Can it still recover?

zelli

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16 February 2008
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Ok, so ive got a horse thats lame, is supposed to be on box rest, but he literally went looney on that after about 3 weeks, and barged out the stable door and through a field fence (making his lameness 10x worse!) so i started turning him out into a roughly 18' x 18' electric fenced area of the field, again this has worked for about 3 weeks, but yesterday when i got back to the yard he had got out, demolishing the fence posts and making some very large dips in the ground (clearly attempted to jump from a stand still) and again has made him self 10x worse... so now im thinking turn him out in the whole field during the day, and yes he will probably be excited for the first couple of days, but he may settle down into the routine after that, and it wont be exciting. But, will it still be able to repair with the amount of freedom he will have? (its a soft tissue injury). Thanks guys!
 
It is possible, there's a TB on the yard who regularly hurts himself but won't tolerate box rest or small paddock and he has come right in his normal field eventually. Might be worth asking vet for ACP or similar for first few days to try and minimise the excitement? Good luck, hope it all works out well.
 
I think your vet is the best person to ask about this really. If your horse is supposed to be on box rest then it's for a good reason (as you know) - sadly you can't tell your horse that! Bit of a tricky one really but I guess you have to do whatever will keep him sane with the minimum of extra damage to him. Good luck!
 
We had a horse like that - he cut his leg very deeply one time and we had to put him on box rest (we knew he wasn't keen but the vet said). We put his best bud donkey with him but the next morning, both were out, the stable doors were still shut but turned out he'd actually pushed the whole back wall (2 stables) out and got out that way. Christ knows how - just thank god they were wooden! We decided best to leave him out after that. If once he's out he'll settle and it's just the fact he's being restricted at the moment that's making him giddy then just let him stay out. If he's used to being out then i would think it'll be better for him. The weather is pretty calm at the moment so that should help. It could take longer to heal but then without knowing the full circumstances it could be it will actually help it heal more if he is able to exercise it at his own pace.

Leave him out, see how he goes, obviously keeping him in has stressed him out.
 
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