Posted for a friend - Bowed tendons?

[EllieBeast]

My friends horse came in lame on friday with heat and a small amount of swelling 3/4 of the way down the tendon of his near fore. he has been cold hosed and bandaged whilst box rested since friday afternoon (by monday the heat and swelling were under control). he was seen by a vet on monday morning, who found a tender area of the tendon and requested the horse be taken to newmarket for scans, he advised that the legs continue to be bandaged.
Horse went into newmarket today. He was diagnosed with a pulled suspensory ligament, but no tears, abrasions etc to the tendons or ligaments. when his legs were clipped, it was obvious that his tendons were bowed on both fores. And by bowed, i mean that when you take a side view of the legs, instead of the back of the legs being straight, the tendons at the back were rounded outwards. because of this the vet recommended that we stop bandaging his legs. does anyone know what implications this 'bowed' effect could have, and whether they will return to normal through their own accord? any info very much appreciated,
LW

i understand that this may mot be particularly easy to understand. i will do a sketch on paint to illustrate.

 

[EllieBeast]

 

[vicijp]

I cant really understand why the vet would advise to stop bandaging. Unless he is worried that they are still at the initial inflammation stage and could flare up?????
In cases like this I would only take the bandages off to ice boot, the support helps to 'straighten' them up - one of the only cases where the support and not just the warmth from bandaging is needed imo.
If the bow is as high up as in the pictures perhaps it is just a bit of overcompensation, if there is no other injury to surrounding areas?
If so, the vet may not be too concerned about the bowing - what seems to be on the tendon to the untrained eye can be nothing.
Even so, I would still bandage for the suspensory injury.

 

[EllieBeast]

Fab, thanks Vici! the 'bowing' has occurred on both legs - the 'injured' and uninjured. the horse has been ice-booted every morning as well as cold hosing in the evenings and having stable bandages on at night. the bowing is evenly spread out and looks just like the sketch, (however his legs do look rather hairier than that!

). the vet told the owner to just stand him in, no bandages as he feels that the bandages will make things worse

and not to cold hose. i am baffled really! will find out if owner has called the vets for more info, and update when i can.

 

[Tierra]

Seems very peculiar to me.

Mine bashed his front tendons with his hind legs over summer and came in with both front legs looking very much like your diagram shows.

We had the vet out straight away who didnt believe there was any actual damage (although obviously would have wanted scans to be sure), but the horse was 100% sound.

He was cold hosed for a good 30 minutes, leg ice whacked straight on with bandages over the top. Turned out the next day for an hour with magnetic therapy boots on then brought in, hosed, bandaged again.

Day 3 and it had all cleared and the horse's legs are as "tight" as they always were.

Now obviously, theres actual damage in this case but i cant understand for the life of me while they would recommend NOT bandaging.

 

[EllieBeast]

thankyou for your reply. I know, i cannot understand it either! both legs, the one with the suspensory damage and the other supposedly 'healthy' leg have the same degree of bowing. the horse never had particularly hairy legs, just the usual for an ISH. i hadnt actually noticed this bowing when bandaging him, and im pretty certain i would have if it was as pronounced as it is now (id blooming well hope so anyway!). the last time i hosed and bandaged him was tuesday morning. so it must have become more pronounced during the last 24 hours. as now that they are closely clipped, the bowing is VERY noticeable.

 

[Klaudette]

I think I may know why vet suggested not bandaging. It has been shown that bandaging can weaken ligaments/tendons...so if there is no tear then you dont want to weaken things until the opint where they will tear. That is why we dont reccomend bandaging foals with 'lax tendons'.

 

[PapaFrita]

Someone I know's horse had a tendon that bowed like that. I was so concerned I posted pics on the forum, but vet decided nothing much was wrong and horse had a week off and back in work... As far as I know is still sound...
Sorry, absolutely NO help at all... I blame the wine!!

 

[Tierra]

Isnt that only over prolonged periods though?

I still dont really understand this. There was 100% nothing wrong with my horse's tendons aside from the fact that he'd bashed them with his hind legs. There were no speedy cuts, he'd just given them a damn good smack. However, the concern was to make sure that they returned to their "normal" shape and the vet was very adament that this would require bandaging along with cold hosing / leg ice.

All this being said, Im not a vet and since the horse appears to have gone to a rather respected establishment, Im sure its fine. Im just very intrigued!

I think most peoples natural reactions in their horse came in with bowed tendons, would be to hose, slap bandages on and call a vet

 

[Patches]

I know what you mean, I have also heard that prolonged use of bandages can make the legs rely on the support. Not sure how true that is though and it's still common practice to support the legs bi-laterally as the compression from the bandages can and do help the tendons to go back "down".

If this horse had been bandaged for months, which it has not, I'd understand more where the vet was coming from. As that is not the case, I'm as perplexed as everyone else is.

 

[Nailed]

Hum.. listen to the vet. The heat of bandagaed has been known to damage the tendons more...
The bowing will go down slightly but will always remain with some bow. If they have been strained they have been extended over there capasity and therefore have lost the elasticity and become plastic, and therefore will not retract to there original shap.
Lou x