DDFT Recovery time

[myprincess]

Hi my 7 year old gelding tore his DDFT back in May, he has had an MRI scan and had bursa surgery in June. He has been on box rest since he did it and the vet recommend i hand walk him twice daily increasing the walks by 5 minutes every 2 weeks. We are currently on 20 minute walks incresing to 25 mins next week.
He still looks quite lame in walk but oddly not as lame in trot. Has anyone got any stories of their DDFT injuries and what the rehab and recovery time was? I am getting quite worried now that it is never going to heal properly?

 

[TheSylv007]

My horse was very slightly lame last year and an MRI which diagnosed a tear in her DDFT in the foot. The tear was a bit of a mess and needed debriding or else the chances of her healing properly were less than 30% as the tendon tissues were misaligned and in a bit of a mess.

After she came home from Newmarket she had a bit of box rest and then started walking in hand twice a day. Her op was in August 2014 and I was supposed to build up to half an hour twice a day and then in mid Oct starting riding but I slipped a disc so she carried on walking with various family members I roped in. I finally started riding in Feb this year, building up again and at no point has she shown any signs of lameness. She was in her normal shoes during her rehab as the vet advised me not to change anything or else I wouldn't know if any unsoundness was due to being footy or the tendon. I wanted her shoes off in April but the farrier didn't get the memo so shod her. I think the extra time walking probably helped us.

We now have no shoes on and she's going really well - we are even popping small jumps and I'm hacking, schooling and did a dressage test a couple of months ago and she's been fine.

It's gone well for us and even when she escaped from my other half who was walking her on the road, and galloped all the way home, she's never shown any unsoundness since the op. It's possible that I was just lucky and her injury was minor. Good luck with yous

 

[touchstone]

Mine did her hind ddft, but didn't do box rest and on the vets advice I turned her away as she was doing more damage being in, he estimated it would take several months to heal. It did fully heal but took 18months - 2 years before she was fully sound and back in work.