Gahh...tendon injury - what would you do??

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orsceno1

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Another tendon post...sorry!
My horse came in lame about 10 days ago, and I mean mega lame...vet called and diagnosed tendon sheath strain - boxt rest for 5 days and see how he is, which I did. Got a second opinion after the 5 days from friends vet who scanned him and found bruising to tendon (in foreleg) which has irritated annular ligament and caused swelling in the ligament also, hence lameness. Vet said although horse almost sound at this point it was likely to niggle away unless rested to allow it to settle down properly - suggested 8 weeks rest, either box+walking out or field in a small paddock, assuming he is sensible
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(see my earlier post!)
anyway, he has been in up until today but this morning we built him a small paddock and I turned him out...and he went crazy! Proper broncking session which cannot have done any good at all, but did eventually start grazing. I left him out for the afternoon and have left him out tonight as he was ok when I gave him his tea, but I cant watch him all the time and am now worried am I doing the right thing in putting him out??
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My problem is that he is totally impossible to handle when he is on box rest and becomes downright dangerous TBO. And vet said the exercise element is very important, but obviously not in the form it was taking earlier! Anyone have any ideas/suggestions/comments/experiences?
Thanks in advance, I am feeling like a very bad mother at the moment!
 
If he stays out he is less likely to explode again surely??? If it were me, I would rather have him out all the time and settled than in and frantic, interspersed with times of lunacy!!!
 
Yeah, I think you are right, am just paranoid about doing the wrong thing and making it worse! Unfortunately he is not the most sensible beast so I do worry about his antics when Im not around!
 
Come and join me in the bad mother corner. I'd love to be able to say 'you're doing absolutely the right thing' but I can't. In a nutshell my horse damaged his DDFT at the end of May, was lame only for a couple of days, had 7 weeks' field rest, followed by 8 weeks box rest as the rescan showed no healing. By the end of the 8 weeks he was seriously depressed - stood all day with his head in a corner, dropped an alarming amount of weight, started cribbing. I decided to move immediately to a small paddock turnout system and predictably he went fairly loopy initially, but settled quite quickly with his fieldmate and is much happier and regaining weight.

However, the third scan (last week) still shows the lesion, albeit much smaller. I have a suspicion that had I box rested him from the word Go, the tendon repair would be much further advanced by now. But I want a happy horse, not a sound but depressed one with stable vices. Same as you presumably want a horse you can handle safely.

The key to settling my boy in the paddock was definitely company - you don't say whether yours has company or not? Can you compromise by bringing him in at night and turning out during the day?

Sorry this isn't more helpful. Good luck!
 
My horse bruised his suspensory about 2 weeks ago. He is now back in work.

As soon as I saw the horse wasn't right I put him immediately into the hydrotherapy spa. I got the swelling down within a day.

I kept him in and did limited amounts of walking on the horsewalker twice a day.

I had him scanned 6 days after initial problem and the vet said just to keep as I was doing for another week and then he could be ridden again.

My first bit of advice would be try hydrotherapy. If you are insured and can get a vet referall then some companies will pay for this sort of treatment.

Secondly look at giving him acp/sedalin or chatting with your vet about a product called modicate which is a human drug which we have used successfully on horses we are box resting.

If you would like more info on hydrotherapy please don't hesitate to contact me.
 
Just been throught the same with mine for bruised tendon straight after two splints.Hes used to restricted paddocks now and I link about 8 together and change them regular so he has to work out how to move around .It makes him think and after initail silly spell hes settled really well.
 
My horse did a suspensory last yr, was on box rest for a while then vet said turn him out in small paddock. Well my horse was so dangerous after being on box rest. When we took him to the vets just to have check ups they used to dope him on the back of the lorry before he even came off, he lived in a chiffney!
Can't use ACP as his body didn't react to it, u cld of given him loads no effect what so ever. So had to just turn him out and hope for the best but while in recovery he jumped out over 4f fencing constantly. Did his suspensory again this yr, didn't even bother to box rest just turned straight out and he is so much better. Doesn't mess around what so ever, i do think we can make it worse by putting them on box rest when they are naturally buzzy horses. U cld never hand walk mine he'd have killed u, but if out in the field (whole field) sweet as a lamb!
 
Thanks everyone, he is still out, perhaps against my better judgement! He has had one very silly session last night but seems no worse for it this morning, ie no heat in leg, so am sticking with it for now. Trouble is that vet emphasised need for exercise and I just cannot do that in hand as he is seriously nutty and put me in hospital a couple of years ago doing exactly that, so think it has to be the field as we dont have the luxury of a walker. Hopefully he will settle, at least he hasnt jumped out touching wood....!
 
I can join in the bad mom corner. My horse has a tendon injury but is also a box walker.....what to do??? Turn out on hard frosty hard uneven ground and run around or stable and run around.....he's not good sedated either as he is also a head shaker and unstable on his feet when sedated? Dilema!

I've come to the conclusion - You do your best for your horses and that's all you can do!
 
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