Torn SDFT - What is the likely outcome?

[Pegasus5531]

Hi all, looking for some advice as my mare has recently injured herself and I don't really know what outcome I'm looking at. About 6 weeks ago my mare pulled up lame with a dropped fetlock. We hadn't been doing anything outside of her usual workload although she had got a bit hot on the XC but this is nothing unusual for her. As soon as I saw her fetlock I suspected a tendon injury. She has seen the vet twice now. The initial vet told me he suspected it was just check ligament damage but that the there was too much swelling to be able to tell for sure so two weeks later I took her to the vets for another scan and they informed me she had actually torn her SDFT from the top to the bottom. She is now on box rest for 3 - 6 months and definitely no work for 12 months but the vet did say there is a chance she may come sound for light hacking although there is no guarantee of this. The vet has said they may be able to try stem cell therapy which often works with a hole in the tendon but as it's a tear from the top to the bottom they are not sure how effective this would be.

She is 13 years old and when she was initially scanned they also x-rayed her to check for fractures and unfortunately found she also has coffin joint arthritis in the leg that she has injured. This all seems rather a bleak outlook to me and I'm unsure if she will ever really be sound again. Many people tell me to be positive and that it may work out better than I've been told but I think people are just saying that to try and soften the blow. If anyone else has experienced anything similar in the past I would be really grateful to hear what the outcome was good or bad so that I have more of an idea of whether I'm looking at potential light hack, retirement or even PTS.

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

I took home a racehorse that had literally torn his tendon into 2 pieces. Nothing connected the top and the bottom. There was no hope of stem cell or prpas there was no tendon sheath to inject into. It was obliterated. I knew I could take him home and pts 6 months later because it never healed, I knew I had the possibility of a field sound horse. What I had instead was a 100% sound amazing show horse! 11 months on from the initial injury racing he went to his first ridden show under saddle. And he was a plonker ? but still he has never looked back. I knew I would never jump him. I knew I would never yeehaa across stubble fields or go for a gallop along the beach because this was his one and only chance of a life. Luckily he loved being a show horse and took to it like a duck to water! He is fully retired due to melanomas now but in the last 10 years that he has been at home with me has never taken a lame step because of his tendon. His tendon is made up of 95% scar tissue, 5% tendon fibre.

Your horse will probably heal, obviously there are no guarantees. In the long term future you will probably have a happy hack/low level dressage horse. They may surprise you and heal far better with more tendon fibre than you expect and will be able to do more. But time and patience are the 2 things you NEED & MUST have in abundance.

You say you are 2 weeks on from the initial injury. Great! Only another 5-6 to go on strict box rest! We tend to walk ours out earlier than most, just gently and quietly. But it's still the best part of 12 months before they compete again.

Give yourself a target of 18months to be back to riding as much as the horse will ever be able to again and if the time frame is shorter happy days!

 

[Roasted Chestnuts]

To be honest I don’t know if I would rehab another torn SDFT. The stress and the lies from the vet just put me off.

My mare jellified 2/3rs of hers and I spent months rehabbing her. She had injections, box rest then small paddock rest then field rest. She was a nightmare literally. I found her hanging from the stable door by the stifles once as she’d tried to come Over and hadn’t made it. Managed to get her sound but I lost my job and both she and Kia had to go. He went on LTL and She went to a lady with full disclosure and fully Sound and was going to be a happy hacker/broodmare and I found out that they had her jumping, needless to say she broke down again.

Unless I had my own land I don’t think I’d do a serious tendon rehab again.

 

[Pegasus5531]

I took home a racehorse that had literally torn his tendon into 2 pieces. Nothing connected the top and the bottom. There was no hope of stem cell or prpas there was no tendon sheath to inject into. It was obliterated. I knew I could take him home and pts 6 months later because it never healed, I knew I had the possibility of a field sound horse. What I had instead was a 100% sound amazing show horse! 11 months on from the initial injury racing he went to his first ridden show under saddle. And he was a plonker ? but still he has never looked back. I knew I would never jump him. I knew I would never yeehaa across stubble fields or go for a gallop along the beach because this was his one and only chance of a life. Luckily he loved being a show horse and took to it like a duck to water! He is fully retired due to melanomas now but in the last 10 years that he has been at home with me has never taken a lame step because of his tendon. His tendon is made up of 95% scar tissue, 5% tendon fibre.

Your horse will probably heal, obviously there are no guarantees. In the long term future you will probably have a happy hack/low level dressage horse. They may surprise you and heal far better with more tendon fibre than you expect and will be able to do more. But time and patience are the 2 things you NEED & MUST have in abundance.

You say you are 2 weeks on from the initial injury. Great! Only another 5-6 to go on strict box rest! We tend to walk ours out earlier than most, just gently and quietly. But it's still the best part of 12 months before they compete again.

Give yourself a target of 18months to be back to riding as much as the horse will ever be able to again and if the time frame is shorter happy days!

She actually injured it 6 weeks ago but saw the second vet 2 weeks after initial injury and that was when we found out the tendon was damaged. She has been on box rest and bute since injury but still very lame. Which I suppose is to be expected with the extent of the inury but I am just wondering at what point we might see even the slightest progress. She is coping with the box rest very well as she's a lovely placid horse but I do feel so sorry for her as she so enjoyed having a job.

 

[Pegasus5531]

To be honest I don’t know if I would rehab another torn SDFT. The stress and the lies from the vet just put me off.

My mare jellified 2/3rs of hers and I spent months rehabbing her. She had injections, box rest then small paddock rest then field rest. She was a nightmare literally. I found her hanging from the stable door by the stifles once as she’d tried to come Over and hadn’t made it. Managed to get her sound but I lost my job and both she and Kia had to go. He went on LTL and She went to a lady with full disclosure and fully Sound and was going to be a happy hacker/broodmare and I found out that they had her jumping, needless to say she broke down again.

Unless I had my own land I don’t think I’d do a serious tendon rehab again.

This is my concern I would like to think I can keep her indefinitely even if she is retired but that may not be the case and I'm also concerned that we could put her through the boxrest and various vet procedures to ultimately not get anywhere. At the same time if she has a chance at recovery it feels wrong to even consider PTS. Such a nightmare situation.

 

[Bionic Boy]

My PRE came back so well after the first time it happened and we were both really enjoying life as happy hackers, I took the rehab really slow, about 18 months in all from injury to having good fun over the fields. Unfortunately he then went and tore the scar tissue from the original injury and scar tissue on top of scar tissue hasn't healed the way we would have liked. There just isn't enough give in it so whilst he is sound in walk the vet doesn't think I will ever get any more than that so I took the decision to retire him.
Although I look at him being a complete idiot in the field and wonder why I am not sitting on him anymore

 

[nutjob]

Mine had a not so serious SDFT injury and started rehabbing fine. I took it very slowly and he was up to doing longer periods of trotting and was sound. He reinjured it messing about while he was on a small area turnout, then injured a hind suspensory, don't even know how he did this. Once there were problems with 2 legs he never looked comfortable even retired and I have now PTS. I do think once you start getting scar tissue and repeat injuries it's much more of a problem but its worth trying a rehab initially. I'm sure mine would have made a happy hacker if it was just the original injury but I would never have risked jumping him again.