FestiveFuzz
Well-Known Member
It recently dawned on me after receiving a couple of PMs that Lipogem treatment is still incredibly new and there's not an awful lot of anecdotal information out there for anyone considering it as a way of treating DDFT tears. So I figured something good may as well come out of mine and Pop's experience, so here's our story. I'll be updating it regularly as we continue to progress with our rehab plan.
On July 8th my beautiful 5yo mare came in from the field lame. The yard staff assumed she'd just tweaked herself whilst hooning around so we weren't too worried. Our vet was already due to be visiting for one of the other liveries, so we asked if he'd take a look at Pops at the same time. By the time he arrived, Pops had gone downhill and could barely stand...an ultrasound confirmed the worst, she had an acute tear to her LF DDFT and a suspected longitudinal split...in my vets words she had the worst possible type of injury in the worst possible place...things looked very bleak. We agreed for him to come out and rescan the following week once the swelling had gone down, but were also warned to start preparing for the worst. Pops was dosed up on strong painkillers and began her box rest.
The scans the following week gave more clarity to the situation. The longitudinal split we so feared seemed to be an artefact of what was going on below...a tiny glimmer of hope began to form. The scan confirmed there was damage present within deep digital flexor tendon in 3B region, a significant lesion on the outer surface of deep digital flexor tendon next to the superficial flexor tendon...prognosis was guarded. We continued with box rest, with a short in-hand walk each day.
After speaking with Roger at RVC our vet decided the best course of action was to treat with Lipogems and keep fingers firmly crossed for a recovery. A week later our vet returned to remove the fat cells from her hindquarters and reinject into the leg. This was a fairly straightforward treatment, although it did leave Pops the butt (excuse the pun) of many liposuction/big bum comments that week. I'll also add the holes in her hindquarters did look fairly scary looking initially (almost like she'd been hung on meat hooks) but I'm pleased to report these have barely left a scar. After a few days rest to allow the fat cells to do their job we continued with our in-hand walking.
Our latest scan was just before the bank holiday weekend, and confirmed the edges of injury are blurring and starting to fill in. Today marks 10 weeks of box rest, with gradual in-hand/horsewalker walk work. In two weeks time we will be beginning to start our ridden walk rehab and keeping absolutely everything crossed that my darling little mare stays sound.
We still have a long way to go, but so far, so good.
Here's some pics from our journey so far...
On July 8th my beautiful 5yo mare came in from the field lame. The yard staff assumed she'd just tweaked herself whilst hooning around so we weren't too worried. Our vet was already due to be visiting for one of the other liveries, so we asked if he'd take a look at Pops at the same time. By the time he arrived, Pops had gone downhill and could barely stand...an ultrasound confirmed the worst, she had an acute tear to her LF DDFT and a suspected longitudinal split...in my vets words she had the worst possible type of injury in the worst possible place...things looked very bleak. We agreed for him to come out and rescan the following week once the swelling had gone down, but were also warned to start preparing for the worst. Pops was dosed up on strong painkillers and began her box rest.
The scans the following week gave more clarity to the situation. The longitudinal split we so feared seemed to be an artefact of what was going on below...a tiny glimmer of hope began to form. The scan confirmed there was damage present within deep digital flexor tendon in 3B region, a significant lesion on the outer surface of deep digital flexor tendon next to the superficial flexor tendon...prognosis was guarded. We continued with box rest, with a short in-hand walk each day.
After speaking with Roger at RVC our vet decided the best course of action was to treat with Lipogems and keep fingers firmly crossed for a recovery. A week later our vet returned to remove the fat cells from her hindquarters and reinject into the leg. This was a fairly straightforward treatment, although it did leave Pops the butt (excuse the pun) of many liposuction/big bum comments that week. I'll also add the holes in her hindquarters did look fairly scary looking initially (almost like she'd been hung on meat hooks) but I'm pleased to report these have barely left a scar. After a few days rest to allow the fat cells to do their job we continued with our in-hand walking.
Our latest scan was just before the bank holiday weekend, and confirmed the edges of injury are blurring and starting to fill in. Today marks 10 weeks of box rest, with gradual in-hand/horsewalker walk work. In two weeks time we will be beginning to start our ridden walk rehab and keeping absolutely everything crossed that my darling little mare stays sound.
We still have a long way to go, but so far, so good.
Here's some pics from our journey so far...
