Deep digital flexor tendon tear. ADVICE

Nonyabusiness

Nonyabusiness

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Ive just had my mare to newmarket animal health trust after noticing her not being her self lame on n off had vet out given bute rest but no improvement. Just been given the prognosis of major tear in her DDFT. the vet has told me that its not a good prognosis and she will prob never been riden again due to it. (shes lame on both front legs but worst one been checked today and this is the prognosis) Although im not to upset about not riding her again but unsure as yet to if she could be kept as a pet out in the field.

Has anyone had this issue with their horse and what was your outcome? good or bad? i havent made any decisions as yet to which route i may take.
 
Where is the tear? If it is inside the foot, then they are writing your horse off too soon, which is unfortunately very common. See rockleyfarm.blogspot.com, lots of recovered horses with your horse's injury there, if inside the foot.
 
I have a warmblood who had horrific damage to both DDFT's, although one was slightly worse than the other. Lesions and fraying. After all conventional treatments failed, he was turned away. 3 years later was deemed fit for light hacking. This was when I got him. A year ago he started a DIY barefoot rehab, and is now a different horse. They can heal, given the right conditions. How recent is the tear?
 
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. Has the vet suggested this for you?

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 as I couldn't walk! 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.

We now have no shoes on and she's going really well - we even popped a little cross pole last week without the world ending. I'm hacking, schooling and did a dressage test a couple of months ago and she's been fine. I won't jump again until she's much fitter and will aim to try in August which will give her a year from her op.

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.
 
Hi thanks to all of your responses. ive had an update today and it seems that she has done both front legs one worse than the other. Not had any recovery advice as yet, going to talk to the vet tomorrow. seems that shes pulled it during exercise and its just degenerated over the last few months getting worse n worse till now shes dog lame on the front. Very worried that cos its both front legs that she could be in a lot of pain time for a long period of time. could it be recoverable or am i looking at the end for my girl? shes 15 yr old now so it will take longer to heal. but will see what the vet thinks exactly tomorrow.
 
Hard to say but with mine the vet said that the injury needed cleaning up inside as the tendon fibres had started to heal in a messy way which meant that if I just rested her, she would never really be right. It seems that cleaning up the fibres so they can heal straight was the key with us. We then had the process of walking and building up over a few months. Perhaps we were lucky in that the tear wasn't huge but we've had a really good outcome from the op. Mine was also at Newmarket so perhaps they'll make the suggestion to do the keyhole surgery with you too.
 
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