Tendon injuries....

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LucyLily

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I was just wondering what those of you ono here have done with horses with tendon injuries...
Just a quick insight.
Lily had a tendon injury in may and completed 3 months box rest and IGF injection/treatnent.
She was then brought back into work slowly; we had a problem with turning out alone in a small paddock so ended up popping her in with the herd which she was fine with.
She then returned to being a NORMAL horse for 7 weeks UNTIL...
she came in on 3 legs.
MORE scans etc followed and this time she had really made a mess of it.
so off to O'gormans she went to have a desmotomy; or in other words her annular ligament sliced to allow for healing and swelling etc...
Oh I forgot to mention this was on her LEFT HIND superficial Digital flexor.
SO. what did you all do and what were the prognosis' ?

Thank you in advance :D
 
My lad suffered a traumatic hind tendon injury while clambering through a water filled gulley out hunting - we think he sliced his hind leg open on either glass or wire.

Initially we just thought it was a deep wound and my vet treated it as such. However after 4 weeks of the wound healing he came no sounder so sought a second opinion.

It turned out that he had a tear and 2 holes in his tendon that was only picked up by an ultrasound. This vet gave him a 40 % chance of returning to soundness and advised cold therapy, a course of Adequan injections which I was allowed to administer, and 6mnths box rest with controlled excercise to prevent adhesions forming. This vet did mention the annular ligament surgery but after reviewing his scans with a colleague decided this was not going to be beneficial.

The first few mnths were very tedious, with me having to hand walk him for 10 mins, 3 times a day, but he was a very good boy and seemed to appreciate that he had to be sensible. After 3 mnths he came sound so was allowed to increase the walking to 30 mins 3 times a day, and at 5 mnths he was still sound, so was allowed to start ridden walking. At this stage I was also allowed to turn him out for an hour a day in a small paddock which stopped him going insane.

After 6 mnths he was still doing well so was allowed to turn him back out 24/7 and start to build up his ridden work, but still allowed another year before he went back into full work.

3 yrs on he was still sound - hunting, show jumping and hacking as normal, so the tale has a happy ending. I recently sold him to a friend as a mothers hack/rc/hunting horse and expect him to have a healthy future.

We were very lucky and my vet felt that his recovery was mainly down to the fact that he accepted the box rest so readily, so helped heal himself. We also gave him as much time as he needed, and as I was fortunate to have another horse to ride, there was no pressure to get him sound quicker than the injury needed.

Good luck.
 
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Thank you, very inspiring.
EXCEPT...Lily doesnt do box rest as we have found out, her temperment has gone very downhill and she has become quite difficult. When walking out for 5 mins it can actually become quite scary...!! Bearing in mind she is 17.1 and still a baby in her brain!!
 
Can you not give some ACP for this walking exercise?
My boy has just started box rest after partially severing a tendon. Don't know which one, but looks like the thin one above the hock that runs up towards buttocks. Vet did mention which one it is, but can't remember. Fingers crossed he will come sound. He is being very well behaved on box rest, so hopefully this will ensure as best recovery as possible.
 
Can you have her back in the small paddock as an alternative to box rest, but with a quiet companion? Or as somone has mentioned some form of sedative?

What a difficult situation - to be honest i would be asking my vet what the best thing to do would be....
 
My mare had her annular ligament cut about 4 years ago on her RF! Unfortunately the surgery was unsuccessful and she was still lame (caused by the granulation and adhesions the vet believed) I was told she would never be more than pasture sound and I can try to turn her away for a year and see what happens!
Thankfully she came back after the year sound! We mostly hack but have the odd lesson,show, sponsored ride!
Good luck hope shes ok :).
 
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i just posted on starbucks post as well, but my gelding damaged his tendon in sept and doesnt do box, pen rest so he is back out with 2 quiet horses, vet is happy with this but it will just take him longer to heal
 
What is IGF treatment?

Our mare was diagnosed with damage to BOTH front SDFTs in March. Complete box for 2 months, just being grazed in hand whilst stable was being mucked out. Moved yards after a month, went somewhere where there was LOTS of grass, she could see her fieldmate in the field from her stable and she had plenty to watch with all the usual livery yard goings on. It turned out to be a godsend, the time she went out for slowly increased because we could be pretty sure she would just EAT (New Forest Pony, notoriously greedy ;) ) and the field was the one closest to the yard, so not really any distance to walk.

We found sedalin paste very good for taking the edge off her, she got extremely angry about the enforced rest. Also the nut ball was a godsend, she used to look forward to it every day.

Her treatment consisted of Adequan treatment first of all, which didn't do anything really, followed by Stem Cell therapy, which did work. All courtesy of NFU thank goodness.

Because we didn't know how this would all work out and she's a quality mare, we put her in foal which was our back up plan in case nothing worked and we had to resort to turning her away for a year. Upshot of this is she didn't get ridden for 6 months, now she is going out once a week for a little ride out at walk and trot which she really enjoys and we plan to carry on with that for as long as she wants to. Not exactly back into work, but it keeps her and my daughter happy.

I started relaxing things just before she went off to stud, so by May, she was going out for longer periods, just with one other. They are both part stabled, so that seemed a good compromise (re box rest) to work towards anyway. She was trotting up sound after about 2 1/2 months on grass, a bit longer on a concrete surface. We're due to have another scan, at the last one one of the tendons was still bigger than the other, we may have to learn to live with that (at least she's come sound)

I think time and Sedalin have been the best things for our mare. Its not over yet, but its looking good for her to resume her ridden career once the foal is weaned (I might ban gymkhana and hunting though) Fingers crossed your mare comes good again.

I have to admit my heart is in my mouth every time I see her hooning about the field "playing" with her field mate (I'm sure she never did that before she buggered her tendons) or even just cantering over to the nice grass.
 
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