Ddft injury

[Foggy Oldie]

Hi all, new here . Does anyone have any success stories with Ddft injuries in the hoof? Current pony had a bilateral bursoscopy in May following slight intermittent lameness. An MRI found fraying of ddft in both front hooves and ‘mature adhesions’ which suggested maybe an old injury. While having her initial lameness work up the vet found lameness in both hocks which is thought to be compensatory from being sore in front. No arthritic changes in either hock found on x-ray thank goodness. She has had steroid injections in her fronts and hocks and a Tildren infusion. Pony is currently sound and in week 12 of rehab. Vet seems hopeful that she would return to previous level of work which included jumping at local shows. She has her final check coming up soon but we’re feeling really nervous

 

[sbloom]

These sorts of issues are so often secondary to a compensatory movement pattern which could have started years ago and never been corrected, were so used to seeing downhill, crooked horses that it seems utterly normal. No criticism, it's universal.

Look into posture, thoracic sling, comp. movement patterns and organisations like WildMagic LLC, Encompass Equine Solutions and other amazing rehabbers.

 

[Foggy Oldie]

These sorts of issues are so often secondary to a compensatory movement pattern which could have started years ago and never been corrected, were so used to seeing downhill, crooked horses that it seems utterly normal. No criticism, it's universal.

Look into posture, thoracic sling, comp. movement patterns and organisations like WildMagic LLC, Encompass Equine Solutions and other amazing rehabbers.

Thank you for your reply. Something for us to look into.

 

[Reacher]

Welcome Foggy Oldie.

There are a lot of posts on ddft injuries if you do a search on here.
Hoof imbalance is a common cause (eg long toe /low heel ) - did the vet say anything about pony’s hoof balance ?
Definitely worth reviewing pony’s posture mid movement with your RI / physio too.

 

[Birker2020]

You can relieve tension on the DDFT by increasing the heel length relative to the toe length and also by facilitating breakover so the stride length is shortened which helps provide less tension on the DDFT.

https://www.ssequineclinic.com/equine-health-topics/excessive-ddft-tension/

 

[Foggy Oldie]

Hi, thanks for the reply. She has a great massage therapist who comes out to her regularly who is very knowledgeable. She has been invaluable. She wrote a brief report of her findings for us to take to the vet when she first went in. We had only had the pony for a year when it all went wrong but she had various issues the whole time with what we thought was weakness behind and generally being unbalanced. I haven’t had horses for a long time and so my daughter had been going to regular lessons twice a week to try to ensure we were doing everything right by the pony. The vet seems to think the injuries were old due to the adhesions that were found so probably happened before we purchased her. She did have quite long toes which we had addressed. On the x-ray prior to her MRI the vet said she had mild medial/lateral foot imbalance which we thought may have been the issue but then we had the MRI which we were obviously devastated by ?. She is currently on a 5 week shoeing regime which involves pads and dental impression material underneath the pad. Unfortunately since writing this post yesterday she has become very slightly lame again in front, noticed this morning while my daughter was riding her. (my fault for tempting fate saying she was currently sound ?) I’ve spoken with a different vet this morning as our vet is on leave. He’s advised taking a step back and gentle hacking as the lameness is only visible on a circle. It’s so upsetting, she’s such a lovely pony.

 

[Foggy Oldie]

You can relieve tension on the DDFT by increasing the heel length relative to the toe length and also by facilitating breakover so the stride length is shortened which helps provide less tension on the DDFT.

https://www.ssequineclinic.com/equine-health-topics/excessive-ddft-tension/

Hi, thanks for the reply. I’ll have a look at the link ?