DDFT recovery in older horse?

[abbijay]

I need to have a little unload away from real life and hopefully draw on experiences of others. Apologies if this is long and rambly, my head is not in the game right now.
My horse is 16 and a large, purebred clydesdale who until recently was happily doing dressage (out at Novice, training almost at Medium at home) and hacking.
There's a lot of back story to this but let's skip to yesterday; vet came to review the forelimb lameness that wasn't responding to bute and we now believe he has done his DDFT. It didn't fully clear on the first nerve block but pretty well cleared up on the second one (fetlock), we x-rayed to have a look and it has confirmed the suspected arthritis in both pastern and coffin joints and the angle of the joints shows it's not fully supported.
MRI is not an option - he is too big.
The vet has put him on 8 weeks of box rest with bute and will come to reassess. We are not looking at him ever doing a dressage test again, if we are lucky he will be a light hack but the vet is suggesting he will need to remain on bute even for this. His expectation is after 8 weeks we will be able to start limited exercise but I think that will be in conjuction with another 8 weeks or so of box rest (and that's assuming all this goes well).
Do people have any positive stories of similar situations? Am I putting him through months of purgatory for, ultimately, next to no quality of life? This horse owes me nothing and I owe him everything so I am desperate to do my best by him.
And just because I wasn't stressed enough as it is he is now deciding that box rest is not good for his guts and I've got the yard on poo watch - he's managing to wait 7-8 hours between poos! (I have spoken to the vet and we are monitoring).
Picture just because I'll never get to canter him again and I'm so proud of how far he got.

 

[wispagold]

He is gorgeous!

We had a pony that damaged her DDFT. I can't remember all the details as it was about 20 years ago. Pony was in her early 20s. She did some box rest and then 6 weeks turnout/rest but made a full recovery and came back into full work. She retired in her 30s and we lost her at 34.

On the other hand I have very sadly had my 17yr old eventer PTS. She damaged her DDFT in April but then developed laminitis in the opposite foot and unfortunately ended up with severe rotation of both front pedal bones. She had other issues as well and I decided, with my vet, to not put her through prolonged box rest with what was probably going to be a negative outcome at the end of it. A very hard decision to make but I had already decided I wasn't putting her through box rest as she doesn't cope well with it mentally or physically.

I really hope you have a positive outcome. Sending you all my best wishes xx

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

Being such a big horse is a bit of a worry but as it's a front leg it's not as load bearing as a hind.

Will he cope better with small turnout? Double stable size pen that you shimmey around so he always has something to eat?

Age isn't on his side but I have had an 18yo tb come through a hind limb tendon injury to be fully sound again. Younger horses at work have gone on to race again so anything is possible and vets give you the worst, worst case scenario.

Being a heavy breed you have to ask the questions - is he in otherwise good health? Does the family have a history of illness? Etc.

 

[ester]

would you consider taking his shoes off? that will likely sort the HPA and help the ddft. (and have him out the stable)
I would also probably treat the arthritis medically in the first instance but don't see this mentioned?

 

[abbijay]

would you consider taking his shoes off? that will likely sort the HPA and help the ddft. (and have him out the stable)
I would also probably treat the arthritis medically in the first instance but don't see this mentioned?

I spoke to my farrier's assistant this morning - farrier is away for a few days - and we will fully discuss the strategy on his return. I'm happy to consider either corrective shoeing or taking them off. I need to discuss the option.
I would happily medicate the joints if it would help, we have previously done his hocks. The vet didn't suggest this as necessary/worthwhile at this stage.

 

[abbijay]

Being a heavy breed you have to ask the questions - is he in otherwise good health? Does the family have a history of illness? Etc.

Otherwise he is in fine health, known hock arthritis but he was at camp 6 weeks ago doing it all, he'd just qualified for Petplans at Novice, dressage has really brought this boy into the prime of his life. He's shiny and healthy, a nice weight, etc.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to trace his family but seeing as most heavy horse breeding stock has never done a days work in its life it would be hard to compare.

 

[ester]

I guess I partly say that as although yes lots of soft tissue damage does happen in the hoof you have evidence for two lots of arthritis which are certainly having an impact if only the fetlock block resolved. Instead of say finding the arthritis but a palmar hoof block resolving the lameness.

 

[PoppyAnderson]

I spoke to my farrier's assistant this morning - farrier is away for a few days - and we will fully discuss the strategy on his return. I'm happy to consider either corrective shoeing or taking them off. I need to discuss the option.
I would happily medicate the joints if it would help, we have previously done his hocks. The vet didn't suggest this as necessary/worthwhile at this stage.

Nothing good comes of remedial shoeing, other than a healthier bank balance for your vet and farrier.

Shoes off, turn out and get a great barefoot trimmer on board. Oh and read the Rockley farm blog.

 

[abbijay]

Shoes off, turn out and get a great barefoot trimmer on board.

I'm not against having an unshod horse but I definitely won't be sacking my wonderful farrier for a barefoot trimmer.

 

[sbloom]

https://rockleyfarm.co.uk/rehabilitation.html and https://rockleyfarm.blogspot.com/. Farriers can be awesome farriers but sometimes they have such a different paradigm (can it go unshod? No, okay we need to put shoes on) that they don't always have the alternative viewpoint you might find you need now or down the line. Stay open minded . Nearly 20 years ago I had a horse with a similar condition aged 11 and I wouldn't hesitate to go this route now I know so much more.

 

[abbijay]

I'm not against having an unshod horse but I definitely won't be sacking my wonderful farrier for a barefoot trimmer.

Farrier is back from holiday and I've just had a really good chat through our options. And we are both on the same page that the best thing we can do is take the shoes off while he is box rested to see how we get on.

 

[splashgirl45]

my old mare did this in her mid teens, cant remember exactly what age, she was a 15,2 warmblood cross so not big, she had 10 days box rest, then had a pen in the field for a couple of weeks but then escaped from the pen so i left her to have the whole field, after about 3 months i was supposed to walk her on the road (smooth surface) in hand, this was difficult as she was jumping about all over the place and getting dangerous , so i then rode her at walk on the roads for a while, cant remember how long, it seemed like a long time and she was sound and was ridden mainly hacking until she was 25 when cushings caught up with her...she was shod as normal, no special shoes

 

[skint1]

My horse who is 19 has a chronic issue with his ddft, in the hoof capsule, it's believed it's caused by abraision with arthritic coffin joint. He has cushings and various arthritic joints. I haven't had it scanned as it won't be covered on insurance . He's more or less retired and I am transitioning him to barefoot. His soundness is variable but right now he's happy and comfortable. Wiht my farrier's help I am transitioning him to barefoot as we have high hopes this may improve things.

 

[Pinkvboots]

I had a 16.3 warmblood mare that damaged her ddft just above the foot in the pastern area she was 12, she never came sound I tried to bring her back into work numerous times over 2 years, I ended up retiring her at 14

 

[fankino04]

A friend spent 12 months rehabbing her horse from PSD (including box rest that he didn't enjoy at all), then 6 months later he was diagnosed with DDFT (he was 17 then), he also had a bruised pedal bone and seedy toe. She had to chose between box rest and rehab again or shoes off and turn away, the vet said he had a 1 in 8 chance of coming sound again, given his previous bout of box rest and rehab she chose shoes off and turn away. His feet took some time to toughen up but they have and he's back to light hacking and so far so good. He had 3 months complete rest, 3 months of inhand walking to relieve the boredom, then 3 months of proper non ridden
rehab work before starting riding again.

 

[Slightlyconfused]

Ours did his right hind suspensory branch two years ago. He is 16:3 740kilos of tank.

I took his shoes off and turned him away after the 12 weeks box rest didn't improve him. Vet agreed that being turned away was his only hope and we only thought her would come light hacking sound.

I had shoes put back fronts (he doesn't to hinds shoes due to stifle injury and can't hold back legs up) as he as a stretched white line and stones getting up and abceasing. He was fully sound bf just no matter what we did we couldn't get those while lines tight.

He is now two years on and fully sound. Hacking doing fast fittening work and back in the school.
I just took his ridden rehab very slowly. Spent more time in walk, getting him working properly in all paces.

I would just turn away now for anything else that did the same type of injury. If they were insured and could do PRP I would do that then lob out.

 

[Fruitcake]

OH’s horse has had two issues with DDFT. (Hind leg though). He had surgery the first time, followed by long period of box rest and slow rehab. Came sound and was going brilliantly but then damaged the same tendon in a different place. (Vets said it wasn’t related but who knows).

We decided not to put him through more surgery and he hates box rest so we continued with the corrective shoeing to support the tendon but turned him out for about 10 months. (Normal field with my horse).

We had the leg scanned at intervals throughout. At the final scan, all looked great (albeit with a little scar tissue). He’s been brought back into work and is going really well.