Tendon Injury Recovery???

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horseypony

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My pony has injured his tendon and an ultrasound scan has shown that he has a small hole in it (front left leg). The vet has told me just to keep him on box rest until a further scan in a few weeks. Has anyone had any experience with boots to help reduce recovery time? Should I take him for inhand walks(and how often/for how long?) and should I cold hose the affected area?
I would like recovery time to be as short as possible as i've already missed 5months of competing due to breaking my leg this year..
Thanks :)
 
complete box rest
stable bandage both front legs
ice/cold hose for at least 20mins as many times a day as you can , ideally hose for 20 let the leg warm up for 10min then hose again for 20mins
forget about competing at all the rest of this year , tendon injuries cannot be rushed and will just re injure = taking longer to heal
boots won't really help
i'd ring your vet re walking in hand as it depends on the injury and how long ago it happened . some say walking for about 2mins twice a day can help it heal flexible rather than ridget scar tissue but some vets advice complete rest

any tendon injury is quite serious , you need to be very patient to get the best possible out come , if you rush it you may indeed end up with a horse that never comes sounds again , if your patient and take things nice and slow with plenty cold hosing and rest , then a lot of slow walking on the roads once he's over the initial box rest along with a little bit of luck and he could come back as sound as he was but it cannot be rushed
 
My mare was on box rest when she injured her tendon but I wasnt advised to put any bandages or boots on atall, the tendon was meant to be kept cool. The only boots she had on were some magnetic boots to help the healing by increasing blood flow. They seemed to help her. Rest is the key and controlled exercise when advised by your Vet. I actually gave my mare a year off in the end, turned out, once we had the ok from the Vet. Her first tendon injury was to her DDFT within the hoof, she came back into work from that.

However, by injuring her DDFT she compensated with her other front leg and injured her SDFT, it having been weakened and lacking in strength. It was after the 3 months box rest from that that I gave her the time off. She is still currently sound and that was all from 2009 with the original injury to 2011 with the second one.
 
Even expensive treatments such as PRP (which my mare had) can not reduce recovery time. They can only hope to influence the quality of the repair.
Six months down the line from putting a hole in her sdft, my mare is still on restricted (pen) turnout because she's recently had some heat in the leg, which in turn, sets the walking programme back. She will be turned away when that has been completed, but it's been a long haul.
I've done a lot of research and the consensus of veterinary opinion seems to be that it takes tendons at least a year to heal fully. It's worth remembering that long after the horse ceases to be lame, they are still far from sound. As a previous poster said - lots of rest and controlled exercise is the key.
There is also a book called "The Bowed Tendon Book" by Tom Ivers which you might find helpful. Lots of luck and patience to you!
 
Izzwizz said:
My mare was on box rest when she injured her tendon but I wasnt advised to put any bandages or boots on atall, the tendon was meant to be kept cool. The only boots she had on were some magnetic boots to help the healing by increasing blood flow. They seemed to help her. Rest is the key and controlled exercise when advised by your Vet. I actually gave my mare a year off in the end, turned out, once we had the ok from the Vet. Her first tendon injury was to her DDFT within the hoof, she came back into work from that.

However, by injuring her DDFT she compensated with her other front leg and injured her SDFT, it having been weakened and lacking in strength. It was after the 3 months box rest from that that I gave her the time off. She is still currently sound and that was all from 2009 with the original injury to 2011 with the second one.
Click to expand...

Izzwizz hey!! Please answer back to me! My horse has done the same thing as yours and I would love to talk to you!
 
I'd cold hose 3xday for 20 mins. Initially when the injury is quite recent total box rest is ideal, else you risk doing more damage. Once the scans look better a controlled exercise program will be introduced, inhand walking is better than turnout (according to clinical trials) so really stick to it once you start it. Depending on the extent of the injury I think support bandages are always best. Do you know which tendon was damaged and at which point it was damaged on the leg?

Good luck
 
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