tendon trouble

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silver zaanif

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i have a mare who is looking like she has a tendon injery, the vet said adesions but wont know for sure till we scan it. I can not currently afford £1000 for key hole surgery so my question is...

how was this sort of injery treated before surgery was an option as treatment?
 
My mare had a tear in her Deep Digital Flexor tendon and it was rest and remedial shoeing for her. You cant rush the healing of these injuries unfortunately so as above poster says, time and rest.
 
All tendons can heal over time, but you need to rest your mare. What ever you do though, please please make sure you walk her and do not have her in her box all 24/7. This is so that the scar tissue can align with the collagen in her tendons.
Not sure what else to suggest to be honest. But be warned she'll be prone to injury more though due to the inelasticity of that tendon.
What tendon is it?
 
off hind, if that is what it is, as we wont be certian till nerve blocking and scans are done. I suspect she has had her leg in a fence or gate at some point in the past and that is the root of the problem, it is wierd tough as we backed her in the spring and brought her on carefully with no issues, she had been in the field with a pony for company for about a month before she went lame so it is bloody unlucky.
At the moment she is out with another three legged donkey and in a big barn at night.
 
Adhesions can be removed surgically but sometimes they reform. You can medicate the tendon sheath, but this is not always successful. Kizzy had surgery on her annular ligament last October, the surgeon found a small tear in her DDFT & removed the torn fibres, the tendon has healed well but with a big adhesion. Liphook offered me more surgery to remove the adhesion but I declined, she's 15. I turned her away & they hoped she would become hacking sound, she probably is just about, but I have retired her as a companion to my new mare.

Sorry to sound negative, but adhesions are bad news IME, as someone else said if this is the case then endless box rest is the worst thing, its important to keep them moving. Good luck.
 
Field or Box..............this really is topic of debate and I think every horse is different ( and injury )

Axle is only just recovering from a tendon injury ( early Aug ), initially he was out resting in the summer but he was in a large hilly field and he was not getting any better. He came in on 6 weeks box rest and then back out in a small paddock.

'Touch wood' he has trotted up sound for the last two weeks but I will still leave him until Feb 11 and introduce walking, I do not antisipate working him properly until Easter.

After long discusssions with my vet I decided to go the traditional route of 'Rest' and yes it may take longer for him to recover but he is happy and trying to box rest a 17:3hh giraffe with stringhalt is not fun for either party!!

Even if he does need a further year off I will still not regret not utilising other options available.

Good luck and all I would say is that there is no reason why not to challange your vet.......
 
Every horse is different. Izzy had a bad tear and was on box rest all last winter, the fields wouldnt have been an option as too muddy and slippery and the winter turnout regime wouldnt have worked for her. She was handwalked 3 times daily for 20mins, less to begin with, leading up to ridden work but stabled. Shes come good and now hacks out for up to 2hrs. We have done lots and lots of roadwork, cant emphasise that enough, and shes doing so well. I just pray it continues.
 
I havent read any of the replies, but my mare was a JA and did a tendon. She was scanned and had a big hole in her tendon, had stem cell treatment and box rest for months, got turned out and tweaked the leg again. At that point she was rehomed as a broodie. Shes had 2 foals but has also been worked in that time. And not he way I would have brought her back in to work! But shes sound as a pound! i had to call the owner to check which leg she did as you cant tell!
 
When my lad had a hind tendon injury (small tear and 2 holes with 40% chance of returning sound), surgery was mentioned but I could simply not afford it. My vet then recommended 6 mnths box rest with a controlled excercise programme to prevent adhesions forming. He also had a course of Adequan injections. Once off the box rest, he had another year of gentle hacking and hill work, and 3 yrs on is still sound and back to SJ and hunting with a good long term prognosis.

The total vets bill was very reasonable as the only drugs he recieved were bute and Adequan, and had 3 scans to monitor his progress.

Not really answered your question, but may give you some hope, and certainly supports the theory of rest and allowing plenty of time to heal.

Good luck!
 
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