Broken Pastern (P1)

lillie07

lillie07

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Yesterday my horse broke his pastern in the field. As you can probably imagine I am in a somewhere between being devastated and totally shocked.

Vet has came out and xrayed, put him in a cast and made him more comfortable for the night. The x-rays will now be sent to Newmarket and once the orthopaedic surgeon has had a look he will call me to discuss the options.

The vet talked about surgery to screw the bones together being a possibility, or there might be the option to do it without.

Has anybody had any experience with a broken pastern, which route did you go down and what was the outcome?

I am very lucky to be close to a couple of vets who we will be guided by, as well as the treating vet and surgeon and I am surrounded by some very knowledgeable people who have already been amazing but it would be good to hear any experiences.
 
No advice, but I'll be thinking of you! What a stink thing to happen! Hoping for a good outcome for you
 
Hiya I'm very sorry to hear about your horse. Our advanced horse suffered a Mercedes star fracture of his pastern in 2008 while in the field.
X-rays revealed it had shattered centrally, this meant the cannon bone was in effect acting as a wedge preventing the bones from meeting.
After a long chat with our vet, who was prepared to 'try' to plate and screw it, we decided not to operate and had him PTS immediately.
The cost of the operation alone and a week's after care alone would have taken us to our limit of £5,500.
He had several concerns that the leg would not withstand coming round from the GA, he was 15 and slightly arthritic and the concept of box rest for 6 months meant we all felt it was unfair to make him endure this for a horse which might not even be sound enough to hack.
At 17.1hh he was a big lad and the feeling was the other front leg may also not withstand taking the weight, post surgery.
A post morterm revealed no evidence if a bone cyst so we will never know how or why it happened.
I am still deeply upset by what happened and miss him dreadfully but for us we made the right decision for him.
If you want to ask anything I have missed please send me a PM.
I wish you all the best x
 
Some years ago my horse fractured her pastern whilst I was trotting near to home, unfortunately it wasn't diagnosed straight away despite immediate veterinary attention when she initially went lame.

After a couple of days the vet administered a nerve block to try to determine the exact area of pain, she went sound, put weight on the fracture and the bone displaced severing the tendons on the way out. Very sad loss of a lovely horse.

I really hope you get a good prognosis from Newmarket and your boy makes a good recovery.
 
Thank you so much everybody for taking the time to reply- I am sorry for your losses.

Worried1- It sounds like I am in a very similar situation- Bailey is only 11 but slightly arthritic and already has issues with his front feet, especially the left fore (the not broken leg).

It is a spiral fracture- but it hasn't come apart. Waiting on the surgeon to call and I guess he will give me the options and his opinion on the best way to proceed. For now Bailey is comfortable, I went to get him treats this morning and he attempted to hop out if his box so he hasn't lost his sense of humour!

Thank you all again x
 
My horse had the surgery for ringbone by Matt smith at Newmarket.. He's good as new.. If u want I could pm u my number and I could let u know the ins & outs x
 
Thank you. I am still waiting on news- will post an update when I have one. At the moment the hardest thing is the waiting.
 
Thank you. I am still waiting on news- will post an update when I have one. At the moment the hardest thing is the waiting.
 
How us your horse getting on? Mine has the same injury. He is on 2 weeks box rest and will them be re-xrayed and the options discussed.
 
My horse broke her radius. Completely freak accident will never know how it happened but it still haunts me. Vet was not optimistic at all, would have been very hard to stabilise and she absolutely hated being in the stable so she was pts as wasn't even guaranteed to be field safe. Vet told me if it was lower it would have had better prognosis so fingers crossed for u both. Go with ur gut and balanced facts from professionals
 
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