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Post by hoorayhil on Nov 6, 2009 11:00:03 GMT
My vet has diagnosed my pony as having a deep digital flexor tendon injury and needs to be put to sleep. He is so well in himself but on Bute to ease his discomfort. It seems such a shame as he is a lovely pony. Has anyone else experienced this type of injury?
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Post by northbeech on Nov 6, 2009 11:25:20 GMT
WHAT PTS? Ok, mabey im jumping the gun, for all i know, he could have a massive injury, but one of my showjumpers got an injury to her deep tendon, and it took me 18months to get her right including 8months of box rest and 10months of just WALKING and hacking. But, she is now, back out jumping the 1.20's and touch wood, has never had a days lameness since. With time and dedication, you can normally get this right. But you have to give him as much time as he needs, and you need to keep up with regular scans to check that the tendon is healing well. I am VERY surprised at your vet. Many horses have tendon injuries, and with the right treatment, they will come right. Its when people try to rush a recovery that things go wrong for good! If i were you, I would get a second opinion of a totally different vet. Hope this helps
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Post by amumwithapony on Nov 6, 2009 11:59:47 GMT
What investigations has your vet done? and have you had him reffered to a specalist equine horsepital? I know ddft injuries are quite bad, but i thought it wasnt as bad as the outer tendon being injured, as the ddft is held in place and supported by the outer one? have you googled this sort of injury and had a read through what comes up?
I would have thought that the decision to be PTS would depend on many factors, 1 being without being too harsh cost of trying to put this sort of injury right. Do you have insurance for vets bills? another factor to take into consideration would be how is he going to cope with enforced boxrest for a lenghty (months) periods of time? i have the quietest pony in the world who is sooo chilled out, and to be fair she hated being on box rest after an injury so you have to consider his welfare as well. You also need to think about his quality of life after you have got him sound. is he ever going to return to work? would he be happy retiring if you cant ever ride him again? would you be willing to keep him forever as a pet if you couldnt ride him? Would you be willing to take responsiblity for him and not give him away to be a 'companion' if you cant ride him?
Whilst i appreciate it is a very difficult decision to make to have any animal PTS, sometimes it is for the best. not everyone has the facilities to let them retire down a field for the rest of there life's if things dont work out, and if i was in that position i would rather mine be pts, than let them go to be a companion, unless it was to someone who i trusted to send them back to me if they could no longer keep them.
its a very emotive time when we have to make decisions like this about our furry friends and i feel for you very much. feel free to PM me if you want to discuss this further.
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Post by pencaedu on Nov 6, 2009 12:43:42 GMT
Can I suggest you investigate something called A-Cell - have a look at the following: www.acellvet.com/pdf/tendonbrochurev16gedits.pdfI think, when we used it on a Superficial Flexor about 5 years ago, it cost around £230 for the injection. There is loads of info on their website & recovery period was 60 days to gentle ridden exercise. Our TB has gone on to jump interhunt @ Royal Welsh, amongst other things & is still sound. If you go on to their website: www.acellvet.com , click on the picture of the horse & follow the links, there is a full description of the procedure & after care guidelines.
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Post by hoorayhil on Nov 9, 2009 21:57:08 GMT
Thank you all for your kind words but my vet who has many years of equine care (He is vet of the year this year) has recommended that he is euthanased to prevent the agony of a rupture that is inevitable. There is no knowing when this will happen but it will, and no-one can bear the thought of him being in agony till some-one comes to his aid. If someone said to you that your horse would definitely break it's leg, but you couldn't predict when this would happen what would you do? It could happen in the middle of the night or sometime during the day...many hours until you found it..unthinkable. We've had x rays and there's no bone breakages or pedal bone problems. (we were hoping for a broken pedal bone) Ultrasound won't penetrate inside the foot. I have to trust my vets advice, and he does advise, very sympathetically and reluctantly, to save my dear pony from this excrutiating agony. Thank you but I don't think the stem cell treatment will work, this pony has had this problem for as long as a year ( we've only had him a month) and still it's not healed. I'm not being obstructive, I just want to do whats right for my lovely boy and if there was a cure it would have been suggested. We will be devasted as we love him dearly.
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Post by amumwithapony on Nov 10, 2009 16:45:53 GMT
if your vet has advised this course of action than this is what you must do, to prevent any more suffering, and im sure no one will think any worse of you for making this brave decision. too many people (imo) let ponies suffer for months on end hoping for a miracle cure that isnt going to happen, and if the pony will have no quality of life then you are doing the right thing. boxrest for any animal is horrendous, and without a vet saying to me this horse has a godd to excellent chance to get better it is not something i would inflict unless i was sure that the outcome would be good.
chin up, its hard but i think you are doing the right thing. vets dont tell you to have a pony PTS for nothing, and if you trust him (which you obviously do) then you must take his advice. well done for being so brave.
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Post by hoorayhil on Nov 10, 2009 18:27:38 GMT
Thank you amumwithapony, your kind word are much appreciated. One of the girls on our yard had a poorly pony who'd gone to our local equine hospital for tests. It wasn't very ill, just not right. Whilst it was there they found that it had an intestinal growth (I think they were scoping it at the time) and the growth ruptured and caused peritonitis and septaceamia. It was put to sleep immediately as it was in extreme pain and suffering. What would that owner have felt, never mind the pony, if that had happened in the middle of the night? The poor pony would have died in the most excutiating pain. I have absolute faith in my vet. He would not have advised me to do what must be done if he wasn't sure, or there was something that could be done. The rather sad thing is that my dear pony was frolicking around this afternoon and looked the picture of health and happiness...thank goodness for bute. I'm going to take him out and around the yard in the next cople of days so that he can gorge himself on all the lush grass. Friday's the day and I'm dreading it.
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