital. He did 6 months box rest in wedge shoes with 2 x 10 minute walks a day on concrete. Followed by 6 months in very small paddock over the summer. During this period he wasn't lame and didn't need any pain killers i thought it would only get better but how wrong i was. He started looking footy, and i had to start giving him bute again and he is still on it now. He is retired and doesn't do anything at all. 6 weeks ago he got laminitis but not due to grass the vet says it is because of the damage already inside the feet. Back on box rest since then. Removed the wedge shoes and is now in normal shoes and pads. He is in a worse state than when it was diagnosed as now nobody seems to know if and when the laminitis will re occur. I am at my wits end and can't believe that 18 months down the line after basically nothing but rest and remedial shoeing there is no improvement and he is also now prone to laminitis. I have read about barefoot and would love to try it but every time i mention it to my farrier and vet they say it would never work as he is a Thoroughbred and has very flat feet which are sensitive and have too much damage. When he is eventually over the laminitis i personally don't know what i'm going to do with him where do you go with a retired horse that is only 15 and fit and well but just won't come sound enough to be off pain killers and if gets turned out is at risk of further lameness and laminitis. All i want is my poor horse to have a pain free retirement with turnout during the day and a nice warm stable at night but how can i achieve that when any kind of movement makes him lame and now prone to laminitis it is a living nightmare. I do not want to have him put to sleep and feel confident that there must be a way as i have read countless posts on the internet where horses have a decent life after so why can mine not be the same. If anybody at all can help me please get in touch as this living nightmare is driving me insane.
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I think you have to trust your own instincts with your own horse. I didn't ask my vet or farrier about taking shoes off as I knew they might not be that positive, I got hold of a barefoot trimmer and she helped me. In fact my vet was really supportive and still is, but the farrier was totally against. This is a TB type sports horse too.

I recently had him back at the vet school for a new problem he has, and I was expecting comments and questions about his lack of shoes, however, the senior vet only had praise for how his feet were looking and performing for him. She said, whatever you are doing with his feet it is working, keep doing it.

Your horse has a complicated picture with laminitis in the mix, but if I was you I'd be speaking to a barefoot expert in your area to see what they think.
 
I'm so sorry to read about your horse. I was lucky my farrier from day one was very much against wedges and my vet was fully supportive. He was box rested on a deep litter bedding so wedges would have made little difference. I unfortunately made the very sad decision at the start of the year to have my horse put to sleep. I tried everything but when the second MRI scan showed no improvement and we were also dealing with navicular which hasn't settled I felt it was the kindest thing. He was a competition horse and did not do well being a field ornament. Good luck and I hope everything works out for you.
 
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