A Deep Dive into Healing an Extensor Tendon. Here’s Clueso’s story.

Common Digital Extensor Tendon Damage - Healing & Rehabilitation

Clueso - 16’3 11yr old Sport horse

A year on from the initial injury and at a time of despair for Finola Craven. Clueso has made a remarkable recovery. As a result of exposition to K-Laser dynamic light therapy after surgery which reduces the complication most often found in wounds of the lower leg on larger horse breeds known as proud flesh which grows more rapidly than normal tissue and doesn’t stop even when it overflows the wound edges.

The cells that constitute tendons, ligaments, and muscles are repaired more quickly with a Class IV laser, therefore, accelerating healing time, recovery, and the return to work.

Healing the Extensor Tendon

Finola Craven’s horse Clueso incurred a traumatic injury to the Common Digital Extensor Tendon in his off hind leg just above the fetlock Wednesday 23^rd September 2020. The injury to the tendon was so severe it took Dr. John Hyde DVM and Dr. Dave Canty DVM from Tower Equine Hospital a total of 4 hours in the operating theatre to reconstruct the severely damaged tendon and surrounding tissue.

Finola and her husband Mark diligently changed bandages every day for 8 weeks post-surgery, it was at this point Finola became disheartened because the 2inch long and 1inch wide open wound was not healing in part due to the margin of tissue that needed to be removed during surgery and the location of the injury to the fetlock. Every time Clueso flexed his fetlock he would reopen the wound site, thus, running a high risk of becoming infected and developing proud flesh which could compromise the function and mobility of the tendon.

Extensor Tendon and KLaser

I was requested to treat the injured site with my Class IV Cube performance 30 K Laser. After assessing the wound and surgical site I gave the area a thorough cleaning with warm water, Hibi scrub, and cotton wool. After finishing cleaning I then started lasering with a chronic wound setting which delivered a total of 1,500 joules of energy with an average power of 20 watts and a peak power of 30 watts in a total time of 1.33 minutes covering a 100cm2~ area.

To achieve the best therapeutic effects, K-Laser protocols have up to 12 different phases of treatment each with their own using a combination of Wavelengths, Power, and Frequency.

I repeated the protocol 3-4 times at the injury site every other day for one week.

I would reassess the area each visit checking to make sure the full circumference of the wound had healthy margins of tissue all the while keeping a close eye to make sure there were no signs of infection which would slow the progress of recovery.

Laser Therapy treatment dates were the 16^th, 19^th,21st & 23^rd December 2020. Significant progress was made in this first week so I revised the treatment times to once a week for 3 weeks, 5^th,13th, and 20^th of January 2021.

Clueso was re-evaluated by Dr. Dave Canty who was very pleased with the progress of wound healing and recommended hand-walking the horse 4 times a day for 2 weeks.

After 2 weeks Clueso’s next chapter was with Tom Busteed Equine Pre Training & Rehabilitation, Monkstown Cork from January 23^rd to February 23rd, 2021 using a regime of Aqua therapy, muscle building, and conditioning exercises to rebuild muscle, tendon strength, tone, and range of motion.

The last chapter of Clueso’s 12 months road to recovery story is in the hands of the very talented young rider Denise Murphy from Waterfall who has competed Clueso in both Eventing and Cross Country.

Chronological order of treatments for Extensor Tendon

• Initial Injury:      23^rd September 2020
• Surgery:               27^th September 2020
• Laser Therapy:   16^th- 23^rd December 2020 (every other day)
  •                      5^th- 20^th January 2021 (once a week for 3 weeks)
• Rehabilitation:    23^rdJan - 26^th February 2021
• Conditioning:        1^st March – July 25^th, 2021
• 1^st Show Jumping Event: 15^th August 2021 - Double clear round in an 80cm class
• 1^st cross country event: 12^th September 2021 – 20 seconds ahead of time.

Conclusion

Class IV Laser Therapy proved invaluable to starting Clueso on his journey to full recovery., optimising fibroblast proliferation, increasing microcirculation, tissue oxygenation, and cellular nutrition. Wounds treated with the K-Laser are proven to heal faster, with increased tensile strength and decrease scar formation, preventing wound dehiscence.

I’m extremely appreciative of Finola Craven for allowing me to share Clueso’s story.