Horse with DDFT lesion in left hoof - should I rehab him barefoot?

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Balooba

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Hi everyone,

This is my first post and a long story so will try an keep it as brief as poss :)

My horse came in lame from the field a few weeks ago (5/10ths on circle on the soft and 1/10th in a straight line on the hard) and has a significant lesion on his DDFT in his left fore proximal to the navicular, identified together with some other albeit mild / minor rumbles by MRI this week. Absolutely gutted - I've only had him for two months and he is such a kind and talented horse.

I haven't been able to get anyone to video his footfall yet but he trips a bit on uneven ground when being led and I would say he is landing flat at best but probably slightly toe first. He is a 6 yo ID x TB who has done very little in terms of ridden work before I bought him and I was taking it very slowly as he was pretty thin and weak (hacking, straight lines, etc...)

My vet is talking about box rest, remedial shoeing and PRP / stem cell. I'm really not sure that this is the right thing to do for this horse (I firmly believe horses need to keep moving) - his front shoes have been off since last Friday and he looks sound trotting in his penned off bit of the field without them. I think my vet would support barefoot but only after the medicinal / remedial shoeing route has failed and that could take months. I have never taken a horse barefoot other than when let down for some time off in the field and have not had one with this injury before. I've read loads about diet, getting a good trimmer, etc... But has anyone got any advice on how I should rehab this particular type of injury.

I've emailed Nic at Rockley for advice and she has been fab but would appreciate any other advice / experiences.

Sorry for the essay - thanks in advance for any replies :)
 
Balooba, I have a 17 yo. ISH mare who had the same issues as your horse with a DDFT lesion amongst other things diagnosed by MRI 8 years ago. She was so bad I was a week away from PTS but then had a chance encounter with a barefoot trimmer who took her on as a remedial case, and we never looked back.

Back then, it was very much bucking the trend (excuse the bad pun) to go against the mainstream and vets' advice by taking the shoes off to rehabilitate navicular and DDFT cases, but now you can see from this forum, the barefoot approach can boast many success stories and is becoming the accepted way to go.

I say go with your instinct and I am sure your horse has every chance of coming right. I used an Equine Podiatrist (EP) using the KC LaPierre method. Rockley Farm is another approach if you prefer not to rehab yourself. But make sure you do your research on whatever trimmer/farrier you choose, especially on their track record with remedial cases.
 
Thanks Brightmount, that gives me lots of hope. Did you have any specific exercise program for getting your horse used to being barefoot and sound or is this something a good trimmer can advise on?
 
i really can't recommend Rockley enough. Nic has so much experience with this type of horse and she is always happy to talk to vets and is very good at getting them to come around to her pov because she has the experience and evidence to prove that it works. if you can afford to send your horse there (and many insurance companies will cover it), then i would do so. Although it is possible to do it yourself, its not the easiest of things to do by yourself when you have limited facilities.
 
It can be done at home if you can't manage the Rockley option. If your horse is only recently unsound and has never been remedially shod he could come right very quickly if his only issues are soft tissue. I've done two and lots of others on the forum have done one.

For mine, the key was work. I walked and walked them on the road. One of them was initially not rideable so I walked him in hand, initially in boots. From there I built the work up in small increments, with circles only introduced once they were reliably sound in trot on a straight line.

The first had been lame for over a year, was about to be put down and competed dressage and did a farm ride after about three months. The second had been lame on and off for four years and he was sound within a couple of months and went on a beginner's drag hunt after four months. The interesting thing about the second horse is that he had been shoeless and turned away for a year and yet was still not sound. Work appeared to be crucial for his recovery.
 
Dreams579 - thanks for your post; I would love to send him to Rockley to make sure it was done absolutely correctly but not an option at this point in time unfortunately :(. My vet wants to try PRP but seems happy having spoken to him today to do this alongside my horse being barefoot and turned out so hopefully the combination will really help :confused:

Cptrayes - thanks for posting - I have been reading your blog with great interest, very inspiring. My horse only went lame about 3 weeks ago. Ive only owned him for a few months but my understanding is he was unshod when he came over from Ireland and his feet were in a really bad way. He was shod when i tried him and his feet looked pretty normal other than some fairly long but narrow vertical cracks. He has been shod twice since, first time by the farrier of the people that i bought him from and lastly by my farrier (who is very experienced and has done a great job on all my horses in the past). He went lame in between the second and third set. He came in from the field unlevel (I assume he tore the DDFT cantering round). The MRI showed some other inflammation including around the navicular but these are apparently incidental. My thinking is that his feet might have been changed too much too quickly to make them look 'normal' for sale and might have inflamed the internal structures making them vulnerable to injury? Would you start the walking even if the horse is currently landing flat / slightly or first?

He has had his front shoes off since the MRI was done last Friday and when he has the occasional trot around his large 'pen' paddock he looks 100% sound - another reason why I am sure the barefoot route is the right one. I am just worried about walking him out if this is going to damage the tear - the report described it as a very significant lesion. We are lucky we live on a quiet estate with miles and miles of Tarmac roads before you would need to go on anything stony.

Thanks again - I really appreciate everyone's help! :D
 
If he is sound looking in the paddock then I would ride him in walk immediately. It's a chicken and egg thing - he needs the gentle work to make his feet build the right frog and digital cushion density to allow him to land heel first. Just listen to what he is telling you and if you increase the work and he is stiffer then back off for a day or two.

Take lots of photos, you'll have a lot of fun seeing how his feet change :)

I am really pleased that my blog has helped you. I think I logged every single piece of work he did, and the result. I was a bit shocked how easy he was, given how long he had been lame for. I don't expect all horses to manage that speed of recovery.

Just to give you a little more confidence, a horse belonging to a friend of mine went lame after a hooley in the field. He was given a prognosis of only a 20% chance of coming sound by a teaching hospital. He was sound after less than eight weeks at ROckley.

If you can see that your boy is sound, believe it, it can be done :)
 
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