broken legs ...

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ruthb

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Has anybody's horse ever had a broken leg and survived it? I've heard of a couple of cases of high (shoulder) breaks that have been considered treatable with surgery, but sadly neither horse survived ... both succumbed to infections and had to be put down subsequently.
 
An old pony I knew did. He was taken hunting when fairly young ,4/5, buy a young girl, her dad got drunk at the meet and flipped the trailer on the way home. As he was such a young pony, he had good conformation and it was a clean break his owner decided to give him a chance. He was stabled for months on end, but it did heal, and well, he went on to be the best pony club pony in town and is still alive and well as far as I know today, he must be nearing 40!
 
i know of a huntmasters horse who broke his cannon bone in half on a foreleg whilst he was turned away for his summer holiday. Luckily it didnt break the skin, helping to reduce the risk of infection. He was cross tied for several months & the leg has healed, albeit very wonky. It is twisted outwards & doesnt run straight, the bottom part sticks out at an angle. It is awful from a cosmetic view point, but the horse is now 27/28 & this happened around 15yrs ago. He also still goes out on the ocasional ploddy hack. Personally I wouldnt have even attempted to fix it as it was a very poor quality of life whilst it was healing, but the horse seems happy enough & has adapted to his life with a wonky leg!
 
one of mine chip fractured his hock in several places.
was a long haul to get him right tho on field turnout.
he now does somerford park rides, schools, and has competed unaf dressage!

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A foal my mum bred did. They took it to the RVC and it was hung from a sling (sedated) whilst it healed. It did very well and the horse has been evented to PN and is in foal for the second time
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! She is 12 now!
Also one of the other liverys horses on our yard broke its leg in two places near the shoulder. They sent it to newmarket and she said she didnt really know what they did, but she was boxrested for ages and then went on to hunt happily afterwards, she is 18 nowand shows no lameness at all.

However i have not been so lucky, the first pony i shared as a kid broke its leg and had to be put down, and my first horse (4yr old 17"2 and my baby) broke his jumping out the field and had to be put down
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Mine fractured his femur when he was 2 and dislocated his hip he is now 5 and although still lobsided at the back he is ok but have been warned this may become a problem when he gets older as might end up with atheritis in the joint around it
 
Hi, my horse fractured his Radius from a kick in the field. He was put in a splint and transported to Leahurst where he stayed for 2 weeks. He then had about 12 weeks in a Robert Jones bandage and was cross tied, bugger still managed to lie down! He then had a further 8 weeks box rest, 4 weeks in a tiny stable sized make shift paddock, restricted turnout for a week, then back to normal turnout. That was 4 yrs ago and he is sound and can do anything. He did have to have a minor op after to remove bone fragments that didnt dissolve and abcessed.
 
I know two well sort of!!

First is a foal, born this year mare stood on it when it was literally just born. Severe break to lower hind leg. Foal was operated on that day and was pinned and had a cast.

Was then bought to my old yard (owner didn't have a stable) and was kept in stable with mare (who was useless to say least!).

Leg xrayed and cast changed once a week (taken 40mins away to specialist equine vet each week). After about 5 or 6 weeks pins were removed (as they went all the way through leg so couldn't be left!), leg was then cast again. First few days after pins removed there were 30min checks even through the night as apparently that was when most likely to go.

Well when I moved yards foalie was being turned out no bandages/casts etc. Only thing now was has corrective shoeing (in form of elongated plastic heel thing!) to help straighten out her leg and to strengthen the tendons which are obviously weak having been in plasted for over 2 months!

It is unlikely she will be ridden but not completely ruled out depends on how leg/tendons etc develop/strengthen etc, but there is a chance she could become a broodmare (well bred I'm informed!) in later life.

Second horse I know is friends horse. two fractures on front leg one either side of the knee. Only fracture rather than break but fairly severe as you can imagine! Believed to have tripped whilst in field and ran into XC fence that was in field.

Poor horsey has full leg bandage and has been immobilised in stable with scaffolding (basically the space that you would have in a trailer) with buckets hung infront of him in suitable for water etc! He reached the 2 month point the other day and was due for xrays but they were cancelled due to the darn snow. It is still very much anyones guess what will be the final result but so far vets are pleased with his progress and if everything goes to plan he should be rideable again.
 
Mine didnt survive. He snapped his leg clean in half and there wasnt anything they could do, but when he broke it he also shredded his other legs, you could see down to the bone on some of the gashes and if he would have survived all of his legs would have been mangled and long term he probably would have been pts.

However i read about this horse ages ago who did survive, lovely story http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/molly.asp
 
the only high-profile ones i can think of are a little mare that Bruce Davidson used to event at 4* (after the injury!), she had had a spiral fracture of a front leg and fortunately they'd noticed the problem and boxrested immediately. bone heals really well if given the chance, far better than tendons or ligaments i was told.
the other one was Mill Reef, famously broke leg on the gallops, cannon bone iirc. vets managed to plate it and fortunately he was a model patient. (worth the £££s on the op and rehab, because he was such a valuable stallion, obv...)
one of the biggest problems is that horses are really crap at 'bed rest', and even if they don't injure themselves further coming round from the anaesthetic, the unbroken leg of the pair has to take extra weight for months - sometimes leading to huge problems. (this is what happened with that top US racehorse a year or two ago iirc, he got laminitis in the other foot etc)
another huge problem is if the break happens as horse is galloping, by the time the horse has been pulled up, the wound is usually so compromised with mud, grass, and also further damaged by swinging around (and possibly weight-bearing) that if the same injury was in a person they'd probably have to amputate (top vet explained this to me when i asked this question.)
all in all, usually a very grim prognosis.
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One of mine broke her P2 Pastern joint (3 fractures).

She had an Op to fuse the P1 and P2 (Upper and lower pastern bones) together with 3 pins.

She was in plaster for about 6 months, a heavy bandage for another 6 months and on box rest for a total of 9.

2 of the pins had snapped at some point during the box rest, and therefore her ankle didn't heal correctly.

She had masses of muscle wastage, but was happy all the time she was drugged up to the eyeballs.

For months she was turned out in a small patch under the oak trees, (coming in at night or in bad weather) but as the vet reduced the painkillers it became clear that she was in pain.

I got a 2nd opinion from another vet practice as to whether to carry on going with her. I knew I'd never be able to ride her again, but I adored her and I was happy if she was happy, being retired completely.

But the 2nd opinion vet told me what I knew deep down already, and I had her PTS. 18 months after her accident.

It was the saddest day.
 
Mt friends horse is recovering from a fractured hip atm, I know it's different to a leg but it was not a guaranteed recovery..... He was box-rested for 12 weeks and has spent the last 6 weeks still in the stable but being walked out in hand twice a day, starting at 5 mins each time and now up to 20 mins.

Vet was due yesterday but had to cancel because of the snow, so it's been rearranged to next week to hopefully give her the ok to start riding him again..... He's a 5 year old Dutch WB.
 
I know of three
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One, my mum's pony, came in from the field one day when he was four with a broken pastern - they never knew whether he tripped, or if he was kicked. The vet wanted to put him down immediately, but Mum wanted another opinion and got another vet to come and look at him. He agreed he thought there was a chance that he could get the bone to mend, and sure enough, the pony pulled through. Mum was always careful with him afterwards, but he went on to hunt, do local shows etc with no problems. And he's 34 now and still going strong!
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Hi....the grey in my sig had a fractured cannon bone 3 years ago....following a probable kick in the field.

It healed with simple box rest- well I say simple- he's an arse on box-rest and would not really settle so he was ACP'd up the eyeballs and I had to keep one of theothers in with him for company. He had xrays every few weeks to assess the healing and was bandaged up but apart from that no surgery was needed. I gave him a few weeks off in the field to chill out and build up his mkuscles then started bringing him back into work slowly and all was fine....although I was terrified his leg would snap initially I dont really think about it now. There is a small bump over where the fracture was, but thats got smaller with time and no-one else would really know it was there unless you look for it.

He's never been lame since.....is in full work (when its not knee deep in snow) - hacks, jumps - the lot.
 
Hello,
You very kindly replied to my post about horses breaking legs and recovering. I'm doing a piece for Horse about this, and would love to feature you if you can stand it! It won't be too horrific, I promise: I'm talking to two or three people who have had this experience, and basically want you to run through what happened, what the treatment is, and how you and the horse are now. I am not going to be implying that broken legs are not a problem, but looking at the circumstances in which a horses's life can be saved. Will also be talking to vets. I'd be REALLY grateful for 15 mins of your time. You can either phone me (anytime) on 07881 621934, or email me on ruthblooomfield@hotmail.com (that three o's isn't a spelling mistake!) with a number and I will call you. I do lots of features for Horse and often talk to people on this notice board as case studies, and I promise I never misquote anyone. I'm a proud owner of a very gorgeous coloured cob too ..
Look foward to hearing from you,
Ruthx
 
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