Deep Flex Tendon Injury...

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JoshuaR97

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Well my horse went lame the early part of this year and later he got did diagnosed with a Deep flex tendon injury in his right front leg. He has had steroid injections first time into the front of his foot then after one month will no improvement he got another two injections into the front and back of his foot. He was currently unshod with all this happening. He then started to stretch his leg out so we got told by the vet to fit him in egg bar shoes. Went back to the vets during the early part of July and they said he has improved a little bit. They gave him a nerve block and lunged him on the hard surface and said he looks better now so they said they could de-nerve him so I would have a horse I could ride in a matter of weeks or turn him away till spring so I went with turning him away. Right now he is fully left out in the field but I trotted him up a few weeks ago and was slightly lame but looked a lot better. Yesterday I tried to catch him and he trotted around and he was still lame maybe worse then how he was a few weeks ago. I'm currently feeding him Flexamine 10:10, mins and vits and dengie lite. He is still wearing egg bar shoes and the farrier has said he would keep them on for support. The back of his leg where his tendon is does sometimes swell up and I will cold hose when needed. Does anyone know what else I can do? I feel like I'm loosing a battle with this and he is out and he has the freedom to run and mess around as he pleases.. :/
 
I think you have posted about this previously and you are still not clear in your post about where the injury is, it sounds as if it is the deep flexor tendon in the foot hence the suggestion to denerve yet you then say the back of the leg is swollen, the tendon is the same one that runs down the leg into the foot but the injury is either deep within the foot therefore only seen fully by doing an MRI or it is above and can be felt and seen by ultrasound.
Treatment and full recovery will take time wherever the injury is, tendons heal far more slowly than bones, if he has not had an MRI it will be difficult to have a definitive prognosis or diagnosis and there may well be more going on than the vets are aware of, eggbar shoes will possibly give some support but that support will become less use further into each shoeing cycle, as the foot grows the angle changes so after a few weeks any real support given is becoming less and he may well become more lame as the shoe pulls against the angle that foot wants to grow, most horses with this type of injury benefit more from being barefoot and allowing them to support themselves, it may be the best chance he has of a full recovery.

I would not consider denerving as there may well be more going on than just tendon damage, it is often due to inbalance going on elsewhere and denerving will not cure that.
 
I wouldn't want to denerve - it's a serious injury and that would just mask it not cure it!
My mare is currently out with a tear to her ddft where it joins the navicular. For her BF was not an option as it needs a measure of support so she is currently wearing an adapted shoe as a trial to see if it works - for her there is the possibility that due to where the tear is it may never repair.
You really need to understand where the tear is to work out the correct course of action.
 
be positive said:
I think you have posted about this previously and you are still not clear in your post about where the injury is, it sounds as if it is the deep flexor tendon in the foot hence the suggestion to denerve yet you then say the back of the leg is swollen, the tendon is the same one that runs down the leg into the foot but the injury is either deep within the foot therefore only seen fully by doing an MRI or it is above and can be felt and seen by ultrasound.
Treatment and full recovery will take time wherever the injury is, tendons heal far more slowly than bones, if he has not had an MRI it will be difficult to have a definitive prognosis or diagnosis and there may well be more going on than the vets are aware of, eggbar shoes will possibly give some support but that support will become less use further into each shoeing cycle, as the foot grows the angle changes so after a few weeks any real support given is becoming less and he may well become more lame as the shoe pulls against the angle that foot wants to grow, most horses with this type of injury benefit more from being barefoot and allowing them to support themselves, it may be the best chance he has of a full recovery.

I would not consider denerving as there may well be more going on than just tendon damage, it is often due to inbalance going on elsewhere and denerving will not cure that.
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The vets haven't honestly been very useful.. He had an MIR scan and they said he had coffin joint disease but back in July they said he has a tendon injury.. They haven't really made anything really clear but I can try scan a picture of his MIR so you can all see what you all think.
 
So it is in the foot combined with changes within the coffin joint, the coffin joint has probably caused the tendon injury, you really need to ask for them to explain it in simple terms, not in vet speak which can go over the top of your head and leave you with no more idea than if they spoke chinese, you are the client and have paid a lot of money, or your insurance company have, to have the MRI done part of the deal is that they should a) explain the findings in clear terms that you can understand b) send you a complete report, usually in veterinary terms but also in laymans terms for clarity, if they have failed to send you a written report or it is not clearly written, you need to push for it, MRI's are very difficult to interpret which is partly why we pay so much for them to be done.

If you are unhappy with the service there is nothing to stop you getting a second opinion and asking for ALL the history, including the MRI report to be sent on to a different vet, it sounds to me as if they think denerving is the best course of action rather than trying to offer other options.
 
They said they would offer to denerve him so I could more or less get riding him again.. Think they said they would keep steroid injectioning him but didn't really help him.. I said no to denerving him as it's a quick fix and my horse is still injuried and if he fell when we was out and about don't think it would end up the best.. So they said just throw him out till spring and they we will review how he's getting on. Thinking of changing vets though and see what they think
 
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