My horse is in rehab for injury to his deep digital flexor tendon. He was in a cast for nearly a month in the hospital. He was discharged in October. He’s completely on stall rest with a bit of handwalking. (He’s at a rehab center so I’m not sure exactly how much hand walking he’s getting.) My question is - at what point is Aqua therapy/aqua treadmill typically introduced? Early or late in recovery? He has ultrasounds every six weeks and his progress has been poor; although he is sound at the walk and has been sound at the walk since discharge.
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Our horse had a different injury but aquatred wasn’t started until he was 80-85% sound at the jog. Prior to that it was just stall rest and handwalking but he was becoming intractable, so in reality, just complete stall rest.
If your horse is at rehab and handwalking is prescribed, I would feel confident that they are walking him. The handlers at those facilities are, ime, very professional. .
It really depends on a lot of factors including how much water they use. If you want to walk more and he’s not sound at a jog yet perhaps getting him trained to walk through more water (for less impact and force on the DDFT) might be more ideal than dry walking. Your vet and rehab team should help guide you. In the beginning, especially if you want to use more water, the sessions would be very short and used along with the regular hand walking. Gradually transitioning to more time in the water.
At the rehab I’ve used (for a stifle injury), our vet (who is highly decorated, does lots of research, teaches all over the country, yadda yadda yadda) generally wants them to get into the aquatread sooner rather than later. After my horse’s arthroscopy, she started in the aquatred within just 2-3 weeks I think. Starting very slowly, obviously, and building up to about 15 min. They generally do that before lots of walking on normal ground. For what it’s worth, they have the aquatread up to just shy of the back on a 16+ hand horse, in case that makes a difference - the whole body is almost a bit suspended, versus one that’s just 2-3 feet.
edit: @Weluvhaha, I sent you a pm with the vet’s info. I also asked my rehab yesterday why they (them and the vet, since he has been managing most of their rehabs for a decade or more) generally do the aquatread before walking on the eurocizer (they don’t really do hand walking since they are such a big facility). The aquatread is very symmetrical and controlled - no turns, no shenanigans, just a straight line with no where else to go, which minimizes the potential to tweak something. Once they are at a good point, they start the asymmetric exercise (i.e., the eurocizer), which has repetitive turning, which by itself is not great for fresh injuries, and more potential for horse’s moving around in less controlled ways (jumping, rearing, etc). So, if your barn is truly hand walking in straight lines and the horse is quiet, it shouldn’t be a problem. That being said, I do think the little bit of buoyancy and resistance from the water is great for early healing (based on conversations I’ve had with other vets).
