Deep digital flexor tendon damage

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Ags

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Hi guys, my boy has just had the vet out after weeks of being lame after small amounts of work in the school and after a nerve block the vet has said that his DDFT is rubbing on his pedal bone, and my only two options are to keep him on bute for the rest of his life or retire him 😢 Has anyone had any experience of this type of lameness or know of anything I can do any advice would be greatly appreciated thanks Ags x
 
How has the vet decided that after one nerve block? Was it a caudal hoof block? Even then you cannot just pinpoint the DDFT, and there's no telling the extent of the damage.

Mine was diagnosed in September with DDFT damage in both front feet after a nerve block followed up by xrays and an MRI scan of both legs. He was only lame one side pre nerve block, but with the nerve block, the bilateral lamenss became apparent!

Mine has a focal lesion in his left DDFT and swelling of both of them. His treatment is raised heel aluminium eggbar shoes with 6 months complete rest in restricted turnout. Then I've opted to go for a barefoot rehab option as there is some success in using rehab with barefoot to cure ddft injuries.

http://rockleyfarm.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=ddft

It depends on how deep your pockets are or if you have insurance though :)
 
To be honest I'm not 100% sure after watching me ride him and seeing him go lame (he's sound for about 10 mins then after that will all of a sudden go lame) he said he thought he knew what it was and explained about the tendon rubbing on the bone and causing sudden lameness, then did a nerve block to test the theory, think he was trying to save me money as my pockets aren't very deep, and my boy is nearly 20 and realistically I would be struggling to afford the scans etc unless it was going to make a drastic difference to the outcome and his welfare :( x
 
Thinking about where the DDFT attaches, and all the other structures in that area, I'm very surprised that it can rub on the pedal bone! Has it become partially unattached or the navicular bone and bursaries somehow moved?
 
FFAQ said:
Thinking about where the DDFT attaches, and all the other structures in that area, I'm very surprised that it can rub on the pedal bone! Has it become partially unattached or the navicular bone and bursaries somehow moved?
Click to expand...

I was thinking the same...

I would seriously consider getting a proper diagnosis and doing some thorough research of your own... sorry to hear about this but it can be managed depending on what is really going on there... Stencilface has some good advice there.
 
Crumbs! That's a question and answer half! I think I would ask the vet to explain his diagnosis further. He/she may be right, but personally I would want to understand exactly what was going on. If you do a quick Google search on horse hoof anatomy, or even 'point of attachment of deep digital flexor tendon to pedal bone', there are lots of images to look at.
Is your horse shod at the moment? If so, you may as well take the shoes off anyway if you're not riding. You may possibly find that using hoof boots and therapeutic pads ease the situation, but I don't want to preach barefoot at you!

I think, arm yourself with as much information as you can so that you can make an informed decision. Sorry, that's not really much help!
 
A scan with a portable scanner, done at home would be inexpensive and give you a much better idea of what you are looking at. My 9yo is currently off with a hole where the ddft attaches to the navicular. A specially created shoe (made by farrier dad) and 3 months in the field and we can already see a big improvement on the latest scan. Given the age of yours, you would be looking at 6 months off minimum plus rehab. Get the scan and know what you're looking at before making any decisions.
 
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