Hock injury - Severed & flipped tendon

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Biscuit

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I just found out that my mare has severed the outside strap out of the two that holds the tendon in place over the hock. The vet recommends not to have surgery to try to reattach it, due to low success rate of the surgery. This means that even if it heals, the tendon will slip out of position.

She is having surgery to flush out the calcinear(?) bursar though, against infection.

The vet thinks she has a good chance of becoming rideable again in 6-12 months but that her gait may change and that she won't be as good as she was. I feel so bad right now, in addition to the injury aspect I am also worried about keeping her on box rest for 3 months since she is a very energetic 4 year old who normally lives out.

Does anyone have experience with this type of injury? If so I would be grateful for any info on what treatment your horse had and what the outcome was.
 
I have seen a horse with a similar injury - this one had dislodged the superficial flexor tendon off the point of the hock so that it ran down the outside.

If memory serves it had a slightly odd gait but was still perfectly rideable and was being used for hunting, they just didn't jump her as much as they used to.

Hope this helps.
 
We had a cob that slipped the tendon off his hock twice - he is still hunting at the age of 19 and going strong. I think he had a bit of box rest and then turned out with a youngster for a while. He has a seriously capped hock but seeing as he hasn't been shown it doesn't really matter.
 
My ayrab had a similar injury after a nasty kick on his point of hock. It healed well although he needed some time before he used it properly again (He got up and down wrong end first like a cow for a while and cantered on 3 legs like a JRT which was worrying!)
Once the risk of infection was over we allowed him normal turnout to encourage him to use it again.
After about 6 months he was properly sound and went on to compete in county ridden classes, veteran classes and pleasure rides for the next 15 years - it never bothered him again.
 
That is very interesting :-) Did he sever the strap holding the ligament, or was it just bruised? Did he have any sort of surgery?
How long was the box rest for?
 
My 18yr old cob injured his gastrocnemius? tendon in April and also developed intermittent lateral slipping of the superficial digital flexor tendon off the hock.

When it slips off, he panics and shoots forward, out of control, which is quite dangerous and distressing for him and me. The latter condition has only recently been diagnosed and after months of box rest, physiotherapy and spa treatment, the vet has advised turning him out to encourage the tendon to stay off the hock and encourage him to get used to that. The prognosis is 'guarded' but there seem to be a few cases on the form.

I'd love to hear from anyone with experience of this and how, if at all, it has resolved
 
Hi Nancypancy,

I have just read your archived post about the gastrocnemius injury to your horse. I know this was posted a long time ago now but i have what seems to be the exactt same problem with my horse. if you still use the forum and read this i would love to hear the rest of your story and how your horse got on (good or bad) as i am struggling to find any info on this type of injury.

many thanks HJ77
 
My mare has got exactly the same injury. I think it was brewing when we bought her, but it was one of those slight unlevel issues that is so hard to put a finger on - did I feel it, or did I imagine it?

Anyway, it went at a horse show after she had done a clear round and one class last summer. Tied up to the lorry after, she was listing so badly she looked like she had a flat tyre!

We went to horspital where they said she had ripped one of the 'tabs' that hold the superficial flexor tendon in place over the point of hock - I didn't ask which side, but the swelling was to the inside and gradually got worse over a period of about a week, until the hock was almost twice the size.

She was horrifically lame in my books although only given 5/10ths lameness by vet as she was sound in walk. At the trot up you could hear she was lame without looking.

They advised against surgery as said the outcome was usually poor, and we were 'lucky' as the insurance didn't quibble and say let's see in 6 months (vote for SEIB on that one!) and we got loss of use (60% but better than kick in the face :( )

As I don't like box rest and there didn't seem much point, especially as she is a stress bucket at the best of times, I decided to breed if she came sound enough to bear a foal without being in pain, and meanwhile chucked her out in the field and looked the other way every time she hobbled past.

I noticed today how sound she looked in comparison - perhaps I should lunge her and video it and we can have a HHO vote on how many tenths lame is is now.

Not sure that is much help and happy to answer any other questions.
 
Thanks ducktoller for the reply and sharing your experience. Did your mare react badly to the tendon slippping on and off? my boy bolts and snatches his leg up violently, it doesn't happen all the time. Its so unpredictable and his reaction is quite dangerous at times. I can't turn him out full time at the moment as the yard owner won't allow it so he's out for few hours and in for the rest.I hope as spring comes and the better weather to get him out 24/7 so he can just learn to deal with it so to speak and see how he gets on. How long is it since your mare did the injury to now. I feel like its such a roller coaster one day we are doing ok the next back to sqaure one.
 
My boy is now 21yrs. I turned him out in the summer of 2010 and it was quite distressing at to see him at times, as the sensation of the tendon slipping off alarmed him but he gradually became more settled and the tendon settled off the hock, permanently. I did ride him again for a few months but then retired him for good as he just seemed to have lost all power in his back end. The affected hock is much larger that the other and he is markedly lame in all paces other than walk. He still overtracks well in walk- always did get good marks for his free walk!! I have heard varied prognosis tales, some much better than others, although I'm disappointed that his active life is over, he is happily retired. Good luck with your horse.
 
Nancy pancy,
Thanks for the reply post your story has given me hope. Its nice find someone who has come through the other side of this type of injury. Glad to hear your horse is doin well in his retirment. I hope I will be able to say the same in time.
 
Well sadly I have joined 'the club'. My 15 year old has ruptured the inside strap so the tendon now flicks off and back again. I have been told surgery not usually successful and just to put him out as much as possible in the hope that scar tissue immobilises the tendon and he becomes rideable again. I would have to say I am very sad about it as he was working at Medium at home and is perfect for me....I am 70 and he is such a gentleman! I don't want another baby horse nor do I want a plod...maybe I need to find another hobby. Can you give me an update Biscuit and others on your horses outcomes please
 
Hi Turbobert, this has recently happened to my 21 yr old semi retired advanced dressage horse! I am lucky in that she doesn't panic when the tendon flips on and off but was markedly lame when it first happened and had me very worried, within about a month she appeared still lame but was moving much freer, my vet confirmed then that she wasn't in pain and that the lame action was coming from the sensation of the tendon pinging as she moved, he advised that I keep her hacking (she has other issues which ideally need for her to be kept in light work) and that I would probably find that she felt better in canter than trot and he was right! She was happily hacking away a couple of times a week and was definitely getting sounder! Sadly recently she is showing very similar signs of the same thing happening to her other hock so I have stopped hacking her and just doing light in hand work (she was fitted with hind bar shoes to help another injury and I have a feeling these have been the cause of my hock tendon troubles as they changed the way she moved so they have been replaced for normal hind shoes). I think with this injury a dressage career is unlikely as they are likely to be left with a mechanical unsoundness but if he has no other issues there is the possibility that he could recover enough to continue a ridden life! My mare certainly was just a shame she has other issues and her age against her.
 
This happened to my horse 6 years ago. He too panicked at the start but did settle down after a few weeks. He was never box rested, just small pen turnout (I used to move his field shelter every few days so he had new grass). Despite the original hopeful prognosis he was always mechanically lame and I retired him at 13. Two years ago he did the same in the field (on his own). He was in much greater pain this time but once again we went through the small pen turnout.

Last year one of the vets said I could ride him as far as I liked in walk so that's what I do now, normally 5 days a week for at least an hour. Today we had a little canter (not my idea) and I am going to speak to my vets to see if it would be OK to do some short canters - he manages to charge around the field when he wants to.

His gait is a bit strange but he isn't on any bute and we are really enjoying our rides again. Turbobert, my horse too is such a gentleman and he really is my horse of a lifetime. I adore him and don't think I will get another because I would always compare to him and it wouldn't be fair. It broke my heart when it happened but he still gives me great joy.
 
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