Deep digital flexor tendon injury - experience?

hussar

hussar

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My 9yo endurance Arab has just been diagnosed with a small tear in the DDFT above the fetlock. We are to rescan in 4 weeks. Meantime he'll be on paddock rest. Does anyone have experience, good or bad, of the likelihood of full recovery from such an injury, and is there anything I can do to speed up the healing process apart from rest?
 
My mare is off with damage to her DDFT (and annular ligament) and has been since November. the DDFT injury was about half healed in April, so she is back for a scan in August to see what's what and hopefully return to work - not sure at what level yet.

She's not had any other vet treatment except rest, but have been using magnetic therapy boots for periods and also a Bioscan Light Therapy boot - have they worked, haven't a clue, but my vet was quite pleased with her progress last scan.

Plus at the beginning she had homeopathic remedies Rhus Tox, Rut Grav and Cal Flur.
 
I have experience with DDFT tears, my mare tore hers Feb last year and is just starting her walk work. I could write the world's longest post on tendons and tendon injuries (many people can vouch for this!
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) but if you have anything you would specifically like to pick my brains on, PM me. I don't know if my PMs are any use but I can spout info and experience at you if it'll help!
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All I would say here is the initial two weeks (well, one to two) are VITAL in the healing process. I missed this stage with my horse and it may well have made the difference in her getting the poor prognosis that she did, to getting a better one. Cold hosing has been shown to be beneficial within the first week or two of the injury, so get the hose out!
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Oh, and be thankful you can re-scan as well... if I win the lottery any time soon I will be sending my horse for another MRI scan, but due to the location of her tear right down in the hoof it cannot be seen on ultrasound - always look on the bright side, you have every opportunity to monitor progress which is a huge bonus!
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My young connie had a serious injury to his DGFT close to the pedal bone, diagnosed over many months with nerve blocks, x-rays and finally an MRI scan.
Sadly his injury was so severe that nothing could be done and he had to be pts.

Your horses injury sounds a lot less serious and with the right care could make a good recovery.

I will keep everything crossed for you.
 
Thanks for the replies.

Doublethyme - I've been using a borrowed magnetic pulse machine but don't want to keep it too long and can't afford the eye-watering purchase price! I have a magnetic joint wrap but I read somewhere that it's really only the pulsing that works - have you heard that?

Kerilli - I looked briefly at the seawater spa website - again I think the cost would bankrupt me!

Silmarillion - I saw some of your earlier posts about tendon injuries - sorry yours has been so long in the healing. This injury occurred 3 weeks ago and initially wasn't thought to be tendon. I did cold hose for the first week, so maybe by accident have done the right thing... I will PM you, thanks.

Sprout - so sorry about your youngster. Yes, I think I've maybe been lucky although it doesn't feel like it right now!
 
Ok I replied to your PM but I thought I had better say this about magnets - they should only really be used for chronic injury, I would ask your vet about it if I were you because three weeks may not be long enough for everything to have settled enough to start using magnets. Although it doesn't matter so much with static magnets as it is widely known (but not so widely accepted
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) that they do absolutely nothing, pulsed magnets certainly do have a proven effect on the body and on healing so I recommend that you make sure your vet OKs you using this before you do.
 
My girl is going in for her operation a week on Friday to have stem cell implants in a hole in her SFT and to have her annular ligament cut. I have heard great things about stem cell successess. Best of luck in whatever you decide to do.
 
Hi im so sorry to hear about your poor horse mine has just had a nasty accident causing a 10%loss of DDFT so she is going for hydrotherepy on fri which im looking forward too for her it is meant to increase the healing by25% so will keep u posted and good luck fingers crossed for a speedy recovery x
 
I am just using bioflow magnetic boots on my mare - not so much for internal healing, but to assist with keeping swelling down and so assisting the annular ligament in not pressing on the already damaged DDFT.

For this they do the job - they most definitely help reduce swelling, but I would agree with Simarrilon that they don't do anything deeper.

I do feel the light therapy boot is of more use but I cannot prove this, however, as I said, my mare has made good improvement on her injury.

I forgot in my first post - agree about the cold hosing, I did this the first week or so after injury, but my vet told me it is only of use in the initial period.
 
My boy did the same thing about a year and a half ago, it looked so bad at the time that i thought he would have to be pts.

However after a lot of box rest, walking in hand and cold hosing he was re-scanned 3 months later.

The vet was astonished as it had made a full recovery, so much so that she couldn't even find any scar tissue on the scan, she had to bring the original scan onto her screen to remind her exactly where the injury had been as she could see no more sign of it.

Hold in there, some horses make very good recoveries, just have patience and good luck!
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My horse 7 tb had a 10% tear and because we found it early and treated quickly he repaired very fast .After scanning 6 weeks later he had healed and I could bring him back to work very slowly.No schooling walking out for a few weeks and gradually adding trot.No jumping for at least 6 months .Hes gone on to do other injuries lately but tendon healed well.If you know how bad the tear is percentage wise it gives you a good indication of return to work and time scale.If you prefer paddock rest try and make several small interlocking paddocks so he cant run around and make the injury worse.I normally due 6 tiny paddocks so he can walk and graze without running .My vet suggested glocosomine I used newmarket joint supplement it helps aid joint recovery.Dont buy the cheap version its not proven to work.Good luck
 
Thanks everyone for your replies and I'm encouraged by all the positive stories. My boy's tear is apparently more like a nick in the tendon, not a hole, and it's above the fetlock so easy to scan. He's now home in a small paddock with his donkey chum and I'll adopt Cellie's idea of the interlocking paddocks as I can see how that would help.

He's on Superflex and has been for years. Maybe that will help. Good luck to everyone else in this position.
 
Update - on a rescan two days ago there was almost no sign of any healing to the DDFT, despite 7 weeks of field rest and 3 weeks' laser therapy. So I've just shipped him off to a local busy livery yard where he can go on 8 weeks' box rest, with plenty going on that he can watch and other horses also in 24 hours a day.

I'm disappointed in that I don't like box rest and think that there's a possibility he'll do himself some harm when eventually let out, no matter how small the paddock. But on the other hand I've got to give the tendon every chance to heal.

Good luck again to everyone else in a similar position.
 
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