Monday, April 16, 2012

Bowed Tendons

This post has taken me a little while to put into perspective. It has been a real learning experience for me. I want to share what I have learned so that others may not have to experience it first hand.


Ms. Lily is a tough mare. She never backs down from work. She thrives on it. She is like the Energizer Bunny on steroids. Turns out this is as much to her detriment as it is to her benefit. RD had Lily for 5 months when she noticed some swelling in her front legs, no heat, but some swelling she wasn't comfortable with. She called and said that she was going to lay her off for a week and just see if the swelling would go down. I was up there that weekend and we looked at it and it wasn't significant and Lily was not lame, sore or off one iota. She just had some puffiness and RD didn't want to ride her while it was there. That was fine with me. She had been working pretty hard and a week off would do her good. The swelling went down over the next few days and Lily was her usual energetic self. No unsoundness or signs of pain when her legs were palpated. So after 10 days RD went back to riding her. Her legs seem to be fine for a couple of weeks and then the puffiness came back. This happened to be the around the time I was planning on bringing her home. The day that Mr. Wonderfuland and I went to pick her up at RD's, Lily was saddled and had sport boots on, ready for me to ride. We worked some cows and loped some circles. When it was time to go home, we unsaddled her and took the boots off and started really looking at her legs. The swelling was pretty pronounced on her front right. Much more noticeable than it had been previously. And it wasn't in the same place as it has been the first time that I saw it. It was about mid way from her knee to her fetlock and protruding to the back and outside. She still showed no signs of pain when palpated and wasn't lame or off in anyway. I decided that I would take her home, give her some much deserved time off. I really wasn't overly concerned at this point because she never showed any signs of lameness or pain.

I took her home and turned her out. My pasture is on a pretty steep hillside. She had been stalled for months and now she was getting some freedom to run and play. She did just that. She bucked and carried on for a good 5 or 10 minutes when I turned her out. The next day when I went to feed, I checked her legs and they seemed to be worse. The swelling seemed to be even more pronounced in her right leg and the left seemed to be worse too. No heat. No lameness. No pain. Just lumps. I fed and went in the house to talk to Mr. Wonderful. He kind of blew me off like I was being the obsessive horse owner. The next day, I swear to goodness it was getting worse. I made Mr. Wonderful come look. And he was clearly shocked. It was worse, visibly worse. But she still was sound and no pain when palpated. What the heck?

I called RD and as we talked, she and I both suspected a bowed tendon, but neither of us wanted to admit it. The next day I called the vet to have her looked at. I decided to use a local vet because a bowed tendon is a bowed tendon, is a bowed tendon. We could clearly see where the problem was so it wasn't like I needed someone to solve a mystery of where the issue was. The vet had me work her in circles, trot and lope on the lunge line etc. and with the exception of the lumps she was fine. No pain, no lameness, no heat. She said that it looks like a classic bowed tendon but without scans we couldn't see if it was just swelling around the tendon (a wrap bow) or an actual tear in the tendon. The vet hadn't brought equipment to do the scans that day so we decided to give her some stall rest and play the waiting game. She gave me some Surpass to apply topically to try to reduce the swelling and see if inflammation was all it was. Unfortunately stall rest didn't go over well. Lily was just beside herself with the boys being on the outside of her stall. She was kicking the walls, pawing squealing and carrying on like a fool. Of course she has started coming into heat during this time so that just intensified things. I turned her out into the pasture. I was afraid that I would not only have bum front legs but bum back legs if that continued.

The Surpass helped the swelling but didn't fix it completely. The front left leg looked pretty good after a week or so, but the front right still had a pretty good bump on it. After four weeks I called the vet back and made an appointment to have her scanned to see what the extent of the damage was.

Mother nature must have been pissed off at the world the day we went to our next appointment. It rained buckets, hailed, the wind blew and it rained and hailed some more. The scanned showed that she had tears in both front legs. A small tear in the front left and a pretty good sized tear in the front right. Horses have three tendons in the front legs. She had tears in the inner suspensatory. You could clearly see them on the scans. Now what?

Stall rest. Stall rest. and more stall rest. I have since moved the boys to a new boarding facility. (More about that later.) Put Lily in the stall at home and she seems to be fine now that they are gone. No kicking or bucking or pawing. She is relaxing into her new life pretty well. Of course she is supposed to come into heat again next week so that might all change.

Hind sight is 20/20. RD thinks she knows when this happened. She was working Lily, it was a long day of riding, working cows and riding some more. The footing was deep and the horses had to really work. Lily went all day. She never backed down from her job. She is the type of mare that will go until she drops over dead. She has no internal off switch. While this makes her a solid partner when you need to get a job done, it makes her a horse that you will always have to take care with. I didn't understand this or even think about it. Remember the scene in True Grit where the horse just keeps going until it drops over dead... That is Lily. I can never forget that.


The treatment....
Stall rest, stall rest, stall rest.
For the next three months Ms Lily will be in a stall with very limited hand walking.
I will have her scanned again in three months and if the tendons are repairing nicely we will give her a small - like really small paddock to go out into. And add some more hand walking. We will continue to scan every 3 months until the tendons have knitted themselves back together. My attitude is that it is going to take as long as it takes. No hurry.

The prognosis....
The good thing is we caught it early. She wasn't ever lame or sore so that is in her favor. She might not ever be 100% back the way she was, but she could be as much as 95% or not. As long as I don't put her in that type of working environment again, chances are she will be sound for a long, long time. Again... some human athletes come back from much worse injuries and continue on their career path without a hitch. With the right treatment and a boat load of patience there is no reason she won't. The swelling or lump on her front right may never go away. That might be a good thing... a little reminder of who she is.


The lesson...
Bowed tendons don't always present with pain/heat.
Bowed tendons don't always present with lameness.
Bowed tendons happen because of fatigue and stress.
Deep footing adds to the risk of bowing a tendon.
What we did wrong was...we should have never got back on her after we noticed the initial swelling. It was so minor and went away so quickly that we were complacent.
If you even suspect a stress/fatigue injury... get the hell off the horse and stay off until you have a confirmed diagnosis.
Patience. Patience. Patience.

I used to really blame trainers for poor management of their horses when I heard stories of bowed tendons, hock injuries, torn suspensatories and the like. I used to think that they were careless and didn't have a clue about how to take care of horses. And in some cases I will probably still have that opinion.

I won't play the blame game for this injury. It happened. And hopefully we have all learned something from it. It has really made me think. It goes back to horses having huge hearts and a lot of try. This mare just wants to please. She strives to be a solid partner. We are the ones that are supposed to have a brain. We are the ones that need to know when it is time to get off and let them rest. We are the ones that need to "RIDE THE HORSE YOU ARE ON". And just because that horse acts like it is an energizer bunny on steroids, it doesn't mean that she is or that she CAN go all day long. I am profoundly sorry that his happened to her. I am disappointed in myself that I wasn't smart enough to figure any of this out BEFORE something bad happened. If you read my previous posts on Lily you will see the signs. They were there. Hindsight....

I can't go back and change things but I can move forward and give her the time and patience needed for her to heal.

3 comments:

  1. I'm really sorry to hear this, kel. I know how bad we all feel when we think we should have made different choices. I know you know--hindsight's always twenty-twenty. I have sure been there. Though I never heard of a bow presenting exactly like that. Thanks for explaining it.

    I hope Lily gets better as quickly as possible, and that you don't beat yourself up too much. You're trying really hard to be a good horse owner (and you're doing a fine job). Its all any of us can do. Sad as it is to say, we will all make mistakes, even trying as hard as we can to do the right thing. Many good wishes to you and MS Lily.

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  2. Thanks for writing about your experience. I am currently dealing with a similar one. My mare that I've owned for 10 years just bowed in both front legs. The right is worse. We were preparing for a show and the ferrier was a week or so late, so she was not 100% balanced. Its been 3 weeks, stall rest with very limited turnout and seems to be getting worse. So, just stall rest for a while and wraps. I feel so horrible about it, I'm not sure I have thought about much else lately. Its aweful when you know its your fault. How is ms. Lily today?

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