DDFT Lesion - any experiences?

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Sisters horse was diagnosed with a lesion to DDFT above the fetlock in April of last year. Very minimal lameness but big windgalls and scan indicated a lesion. After weeks and weeks of walking in hand and then under saddle he was rescanned, showing some improvement but not fully. Vet advised a 'suck it and see' approach, saying that whilst he wasn't technically 100% sound on a circle he also wasn't in any apparent discomfort and we should go ahead and see how the leg took to increased work.

Horse was on 20 mins trot work when leg started to show signs of worsening, a tiny bit of heat and resting it more, minor lameness. Each time he was given time to rest, brought back to work slowly.

Today he has gone bonkers in the field playing around (has a small paddock to himself), and he came in significantly lame. We are going to try to get him to the vets tomorrow to get another scan and see if the damage has worsened.

Does anyone have any stories of similar injuries (lesion above fetlock not in foot) that might give us hope that he will come right in time? We don't care if he is only a happy hacker after this, but we do want hope that we won't have to worry about every buck or trot he has.

Thanks
 
Hi,

My boy was diagnosed with a lession to the ddft in a similar place to yours last August.

Unfortunately it went misdiagnosed for a year before hand no lession found, just lots of swelling to tendon sheath hence the massive windgall. Site was injected with cortisone and then he was turned away for 6 months. 3 months back in to work (we were just starting cantering again) he went lame. I had him scanned, vet said he couldn't see any problems so prob just strained it. I was told to box rest for two weeks and then gently work under saddle again. He was never 100% sound and after 2 months I got fed up with my vet's opinion and boxed my boy to a specialist.

Within 30 mins I was told that there was a lesion with lots of scar tissue and the annular ligament was constricting the tendon sheath (what original vet found in Aug 09). He needed an opperation to clear the scar tissue and cut the annular ligament to relieve pressure on the tendon sheath. I was then told 2 weeks complete box rest, 6 weeks walk in hand and then turn away for 3 months.

Just before he was due to be turned out again he went slightly lame, i boxed him back to vets where they said that there was no futher damage and that as it was still early days prehaps he needs longer in. I kept him stabled for 2 weeks and then we ressumed walking in hand, though this time increasing the amount each week. Eventually we were up to over an hour a day and he was completely sound so I turned him out in a small paddock for 20 mins a day. This increased over the next couple of weeks until I was able to turn him out over night. Since xmas he has had his stable bandages removed and although he is only going out at night still, once it dries out I will turn him out 24/7 (i'm just worried about the strain of walking through deep mud).

Although I was told we could start ridden work at the begining of this month I have decided to leave it until end of March when the clocks go back. I intend to do double the vets rehab reccomendation time (for example: 12 weeks of just walking instead of 6), and not even comtenplate jumping/galloping until next year.

I should also add that i've decided to go down the barefoot route too. Since having his shoes off for the op he is moving SOO much better and after lots of research I think those 'barefoot taliban' are on to something!

Best of luck with your sister's boy and sorry for the essay!0 :)
 
Not a DDFT tear but my mare did significant damage to her SDFT including a lesion above the fetlock and fraying to 2/3 of the tendon itself.

She has been ob box rest since Sept and is only just on a few hours daily turnout and is up to 30 mins daily walking in hand.

Id have thought your vet would have recommended rest and not work for the main tendon in the leg :o
 
I would have a long hard look at his hooves and see if he is well developed at the back of his hooves and if he is comfortably landing heel first on flat ground.

If not - there is somewhere to start.

The DDFT is very affected by development in the back of the foot but it is sadly overlooked by many professionals, to the horse's detriment :(

If you look at where the DDFT goes - you can understand how poor balance in the hoof can be a major contributor to DDFT problems - even when they damage isn't near the hoof itself.
DDFT.jpg
 
Hi, thanks for the replies. Apologies, I have probably missed out a lot of his rehab story as he is my sisters and not mine I don't remember the details as well. We are with the Cambridge equine vets school so they are fairly specialist. They said that he was extremely well shod, but I will mention the barefoot idea to her (I have only seen it mentioned in relation to injuries in the foot before). He has had a long period of rest (sorry, made it sound like we just jumped straight back on!) and the bringing back into trot work was very careful and gradual, straight lines on good ground only.

We wonder if, like Charem, the injury had been niggling for a long time. He has been a windgally horse for a long time but never showed any lameness so we never worried about it, thought it was just fluidy, we only got it checked by the vet at the time as she was out to do vaccinations and my sister had thought he wasn't 100% that week. So it is possible that the injury is old with plenty of scar tissue adhesions that keep affecting its recovery.

Vet was out today and has advised back to box rest and bute, then take another look next week.
 
Not meaning to be pedantic
woot.gif
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I am certain the horse is well shod and I am certain the hoof balance is considered correct by the vets and farrier.

But that's not the same as allowing the horse to grow whatever crooked, ugly or weird looking hoof it needs to in order to stabilise an injury and allowing it to heal.

The shoes lock a hoof into a fixed position and by nature of their design, they will take out the heels and digital cushion from playing an active role in loading.
The heels and digital cushion will then atrophy and become incapable of bearing the weight of the horse and playing an active role, causing the horse to continuously hit a toe-first landing - to the detriment of the DDFT and it's levering navicular bone.

I'm not suggesting taking the shoes off is a cure for everything and your vets will stubbornly refuse to consider it an option...but the growing handful of sound HHO horses with similar injuries will beg to differ....

http://www.hopeforsoundness.com/education/articles/handouts/howformrelates2function.html

contractedheels.jpg
 
Whilst many old fashioned ideas are now obsolete with all the technology available for diagnosing and treating injuries in horses, tendon injuries would have been "treated", after initial box rest, with a year out at grass unshod, maybe it was more than the rest that enabled many to come back to work, they just did not realised that being unshod was contributing to the healing and recovery.
Most racehorses are turned away fully following tendon injury and many do go back to successfully race, possibly there is to much haste in trying to get riding horses back to work, Dr green is often the answer.
 
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