tendon problem- bandage or no bandage or turnout?

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ribena73

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My tb mare has a swollen foreleg at the moment, I suspect she did something to the tendon in a mad gallop (of her own accord) the other day. She's not lame but there is a little bit of heat. I have the vet coming out to see her tomorrow, in the meantime should I (a) turn her out bearing in mind its very boggy at the moment (b) keep her in and leave bandages off to keep legs cooler or (c) keep her in and bandage her up to stop her legs from swelling. I've looked up what to do on the internet and asked different friends and have had conflicting advice so thought I'd ask for some more!
 
If it was me, I would cold hose for 20 mins as many times as possible and ice pack afterwards for no longer than an hour. I wouldnt bandage as that would heat the tendon up more. I would definitely keep in.

Hope there is no serious damage done to ponio.
 
It depends on how she will cope with box rest. I would box with no bandages if she is fine with that. Or ideally, I would fence off with electric a small area, so that she can walk etc, but not get any speed up. Standing in a stable can be just as hard on the legs as this imo. Plus if she is likely to be calemr turned out, then that is definitely better, weaving and box walking won't do any good
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We had a ponio do a tendon, kept him on box rest with bandages and the poor pony got so depressed he just gave up on life
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Box rest with no bandages. This will prevent her doing further damage in the field. Bandages would only heat up the leg increasing inflammation.
 
if it was my horse i would definatley box rest and unlike the others i would bandage to keep the swelling down imo if a horse is only stood in the stable i can't imagion much heat building up and would have thought keeping any swelling down is quite important. i would also cold hose for 20 mins twice a day. you need to get the vets advice though. a horse on our yard did it suspensory ligament and the vet told them to keep it bandaged, box rest and cold hose the horse is now on its way to recovery. good luck x
 
Hi,

I have a horse with a current tendon injury. I am with Llwyncwm - cold hose as much as possible, tub in cold water if the horse will let you, and you can reach the injury site.

No bandages due to the fact that this can cause heating of the tendon and keep in until vet comes tomorrow and you know exactly what you are dealing with.
 
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if it was my horse i would definatley box rest and unlike the others i would bandage to keep the swelling down imo if a horse is only stood in the stable i can't imagion much heat building up and would have thought keeping any swelling down is quite important. i would also cold hose for 20 mins twice a day. you need to get the vets advice though. a horse on our yard did it suspensory ligament and the vet told them to keep it bandaged, box rest and cold hose the horse is now on its way to recovery. good luck x

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What she said.

Pressure bandaging is important in the acute phase of soft tissue injury as it reduces fluid build up, which can cause greater damage. Bandaging will not cause much increase in core tempeature of the tendon (it's not like working the horse in neoprene boots), The fluid build up without bandaging will cause far more damage.

All soft tissue injuries should be treated with RICE:

Rest
Ice
Compression
Elevation

Admitedly the last one may be difficult with a horse
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As in above posts but cooling gel might be another option.I bought a good gel pad from steroplast that you can put in the freezer just make sure you dont put in straight onto legs as he will get burns.My vet made me use bandages and poor boy had sores I would never use them again.I have used tail bandages as they are elastic and more forgiving with loads of gamgee underneath.
 
I agree with others who have said :

Cold
Box Rest
Bandaging

My vet was adamant on bandaging my mare for the first six months of her tendon injury. They came off in April, 4 months after she started her restricted turnout - at that point on the scan, the tendon was healing quite nicely. 4 months on after turnout without bandages, scans show no further healing! I'm beginning to wonder if despite the worries on heating the leg, bandages DO have a place in giving the leg a bit of support whilst the healing takes place (or its just a coincidence, who knows)

Certainly in the early stages, bandages are VERY important.
 
I had an 11.3hh games pony when I was a kid (a long time ago!) & she damaged a tendon. 6 months box rest, cold hosed & bandaged & not much recovery. Eventually sent her for laser treatment, which was very controversial at the time - & she came back sound!

She went back to doing games & died a few years back at the grand old age of 32yrs.
 
Thanks for all your replies. They vet has just gone and has confirmed that she has damaged her SDFT and possibly the DDFT, he is coming out on Thursday to scan her to see exactly what is going on. He did say not to bandage though as the heat needs to escape. He said that as she's insured he should be able to treat with some drugs which should help to speed up the process. I have also bought tendoneaze, does anyone have any experience of this helping?

In the meantime it's box rest and cold hosing as much as possible. I am so gutted, I've only had her for two weeks. If it is box rest for a few months I am going to have to move her as I can't afford to keep her on the yard that she's on in terms of both time (as its a fair distance away from home but has great facilities which obviously I won't be able to use now), and money as it's not cheap and there are cheaper ones closer to home.

So disappointed at the moment
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