Bone Bruise Foot - Recovery?

B

beatrice

Well-Known Member
Joined
3 July 2007
Messages
831
Location
North East
Visit site
Following an MRI yesterday my mare has been diagnosed with a decent bone bruise in her foot ("the second bone up") so i was just wondering if anyone had any success stories recovering from this?

For info, we have been have been having soundness issues with my mare for the last few years but she has been 'managed' with changes to how she is shod. She has been in spacer pads for while and when xrayed with these on, angles etc all look good.

Easter weekend she went lame, back to vets and blocks to the foot. Changes to coffin joints noted on x-ray so steroid injected. Few days off and did some work but she went lame again within days.

We then injected Arthramid but after a few weeks she appeared to have the a reaction to this (heat/swelling to the pastern). Tried to manage with Bute which helped but didn't resolve and she was lamer than when we first went back to vets.

Decided to MRI and bone bruise found. Vet has advised 4 months box rest and then a slow return to work but she couldn't say if she would return to her previous level of work (was out competing at Medium) and could never trot on roads. Likely cause of the bruise is her conformation. I have asked if we could take her shoes off for a while and was advised that wasn't an option and she need the support/cushioning from the packing/pads.

She is going to find box rest horrendous and i'm just curious if any others have successfully recovered from something similar.

Thanks!
 
I apologise in advance that this isn't going to sound very supportive.

You've been struggling with lameness in this mare for 3 years. You now have a diagnosis that she is bruising a bone in her foot just because of the way she is built. She will find box rest "horrendous". The vet can give you no confidence that she will return to work. And if she does return to work it will be with the same conformation that caused the issue in the first place.

I couldn't box rest a horse that will hate it under those circumstances. It sounds like it's time for her to retire.

I'm genuinely sorry not to be more encouraging, you're in a bind of a situation there.
.
 
I kind of see YCBM point 4 months is a long time especially if the end prognosis is not great.

I also wonder if the bone bruise is down to conformation surely it will happen again especially as she is already in shoes with pads.

You don't say how old she is but I made a conscious decision with both my horses that are 19 and 20 now to not box rest them anymore.

My 20 year old did nearly 3 months box rest about 3 years ago for a fractured pedal bone and his body muscles have never come back how they were, it really took its toll on him physically he was literally like a plank of wood and had a year of 6 weekly physio to try and put him right.

Sorry for the doom and gloom.
 
I have an endurance horse which had bone bruising in both front feet, his conformation isn't the best with a slight wonky front leg, it was about 4yrs ago now and trying to remember but I'm pretty sure we didn't box rest him, gave him several months of time off covid helped hugely as he had more time off and we are aiming for an 80km in a couple of weeks. We do use pads on him, I'm very careful with the type of ground he goes on, I do trot on roads but only up hills and that's only when he is coming back into work not once he is fit.
 
Last edited:
Not unsupportive at all - you have very much articulated what I was thinking deep down.

I love the bones of my girl but she is 11 and is the sort that appreciates her job. Retiring her would be tricky as she is very difficult to manage weight wise - I suspect metabolic.
 
beatrice said:
Not unsupportive at all - you have very much articulated what I was thinking deep down.

I love the bones of my girl but she is 11 and is the sort that appreciates her job. Retiring her would be tricky as she is very difficult to manage weight wise - I suspect metabolic.
Click to expand...


I'm so sorry. It's a tough decision facing you.
.
 
Do you have access to veterinary rehab? A practice that specialises solely in rehab?

Your vet feels a little old fashioned. Shoes with pads, box rested is stuff we did in the 80s/90s. Have you looked at softride boots with the super soft pads so that you can remove the shoes and then you can trim 2-3 weekly and keep your improved angles?

Or composite shoes that keep the hoof well off the ground and are a closed shoe that distributes pressure around the hoof well.

We have a horse that has similar issues - box rest nearly did us all in. Then we found a vet rehab practice and everything changed for the better. Our horse was at the end of her career but we were thrilled to retire her sound and to get her out of box rest.
 
Bonnie Allie said:
Do you have access to veterinary rehab? A practice that specialises solely in rehab?

Your vet feels a little old fashioned. Shoes with pads, box rested is stuff we did in the 80s/90s. Have you looked at softride boots with the super soft pads so that you can remove the shoes and then you can trim 2-3 weekly and keep your improved angles?

Or composite shoes that keep the hoof well off the ground and are a closed shoe that distributes pressure around the hoof well.

We have a horse that has similar issues - box rest nearly did us all in. Then we found a vet rehab practice and everything changed for the better. Our horse was at the end of her career but we were thrilled to retire her sound and to get her out of box rest.
Click to expand...
I wish we had something like a vet rehab - the closet we have is a yard with water treadmill.

Farrier and vet have now changed her shoes to some sort of bar shoe with a different packing material to slightly alter her break over and provide concussion support. Will take a look into the boots and the composite shoes though.

The MRI report came back slightly less negatively- she needs 3 months contained (rather than 4) and can do so in a pen rather than stable. She’s now in a pen with a friend on the outside of the pen and appears to be coping well so far.

Report appears slightly more optimistic that she will return to some level of work.
 
beatrice said:
I wish we had something like a vet rehab - the closet we have is a yard with water treadmill.

Farrier and vet have now changed her shoes to some sort of bar shoe with a different packing material to slightly alter her break over and provide concussion support. Will take a look into the boots and the composite shoes though.

The MRI report came back slightly less negatively- she needs 3 months contained (rather than 4) and can do so in a pen rather than stable. She’s now in a pen with a friend on the outside of the pen and appears to be coping well so far.

Report appears slightly more optimistic that she will return to some level of work.
Click to expand...
At least she can be out fingers crossed it works out.
 
Hi, we did the pen rest and she totted up sound so she went back out in the usual field then started walking. Initially in hand then under saddle but as soon as we trotted she wasn't quite right (by this point we are at early October).

At this point we decided to take her shoes off and turn her away for the winter (she went to a retirement yard where they live out on the fell). We trotted her up early May and whilst she looked uncomfortable her feet were soft. We took xrays and, other than the remaining negative palmer angle they looked fine so the vet thought it was worth sticking some shoes back but it would take a couple of shoeing cycles before we would be able to assess properly. She also looked ok when trotting on the soft, it was just on the hard she looked uncomfortable.

She was shod coming up 5 weeks ago and on initial trot up wasn't sound but the farrier has told me to get her walking so thats where we are now. I'm planning to trot up again at the weekend but i can't say i'm getting my hopes up as she doesn't look overly comfortable coming down hill.

If shes still not sound, shes had over a year out of work (with a few weeks walking after the initial pen rest) with 3 months in a pen the rest turned away for 8 months without shoes so i'm not really sure what else we can do.

Sorry its not more positive but equally, i haven't quite lost all hope yet!
 
beatrice said:
Hi, we did the pen rest and she totted up sound so she went back out in the usual field then started walking. Initially in hand then under saddle but as soon as we trotted she wasn't quite right (by this point we are at early October).

At this point we decided to take her shoes off and turn her away for the winter (she went to a retirement yard where they live out on the fell). We trotted her up early May and whilst she looked uncomfortable her feet were soft. We took xrays and, other than the remaining negative palmer angle they looked fine so the vet thought it was worth sticking some shoes back but it would take a couple of shoeing cycles before we would be able to assess properly. She also looked ok when trotting on the soft, it was just on the hard she looked uncomfortable.

She was shod coming up 5 weeks ago and on initial trot up wasn't sound but the farrier has told me to get her walking so thats where we are now. I'm planning to trot up again at the weekend but i can't say i'm getting my hopes up as she doesn't look overly comfortable coming down hill.

If shes still not sound, shes had over a year out of work (with a few weeks walking after the initial pen rest) with 3 months in a pen the rest turned away for 8 months without shoes so i'm not really sure what else we can do.

Sorry its not more positive but equally, i haven't quite lost all hope yet!
Click to expand...
Ah thanks for getting back so quickly - sorry to hear she’s still not 100%, I was hoping for better news…. Sounds like I may be about to embark on the same journey, I’ll try to stay positive but at least your journey will help me to be realistic about the potential outcomes x
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top