Tell me about tendon sheath ops

noblesteed

noblesteed

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Hi all,
My little horse is awaiting an operation to remove scar tissue from his tendon sheath and possibly cut his annular ligament to release it as it is thickened.
Trying to get an appointment at horsepital which they reckon will take 3 weeks!!!! Horse is fed up on 'box rest' in a cattle pen to try and alleviate the boredom...

Vet says 3 months box rest with walking out. Does that sound about right? Please let me know your experiences good or bad. It has been a tough decision to give the op a try as he has bone spavin too but he's too lame not to have the op now, it's just a case of sorting the logistics.
 
Yup 3 months in a box with a big bandage on then 3 months of inhand walking gradually increasing the length of time of each walk every week. It's a long, long old slog!
 
My daughters cob mare had a tendon op 3 years ago. She had part of the tendon sheath removed on her hind fetlock and a tidy up of a ragged tendon. She had slightly prolonged box rest due to infection. I started walking out in hand after 4 weeks and then ridden rehab commenced with 5 mins walk daily fir the first week building by 5 mins a day each week.
In the end by the autumn (the op was in mid July) she was up to an hour and 20 minutes ridden daily by the end which included 30 minutes of trot done in blocks of 10 minutes. My advice is do not underestimate the rehab, it's a huge commitment to ride daily for several months. I missed just one day's ridden in the months of rehab. I carried a timer in my pocket to ensure we did it correctly. I took our mare out to dressage in the February. She had been rescanned in the December and the vet was extremely pleased with the regrow th and healing. She can jump again and is back to full health.
 
My hunter tore her manica flexoria in 2 places last winter and had a rather large hind fetlock due to her annular ligament swelling.

She went into Newbury, had the MF removed and annular ligament snipped. She was on box rest for 6 weeks with bandages on for 2 weeks. Then she was allowed out on yard rest but was such a pillock we doped her up and turned her out in a 20 x 20 m pen in the field then just left her. Had she been sound at the 6 week mark we would have started ridden work again as suggested by vet.

As it was she had 3 months off out in the field. Then came back into work with a girl in the pony club. She is at 10 weeks now, doing dressage rallies etc and lots of hacking and is sound as a pound. Her fetlock does look a bit odd as its quite large but all swelling has gone down and she is fine on it. I gave the horse to them because I didn't think she would hunt twice a week anymore and didn't want to put her under that kind of pressure. They are doing lots with her though and all seems fine.
 
My friends mare had this done, and although the initial op went well, she managed to contract an infection in the tendon sheath which required 6 weeks hospitalisation. She now has adhesions (tendon to tendon sheath) and it is unknown if she will ever be sound/ridden again.

It is a huge blow to my friend, who had the operation done on the advice of the vet, but it was still an elective operation, as the initial tendon injury was healing if not perfectly cleanly, but cleanly enough.
 
Oh i am having second thoughts now. Mainly due to the fact that I can't see how I will manage to ride every day during rehab. The vet knows this too - I have 2 toddlers and a disabled mum plus I work. Our yard is geared up for hacking only - no school, no floodlights and it's in the middle of nowhere so there'll be nowhere to ride midweek in the dark winter evenings/mornings. I am just a happy hacker - 2/3 times a week is the most I can ride. I think I need to talk to him again about it. I was originally all for turning the horse away for a year but vet says it won't work given the adhesions in the tendon sheath.
 
noblesteed said:
Hi all,
My little horse is awaiting an operation to remove scar tissue from his tendon sheath and possibly cut his annular ligament to release it as it is thickened.
Trying to get an appointment at horsepital which they reckon will take 3 weeks!!!! Horse is fed up on 'box rest' in a cattle pen to try and alleviate the boredom...

Vet says 3 months box rest with walking out. Does that sound about right? Please let me know your experiences good or bad. It has been a tough decision to give the op a try as he has bone spavin too but he's too lame not to have the op now, it's just a case of sorting the logistics.
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My boy has had a tendon sheath problem for about two years he has had steroids three times and it still it has gone again vet recommended I do not do surgery on his tendon sheath . so I have given him three months off, he has now been back on walking 30 mins for two months and it's started on once a week now now I am up to 3 times a week. i'm currently on a second month of just walking in hand and that's what I will continue to do to really bring him back slowly and hopefully the tendon might not I go again

I gave him 3 months just turning him out and ice packs when vet came to check him 3 months later she said that is the best she ever saw the tendon.
 
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Thanks HGA-12. He's already had 3 months off with icing and it's done no good. I think he made it worse messing about in the field. He's generally laid back but likes work and gets bored if he's not kept busy. Hence hurting it again! Why are horses their own worst enemy? That's when the vet said box rest and operation. The alternative being 6 months box rest. He doesn't take to box rest well anyway - last time with low-grade lami he refused to drink.
 
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