DDFT tear - tell me all you know please

FestiveFuzz

FestiveFuzz

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Apologies if this is a bit of a ramble but there's been so much to take in and in honesty none of it has really sunk in yet. I've only owned her a month, just last week we were planning our first competition and now I'm having to consider PTS.

So my 5yo came in from the field lame today, not horrendously so but showing some heat and swelling. Fortunately our vet was out seeing another horse on the yard and took a look, followed by a scan and confirmed a DDFT tear. In his words she's torn it in the worst possible place in the worst possible way (across rather than upwards) and prognosis is not good at all. He scanned her other front foot and that's also showing signs of damage with vet feeling it's only a matter of time before we're facing a tear in that tendon too. YO has suggested I consider PTS as she's a newly broken youngster and the vet feels there must be some conformation fault that has contributed to both DDFT being compromised.

She was bought with an aim of doing AM dressage, which from what I can gather will be an absolute no go even if we do manage to get her sound, but obviously she has no ambitions outside of eating her own body weight in treats so I'm trying to get to grips with what our future may look like if I do go down the route of rehabbing.

We won't know if surgery is an option until next week, but again I'm being warned best case scenario she may be a light hack.

Are things really as bleak as they sound? She's insured for her full value but not for LOU, however having spoken to my insurers that doesn't seem like it would have made much of a difference as it would have only covered what she's capable of doing now and not her future competition potential. It would be great to hear from anyone who has been in a similar situation so I have all the facts before deciding what to do next.
 
How absolutely gutting. I have no personal experience of DDTF tear, but know it has a very guarded prognosis. Taking into account her age and temperament, I really would want to give her a chance and not PTS. Have you looked into stem cell therapy? I believe Rossdales do this. I really am keeping my fingers crossed for a positive outcome to this.
 
you don't really want to hear our story but i will tell you anyway as we may have found a light at the end of the tunnel (fingers crossed)

will try not to ramble as its a long story so will just break it down in to bullet points if you want more info i can go in to more detail.

pony went on sponsored ride last sept 3 days later lame and swelling up her leg we box rested
vet came out after 6 weeks box rest and examined her suggested more box rest
no change by December vet back out suspected ddft went to surgery for nerve blocks
massive response when ddft was blocked so assumed there was a tear so she was booked in for op
had op in January couldn't find tear so back home more box rest with walking to recover from op and well try and recover she had a fall while being a tit and then went very lame then much sounder than she had been.
back to vets for another look and lameness work up once again real improvement when nerve blocked, so steroid injection put in and pony sound yay !
decided then we should have an mri scan to find what the problem is any way results were very very disheartening nivicular in both front feet arthritic changes in the bad leg and yep tear to ddft ! tear was higher than they looked ! any way she was still sound at this point we finally put her out after 9 months box rest and held our breath ! that was may any way a month later she is lame again :-(

she is having her nerves cut next tuesday fingers crossed pony is 6 this year
 
Currently slowing bring back my 9yo TB following a hole developing in the ddft where it goes over the navicular bone.
She's had 9 months off with shoes ON as she's ridiculously soft footed. Dad who is a farrier created a shoe for her to provide the support and balance she needed.
When she was scanned the first time the tendon hole was approximately the size of my thumbnail and a clear hole. At 6 months it looked like you'd pulled a veil over it. At 9 months - there is no visible hole. For the last 3 months she's been going on the walker and we're now starting a bit of roadwork. I don't know how well or if she will stand up to work, she's a massive baby - a stone in her hoof leaves her holding her foot as if there was a massive abscess so she will definitely tell me if there's something wrong. For now we're just taking it a day at a time.
 
Thanks guys, any info I can get at this stage is great as I really am clueless when it comes to DDFT injuries, or was until a few hours ago!

When she came to me she'd never had shoes on and had an extremely long toe/low heel which we've tried to balance with shoeing, so I'm a bit unsure about removing shoes at this stage.

I'm obviously reluctant to PTS unless it's really in her best interests and will still have to explore all options to ensure the insurers will pay out if we do go down that route, but at the same time worry I could be throwing good money after bad here, particularly as she's so young and not doing an awful lot and even then her tendons are struggling.
 
That sounds very drastic to PTS and for the conformation to cause tears such as described, I'd imagine she must have some severe deformity ! (guessing she doesn't) and I'm assuming she's in relatively light work as she's just broken. I can only imagine she's had a bad slip in the field and overstretched them both.

My pony tore her DDFT in a terrible place where it is under a lot of stress, we had surgery but the tear was that bad it couldn't be operated on, the scar tissue was just too thick. She was closed up and put on box rest for 7 weeks with "gentle in hand walking" ... i.e galloping off fly bucking on slippery ice :/ so we were not hopeful to say the least! She had her shoes removed and gradually came back in to work, couple of years later she was doing some serious hunting over tough ground and big hedges :) never had a day lame! hunted a few seasons, did hours of XC, jumping up to 1m and a lot of fast hacking. We just brought her work in very very gradually. Sadly she was diagnosed with arthritis in both hocks last week so she's semi retired now, but she never had an issue with the tendon once healed.

Your mare has age on her side, I'd take shoes off and ask about possible stem cell (probably not possible if the tendon is in a bad place as there won't be a place to "graft" the stem cells on) Or other available therapy.

Don't worry too much yet, just keep movement restricted to give them the best chance of healing. Tendon tears take a good year to fully heal and then longer to strengthen but gentle ridden work generally starts around 8 weeks

I'll post a photo of my mare to cheer you up a bit :) this is her hunting post tendon tear! please no button pushers, every image was purchased and is sitting in my tack room.
10898177_10153055259386162_8835723611083852255_n.jpg
 
Thanks HoofPrints. Your mare is stunning and gives me hope this might not be the end just yet.

I think the concern is she's showing mineralisation in both legs which we're unsure as to whether it's from an undisclosed previous issue or just some weird bodily quirk of hers. From what I understand this will always cause friction to the tendon sheath which puts her at higher risk of future tears...at least that's what I took from the chat with my vet earlier but my brain was racing a mile a minute so could be wrong.

Workload has been pretty light, just walk/trot hacks and some basic schooling....transitions, serpentines and 20m circles.
 
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Ah I see, that makes more sense. It is such a shock to take it all in, we were standing in the stable with the vet advising we put my girl to sleep because of her hocks last week, we decided to try treatment and fingers crossed it's going well although she'll never hunt again :( I'd gather your thoughts and follow the vets advice to prevent further damage if possible while you make the right decision . It's always worth a second opinion or speaking to a specialist in that area. I had a pony vetted and the vet found a cataract, a specialist confirmed it was just a scratch and it would heal in a few days .. totally different I know, but just proving that all vets can have different views on things ! really hope it's a positive outcome for you, it's heart breaking when things like this happen
 
It really is, I've gone from a quick chat this morning saying she's tweaked herself in the field but not to worry, to you may need to consider euthanasia...and that's on top of how excited I'd been that I'd now owned her a month and all our future plans...it's been a weird day for sure!

I have no idea how everyone else manages to take things in in this situation.

Current plan is to rescan next week and then depending on outcome send to Liphook for a second opinion. In the meantime she'll be box rested with a pressure bandage and regular painkillers.

So sorry to hear about your mare, fingers crossed you manage to get her comfortable.
 
Really feel for you, I think you just have to take comfort in knowing you are doing all you can :) . It's so gutting but what's done is done, have to keep moving forwards and take each step as they come
 
FestiveFuzz said:
Thanks HoofPrints. Your mare is stunning and gives me hope this might not be the end just yet.

I think the concern is she's showing mineralisation in both legs which we're unsure as to whether it's from an undisclosed previous issue or just some weird bodily quirk of hers. From what I understand this will always cause friction to the tendon sheath which puts her at higher risk of future tears...at least that's what I took from the chat with my vet earlier but my brain was racing a mile a minute so could be wrong.

Workload has been pretty light, just walk/trot hacks and some basic schooling....transitions, serpentines and 20m circles.
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Changes in more than one leg and mineralization are symptomatic of dsld/espa. I would ask your vet for a nuchal ligament biopsy to hopefully rule it out. Liverpool do the biopsy.

So sorry to hear of your problems.
 
ycbm said:
Changes in more than one leg and mineralization are symptomatic of dsld/espa. I would ask your vet for a nuchal ligament biopsy to hopefully rule it out. Liverpool do the biopsy.

So sorry to hear of your problems.
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Thanks, I'll ask my vet about this when I see him next week.
 
My mare injured her ddft in 2014. It was a horizontal split rather than a hole in the middle. She went to Newmarket, had surgery, long rehab program and is fine now! Back to doing everything she was before (hacking, jumping, dressage etc).

I think if I had your horse I'd be wanting a specialist to look at her. Good luck x
 
FestiveFuzz said:
Thanks, I'll ask my vet about this when I see him next week.
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It's not a well known disease. My friend's horse most likely had it, he had every symptom going. The first vet we saw had never heard of it. The second told us it was not a disease that occurred in British horses. Then we found out the Liverpool do the biopsy, so it certainly does. By then, though, her horse was in such pain that there was only one option for him. It's a nasty disease and I'm very sorry to scare you, but it does sound like something you might need to rule out, with unusual mineralisation of the tendons in both front legs.

I hope you get some hopeful answers when the further investigations are done, what a horrible situation with a new young horse :(
 
ycbm said:
It's not a well known disease. My friend's horse most likely had it, he had every symptom going. The first vet we saw had never heard of it. The second told us it was not a disease that occurred in British horses. Then we found out the Liverpool do the biopsy, so it certainly does. By then, though, her horse was in such pain that there was only one option for him. It's a nasty disease and I'm very sorry to scare you, but it does sound like something you might need to rule out, with unusual mineralisation of the tendons in both front legs.

I hope you get some hopeful answers when the further investigations are done, what a horrible situation with a new young horse :(
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Thanks so much for mentioning it. I read up about it last night and as much as I hate to say it Pops does have a lot of the symptoms so it's definitely an avenue worth exploring. The difficulty will be convincing my insurance that's she's best off PTS if it is that as there's no way I'd want to put her through the pain of living with it.
 
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