# deep digital flexor tendon injury



## ChunkyMonkey25 (2 September 2009)

my boy has been lame for coming up 2 weeks now - only 2/3 10ths lame but lame all the same.  Vet came out today and said he has damaged his deep digital flexor tendon and the prognosis is not good.  Have any of you had any experience of this type of injury?  How long did it take for the horse to recover?  Did they come back into any kind of work?

Thanks


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## kerilli (2 September 2009)

yes, i have, unfortunately. it takes a long time for the lesion to fill in, over a year really, 18 months is ideal. box rest, controlled exercise, no leaping around, galloping about, etc. if he's insured i'd look at stem cell therapy, this is the big news in tendon healing at the moment. if not, i'd stick him in a concrete crewyard where he can amble about but the surface will dissaude him from loony moments which will cause more damage. trying to do box rest and then controlled walking of 10 mins twice a day to begin with, as is usually recommended, is a real test of any horse unless it is a bona fide saint. absolute explosions are not unknown, and they can undo in 10 secs the healing of months. 
	
	
		
		
	


	












in my experience damage to ddft = unlikely to come back to galloping and jumping, fast work, etc, sorry to say, but obv i haven't seen the scans and the extent of the damage, so your vet will know best.


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## RachelB (2 September 2009)

My horse tore a 2cm hole in her left fore DDFT below the navicular bone in February 2007. She was to have nine months off in total, but it ended up being 18 months as she wasn't right up until that point. She only came really sound after being shod and lightly worked for a while, too. She will never jump or school again, and is mostly a walk and trot happy hacker. I echo everything kerilli has said.
You will need a lot of time, patience and luck for it to heal - but it's not impossible, never lose hope!


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## brightmount (2 September 2009)

As Silmarillion says, it's not impossible. My horse had damage to the DDFT as part of several other soft tissue injuries in the foot, and she has come back 110% galloping, jumping , competing, the lot with one difference .. she now does it barefoot.

As long as you find the right trimmer to see you through what could be a long haul, this is worth considering. Foot balance is key, whether you stay with shoes or not. The main consideration is how bad the damage is, and only an MRI scan will tell you that and give you some idea of the prognosis.


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## ChunkyMonkey25 (3 September 2009)

thanks everyone.  Vet said that because of his sheer size (17.2 ID) she doesn't think it will ever heal properly!  And she said he's certainly not going to go back to dressage.  Am gutted really but you have all given me some hope that he might come sound and be a happy hacker - thank you


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## monstermunch (3 September 2009)

My boy had a DDTF injury at the age of 14 with no previous history of injuries. the prognosis generally wasn't very good and becasue of his age we were told to fiels rest him for 18months -2 years. The risk of box rest, as previous posts suggest, is that one explosive bout when coming off it and you undo all the box rest. After 18 months my boy is still not sound so the decision was made to bring him back into work as he is not a horse that enjoys sitting round doing nothing. He can now be lightly schooled and hacked, and does a bit of dressage, but can only be ridden 3 x a week or his lameness becomes obvious. He is happy and pain fee just not 100% as before. Unfortunately my experience of this injury is not very good and I think it is rare for a horse to return to a normal worl load as before, though obviously every horse is different. Good luck. I hope you can get him back to some form of ridden work.


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## hussar (3 September 2009)

If you search on DDFT you'll find quite a few threads from some months ago. My horse tore about 30% of his DDFT just above the fetlock in May 08. He had 5 months off (a combination of field and box rest) then started coming back into work with 20 mins walk, progressing over about 4 months to some trot work. I was told stem cell therapy wasn't suitable in his case as it was a lateral tear and not a hole.

He was shod for a while with wedge heels, but my farrier wasn't happy about this long term as he said it was starting to affect his way of going. So for the past 9 months he's been in Natural Balance shoes.

We tried magnetic therapy and cold laser therapy, but nothing was greatly successful at healing the lesion. It's now down to 10% and the vets reckon it will never heal completely. But .. he's back in full work, has done several Pleasure rides and 2x30km endurance rides, hasn't been lame since the week of the original injury, and we're cautiously optimistic!

I think a lot depends on the site of the tear. I was lucky as it was above the foot, could be easily scanned, and wasn't a complete rupture.

Good luck with your boy!


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## morgan4eva (3 September 2009)

I dont know how your vet has diagnosed this but, we have a horse who was diagnosed with scintigraphy with DDFT inflammation at the attachment to the pedal bone.  After a total of 1 year of either rest of light work he was still intermittently lame. He had MRI about 6weeks ago and I was told that there is no evidence of his ever having DDFT problem.  MRI was completely clear so had coffin joint bursas injected and correct shoeing with heart shoes.


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## pegasus1986 (3 September 2009)

my 16yr old new forest did her tendon the red rings is the ruptures in the tendon left leg and right leg






this scan is after 2 months box rest and i fed her global herbs tendoneaze and the vet was amazed how well it has healed shes now on 3 months field rest at least 
as you can see only 1 little red circle


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## lipizzaner (4 September 2009)

Not tendon, but my horse is currently on box rest for a minor sprain to his suspensory ligament.  I'd go for the best diagnostics you can afford, then throw everything possible at it in order to help it heal.  Some are candidates for stem cell therapy, my horse is having shockwave therapy, hydrotherapy and magnetic boots.  He's having the hydrotherapy at Flawborough Equine, I visited him last night after his first two treatments and was amazed at his legs.  He has had a small amount of heat behind his left knee, but his legs were literally ice cold where he had been in the spa, and it lasts for hours afterwards, much better than just cold hosing!  Most insurance companies cover this type of treatment.


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