Back to work after a pedal bone fracture

[Kmmilner]

Hi I am after some advice and experiences of bringing a horse back into work after a pedal bone fracture. At the begining of May my just turned 6 yr old 17hh belgian warmblood gelding fell coming out of his stable and crashed into a wall! To cut a long story short he was seen by my vet who x-rayed him on 3 ocations over 6 weeks looking for a cause of his lameness, nothing showed up on the x-rays so they concluded a soft tissue injury and the horse did 10 weeks box rest unshod, however after this time he was still lame so i took him back for more x-rays where the vet eventually found a hairline fracture to his pedal bone, she then prescribed 6 more weeks rest with a bar shoe on. As we are now in week 5 of 6 I am next week allowed to start bringing him slowly back into work. He seems sound at walk but I haven't tried troting him up yet. Any advice as to how qucikly or slowly to bring him back into work. Due to his age I am keen to get going with him again but obviously I dont want to bring him back too quickly and risk further injury. Would it be unrealistic to be hoping to do some dressage and show jumping after Christmas, so that he may be ready to do some one day events next spring? Any advice on a fitness programme would be great. Thanks.

 

[Izzwizz]

Your vet should be advising you on a suitable re-hab programme, mine did after my mare had a tendon injury last year. If its anything like mine then it will involve handwalking on the flat and building this up over time. I started with 3 x 5min walks per day and this went up to 3 x 20min walks. We then progressed to walking out around the block in hand before ridden walking the same block. This was built up over time before any trot work was introduced. You need to build up your horses muscles slowly so that when they are allowed back into the field they can cope with it safely. See what your vet recommends.

 

[Kmmilner]

I have been discussing this with my vet but just wondered what other peoples experiences with fittening a horse up after this sort of injury were. Weather they had any set backs or did anything extra like swimming for example. He has been turned out in a small 6m x 6m padock of electric fencing for the last 4 weeks as I could not cope with keeping him in any longer he was literally climbing the walls! Vet is fully aware of this and I am going to slowly start increasing the size of it next week by a couple of meters every few days so that hopefully he wont go charging about doing anything silly by the time he is let out fully.

 

[pottamus]

Not a hairline fracture but my lad had laminitis with rotation in one foot that lasted some 8 months in all to full recovery. I was instructed by my vet very closely and started with a 5 min walk up the lane once per week and increased by one increment each week until we were doing every other day at 5 to 10 mins walk. I increased this each week by 5 mins...all in hand and once he was able to do 20 mins I rode him the same distance.
I have gradually increased this each week (probably slower than I needed to) until I was able to do a 2 mile hack around the block in walk.
I then carried on for 2 months in walk before any trot was introduced. I have not really got back into trotting as I am in no rush and do not see the point as I have no reason to trot...we are not aiming to compete etc.
But I took things very slowly and kept to the rule of only ever increasing distance OR frequency and not both together. Touch wood we have gone on like this riding 6 days a week for the summer and all well.
Good luck, talk to your vet and take your time.

 

[Mahoganybay]

Hi, my mare fractured her nearside hind pedal bone, the fracture was quite wide and she was unfortunately on complete box rest for 9 months.....

The side effect from such along time being stabled was Upward Fixation of the Patella on both hind legs, so when the vet said she could be brought back into work, i sent her to a Rehab Centre where she was built up slowly with a horse walker, swimming, solarium etc. She spent 6 weeks there.

Upon her return i started her really slowly, walking in hand for 5 mins a day to start and built it up, it has took about a year for her to come right and she is still abit weak on her back end but i am trying to make that better with some hill work.