Bone chip again sorry ..... experiences, advice?

[Louby]

Well I spoke too soon.
Replied to a post the other day on here about bone chips and how we are leaving my boys in due to the risks of removing it (its right near his carpal sheath) unless he trots up unsoun then it will have to be removed.
The day after I posted the small splint like lump where it is has grown and looks like hes either knocked it or its coming to a head. Vet reckons its coming to a head and is quite happy as it may come to the surface on its own accord. This chip isnt small and Im told its too big to just dissolve. Tonight its got a scab on it so it must have burst slightly but theres no discharge. Vet said the other day I could poultice it or hot towel it to try to help it on its way.
Has anyone experienced this, did you leave it to do its own thing or poultice (its in an awkward area) and did the bone come away on its own successfully.

 

[Stinkbomb]

Hi i replied to your last post about my horse Simon. Although he had to eventually have surgery to have bone fragment removed from his head and his side i did hot compress it to help things along. His were just in awkward positions for the bone to come out on its own i.e it would have had to move upwards. we were unsure what was happening with his broken rib and after hot compressing it (with hot water bottle) the fragments started to come out on their own but they were to small and it had splintered too much so had to be scrapped out. I def think a hot poultice will help things along.

 

[Louby]

Thanks, I will give it a go tomorrow. His is just above his knee on the inside and he was in a Robert Jones bandage for weeks which left him with a nasty pressure sore. This has heeled now but is still bald so no doubt we will end up rubbing that again.
Thanks for replying.

 

[alisonpook]

hi - mine was the horse with the small cut on his shoulder from which 3 bone chips appeared at irregular intervals. We found soaking a towel in hot water , wringing out and holding against the skin for a while helped the abcess to come to a head. The first abcess just after the initial injury did not appear to contain a bone chip. The second abcess over a year later had a small bone chip tucked inside just under the surface of the skin.

 

[Louby]

Hi, thanks for replying. Did your horse need any treatment, antibiotics etc after the abcess burst and I take it your vet had to pull the bone chip out when it eventually came to the surface?

 

[FREESTYLER]

My old horse had a bone chip in his shoulder (scapula blade) got infected badly whole leg swollen etc... went to RVCollege, loads antibiotics etc... then he came home and I put a hot poultice on every day twice a day, it was pussing still and I was told to squeeze around the area, eventually after a week a bit of bone chip came out! It was very small, but the wound was still ozzing puss. Well after another week of hot poultice the real big chip came out... about the size of my small finger nail.. yuk!!

then the oozing stopped and within a week or so the wound had healed!

I was told that if the chip did not come out on its own accord we would have to operate to get it out. I had rather gone on a bit here... sorry!!!

Basically yep, hot poultice or hot towl if area difficult does help!

 

[filly190]

My filly had one when she was two and an operation was not offered. She was sound, but with swelling, so we carried out turning her out daily. At three there was still a slight swelling, but no lameness and she was worked lightly. At four she was brought into a little more schooling work and since then at age of 6 has not been lame with it.

We simply did nothing and let nature take its course. Its very difficult to comment as each case is so very different. I did find box rest made the swelling worse and she faired much better being turned out.

 

[Louby]

Thanks for all your replies. The lump has now burst but theres no pus just a small amount of bright yellow liquid. Ive been putting cotton wool wetted in hot water on it as its in an awkward spot but I will probably try poulticing it at weekend during the day whist Im not at work.
Thanks again for your replies

 

[henryhorn]

Hello I replied to your other post and yes, we kept poulticing for three long months!
Disposable nappies are excellent for this, and cheap compared with the vet type ones.
Our mare had a fracture of her splint bone and we got lots of pieces out. At the same time another horse our vet treated did virtually the same, they had the op at over a thousand pounds, it took no quicket to heal and go back into work than ours did.
Just poultice , not sure how long you can use the stuff we do for, but it's from Equine America, dark brown gunky stuff in a small white tub, works very very well... We use it most for foot abcesses, but I reckon it would be ace for bone chips..