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Pulled tendon injury advice in question.
A horse at the stable I work at was Xrayed diagnosed with a pulled tendon and fluid in the coffin joint of the same leg. The vet said that one caused the other. The horse is currently lame and has swelling in both front legs and has been for the past month. He has only been rode about 2 to 3 days a week to see if he was sound for 15 minutes or so. The vet's advice was to continue to work him regularly (4-6days a week) for 15 to 20 minutes a day to build up scar tissue to make the tendon stronger. This is what sounds odd to me. Now I'm not a vet nor am I saying she is wrong, but I would like to get opinions on her advice. My vet, farrier, and coaches have always told me to give them some time off, rub their legs up, hose their legs, and if and when I did start riding them again just walk on a soft surface for about 10 to 15 minutes until no sign of soreness comes up. Also when he was Xrayed, the shoes were left on. I had always been told and instructed to have the shoes pulled so as not to screw up the Xray. I just want people's advice and if she is correct in her advice if you know a bit about it, could you explain the reasoning behind her advice. Thanks!
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Geoffrey Pannell on
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Wouldn't it be better to ask the vet herself to clarify her advice? As for shoes screwing up the x-ray, only if the shoe actually covers the area you want to see should it be a problem, the shoes aren't going to interfere with the picture. I take it this horse is not yours?
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I did write some other comments here but it didn't come up for some reason, so I continue. Getting the swelling down would be the first priority, I can understand your confusion about the scar tissue as I would have thought the vet would want to avoid this. It might have something to do with the injury being quite old? Initial treatment WOULD involve box rest and getting the swelling down with Bute, and perhaps cold compresses, then controlled exersise to avoid scar tissue forming . The more rapidly the soft tissue swelling is resolved the better the end result will be. Are you sure the vet said Tendon damage and not Ligament damage? Ligament damage can cause damage to the sesomoid bone, the coffin joint is much further down the leg , it's the joint between the coffin or pedal bone and the short pastern bone , the sesamoid bone is at the back of the fetlock. Anyway I can understand why you are confused, so it would be better to ask the vet to explain it for you, Cheers Geoffrey
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Permalink Reply by Melinda Clark on
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no the horse isn't mine. I don't know the vet, otherwise I probably would ask her for future reference. As you said in your other response there are some things that would make more sense. But I also did not hear this directly from the vets mouth :) It was from the owner of the horse when she got back from the clinic with the horse. I was just very curious about the vet's advice, since all the vets that I have ever used (I've moved around some) had suggested rest, anti-inflamitories, cold compress or hosing the leg, and when you do start working them make it light at first. Thanks, appreciate the help!
Melinda
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Permalink Reply by Donna Woods on
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Hi Melinda, I would try cold laser therapy also known as red light therapy. The light does this by stimulating the mitochondria within the cells which activates ATP, thereby sending signals to the brain to release anti-inflammatories, collagen, etc to that area. This allows the body to heal quicker without the use of drugs.
One of the racehorses I worked on Ocala had a similar injury. In 30 days, she was back to 100% with x-rays.
Hope this helps.
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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Lamm on
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When it happened to my horse I didn't ride him for 6 months, just hand walking, lots of cold water, or ice....
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Permalink Reply by Marti Langley on
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Sounds like it worked well for ya. Hi, Sista!
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Permalink Reply by Carol Whitaker on
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I’m sorry to hear about the horse, my heart goes out to him. I've had experience with healing lame horses of my own... Here's what I did to treat them naturally & without surgery as advised by my vet. As for the X-rays, I always have shoes on my horses, I've never had a problem and my vet's haven't suggested otherwise. I wouldn't worry about that...
Stall rest is always good for horses that are lame, but getting them out to exercise daily is also highly important as well. By giving horses light exercise it will aid in circulation to the muscles and joints. As with people, exercise is also good for the mind and emotional state of being too. You don't have to ride, just hand walk them. My horse Flash had colic surgery last week and is on 3 month stall rest; however, I walk him daily for 30 to 45 minutes; it does wonders for his spirit - he loves to get out and stretch his legs and it’s a wonderful time to bond and talk with him as we walk around together.
I bought my hunter/jumper horse, Page, with two front lame feet; she was over worked and not conditioned properly before competitions. I healed her myself and now she's doing amazing and hasn't been lame at all since I treated her. She was as good as new within a month of my care. I also have a young dressage horse with a "box hock", he has horrible arthritis in his back right hock, he got to the point where he couldn't stand on it without severe pain and that was after receiving a second cortisone shot.
I'm a fitness & nutrition guru; I realized that traditional medicine wasn't helping Flash so I decided to take the alternative healing route to heal him. Flash is now doing amazingly well. I can train him again without any pain killers (see my video) and he doesn't show any signs of lameness. I ride him without any pain killers at all! He was pain free after a week of the therapy...
How I did it... I used magnetic therapy, it works miracles!!! Page, my hunter jumper was healed within a month and Flash, my dressage horse showed signs of being pain free within 1 week - literally! I purchased the magnetic boots from SmartPak.com. I also feed them high quality alfalfa (Page) and grass hay (Flash) along with SmartPak joint recovery supplements, Diamond-V brewer’s yeast & wheat germ oil which has helped substantially as well. Page & Flash are happy and healthy as can be now.
Alo, with Flash after each ride I spray his leg down with cold water for ten minutes and then put Liniment spray with healing herbs on his hock. After it dries I put on his magnetic boot for a few hours to aid in circulation and reduce any stiffness or swelling; it works wonders! Flash is doing so amazing, my vet's are stumped how he healed so quickly - I told him I used the magnetic therapy and he was surprised it worked as well as it has. I'll continue to use it until Flash's hock fuses completely which will hopefully be by the end of the year. I'm just grateful I can ride him as I once did, it's incredibly rewarding on so many levels.
I hope this helps, the horse is very blessed to have you over his/her care, keep us posted on his recovery... =)
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Sorry it has taken me so long in replying. I've been so involved in work and finishing college that it seems like I never get online except for homework :)
Thankyou for the advice. He actually got worse with the continued exercise. Although it wasn't just light exercise, he was put right back into regular dressage training. He ended up having 3 months off he was so lame. He was currently just restarted. And luckily I am the one who gets to recondition him! He is much better, but he still takes a funny step every now and again. But I figured if I take it very slow, with just easy work he will continue to get better. I think that he should have magnetic or electro- therapy, I have seen them in work before and they do work really well. She has him on a supplement called Cool Calories, but I think he needs to be on joint supplements. I do ice that leg and rub it up after ever ride. It would also be interesting to see how red light therapy works on him. One thing we did do when he was given time off. I think this helped because his shoes were set so far back that they could have added to any strain on his leg. He is a nice mover so he didn't need his shoes set back, but that is the way that farrier does every horse.
I'ld like to thank everyone who who took the time to reply. I really appreciate it. It is always good to get someone else's opinion and advice on a subject.
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