Hey everyone. To be brief…my 7 yo ISH suffered a compete DDFT rupture in the RF fetlock area in January. He underwent a tenoscopy to debride the area, recieved IRAP, PRP and stem cell therapy. He has been improving on ultrasounds (getting them every 2 months) and currently cleared to be in controlled exercise and slowly increasing trots.
He is up to 15 min trots and being worked about 4 days a week due to my work schedule. He is turned out in a small paddock overnight and has been tolerating that well.
I guess I just want to hear some others experience with this type of injury. He was competing training/modified eventing prior to injury and would love to be able to do that again. I dont have any timeline…but just want to know if that’s even feasible. My vet is super thrilled with his progress on ultrasound and how sound he looks currently and I’m following his advice on rehab.
Any advice, stories etc would be appreciated.
Thanks!
I have two! that suffered hind DDFT injuries. One is completely retired. In her case, I picked her up as a companion; she was a former barrel racer, age 16 at the time of injury. After two years of what I feel was probably not well done rehab, she was sold to me as a companion. I think her problems are more to do with other arthritis/injuries/compensation issues. If the tendon did not heal it was because they kept trying to put her back into work too fast. Give it a year.
The other one is a big draft horse. He tore, along with doing a ridiculous amount of other damage, his left hind DDFT. The only option with him, for a variety of behavioral reasons, was to dump him in the field and see what happened after a year. he was a very, very good patient. It was 8 months before he could put enough weight on it to take a step backwards. It was 12 months before he looked sound. There was no other treatment aside from the appropriate pain meds. He Looks sound. He Is sound. However, he is also (as is the fully retired horse) prone to tweaking it. He will never be used for what he was supposed to be used for: forestry logging, since that requires the horse to be able to dig in with their hind legs and pull hard, often in rough, deep ground. But he is sound enough to do light work, light pulling, and so forth.
In my experience, heavy, muddy, or slippery ground or sharp turns (barrel racing) are probably going to be something you need to avoid. I honestly don’t know on jumping. But my experience is hind ddft, not fore. And I do think that makes a big difference.
If a horse is going to come back from a tendon injury it is because they are given time (more time than one wants to give), but they are also kept moving. Both of which it sounds like you are doing.
Mine is certainly an encouraging story but probably not terribly common.
The mare did a roughly 30% tear to the right hind DDFT in 2019, she was 18 at the time and had just done her first show at I-1. She was back to competing by July 2020–we dropped down to PSG for the season. Now at 21 she is getting great scores at I-1, schooling all the GP and planning a show at Inter-B by the end of the year. The only thing I still do for her re: that injury is she wears egg bars behind.
I think higher lesions carry better long term prognosis than ones in the foot.
Dressage only mare (though she came from an eventing barn and loved to jump), was 8 when in a hilly pasture when she tore her right rear DDFT. total stall rest and the Dr. Gillis protocol to a letter. Complete recovery and within two years we were successful at Second Level (recognized shows). Developed other issues and now is with a lady who is riding her First level. Total success story.
