Experience of fractured legs??? :-(

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Has anyone been through this with their horse and can offer experiences / advice?

My horse was kicked in the field on Sunday and has a fracture to his radius. It's quite serious - he has to stay at the vets for at least 6 weeks cross tied then not sure what happens after that. It's splinted with a huge bandage on.

We have further complications of him having locking stifles in his back legs, so hope he can cope ok. He's also not great at being tied so is currently on ACP to keep him calm.

It seems our biggest risk is if he lays down as the getting up would displace the fracture and that would be 'game over' in my vets words! Added to the risks of problems with his other legs.

It would be great to hear from anyone else who has gone through this. I know we have a very very long road ahead and have absolutely everything crossed that he makes it through all the problems stacked against him.
 
My sister's horse Casper (in my signature) fractured his, he had a period of box rest, period of field rest then was brought back into work. 2 years on, you would never realise anything ever happened to his leg, he jumps 1m XC courses, hacks fine and has never had a lame day since his leg recovered (touch wood) :D
 
My ex race horse had a fracture (while in racing, not with me). It was plated and he had 10 months off. Came back to hurdle and steeplechase but he retired at the age of 7.

You wouldn't know from looking that he had had a problem but it was his left front that he fractured and his right front now has a bigger splayed foot compared to the other front foot where it was weight bearing during his recovery.

I hope he copes ok with being cross tied etc. Sorry I'm not of too much use - but do keep us posted with how he's getting on . . .

Sending hugs.
 
My horse fractured his radius 3 years ago at the age of 17. He was on box rest for about six weeks and then got an infection which went all the way through the bone, and we thought it was game over. But he beat that and you would never know anything had happened. My vet told me that he would only ever be a happy hacker, but I sent him to a rehab yard where he went swimming twice a week and is back competing and winning at his little dressage comps. (He has sustained another injury today, but that's another story!)
 
My foal fractured his fetlock at 5 months. 6 weeks bandaging and box rest and he was fine :) It's all about keeping them sedated enough to stay still enough to not displace it. As long as it stays put they can be OK :)
 
Our 13.2 was kicked a few years ago while in the field and she fractured her hock. She had a few months of box rest, and then quiet time in the field before being brought back into work by my sister.
She is now perfectly fine and jumping small jumps (she doesn't really like jumping,lol) and other stuff with her new owners.
 
How could I forget this one?!?! My friend's eventer got kicked in the shoulder in the field and broke it. He is now back eventing and they are planning on going advanced at the end of the year :) :) :)
 
Clipcloppop on here had a horse with a fracture (can't remember exactly which sort or where) and he was cross tied for a while earlier this year. He got through and went out on loan recently I think. I just remembering reading her posts and learning a lot of useful info about how horses with fractures are managed, what happens, etc. If you searched the posts/threads it may come up.
 
My horse was also kicked in the field, and ended up with a helical fracture on the inside of the tibia in the left hind leg. I was completely devastated.

He went to horsey hospital and was also cross-tied. I made the decision that, if he did not cope with being cross tied and was very stressed/depressed, we would PTS as the outlook didnt look too good for him anyway, and I didnt want to put him through any unnecessary suffering. He is typically very stressy anyway, so I was very worried.

He was very unhappy for the first 1-2 weeks, then seemed to accept his fate and was ok/perky for the remaining four weeks (six weeks in total). He was given hay nets and some picked grass to keep him occupied.

The vet then said he could come home, and recommended cross tying for another few weeks if I could. I wasnt able to have him cross tied at home as he would be unsupervised at times, so we chose to just have him on box rest.

He then stayed on total box rest (mucking out around him etc and not moving him out the stable) for about four months, and he coped fine and didnt seem too bothered at all. I was very surprised given how stressy he can be, but he seemed to just accept it. We bought a stable mirror, which he loved and spent hours watching himself, and hung swedes and carrots from a rope for him to play with.

We then started walking in hand for five mins a day/ten mins a day/ 15 mins day over the course of a few weeks. I then built it up to twice a day (am and pm). I then started riding for five mins/10 mins etc and building it up in walk only. Taking it slowly at this stage is key, and its really important that you find the time to do it.

He also had a couple of massages and treatments to keep him comfortable whilst he was on the box rest/begining walking again. These are not that expensive, and I think they made a difference to make him feel more relaxed.

The result of the hard work and effort is that he is now fine - he has no obvious signs that it even happened, and he jumps/gallops etc as normal and is back to being the most perfect horse in the world :) I cant believe that I even came close to making the PTS decision.

Wishing you all the luck in the world that your horse pulls through

xx
 
My TB got kicked and broke her splint bone high up by the hock in 8 places. In was inoperable so I took the chance of box resting her. She was on total box rest for 10 months and coped absolutely brilliantly - I was more upset by it than she was! She came right in the end and it was well worth all the hard work and heart ache.

Good luck with your boy, I hope he does well x
 
My mare broke her albow a couple off years back and sadly had to have her pts. It couldn't be plastered and she than got a infection in the fracture, when she was a total hat rack and so stressed out that I had her pts.
Rip my lovely stunning girl, never forgotten
 
Hi, So sorry to hear about your horse.
My boy was also kicked in the field back in May this year. He is a 17hh, 15 year old percheron x warmblood. He has a 6 inch fracture and a chip out of his radius.

He was x-tied for 12 weeks, then normal box rest for 4 weeks, then finally turned out under sedation. I am very lucky that he is now just started his trot work this week after building up his ridden work in walk for the last 6 weeks :D

I had him on all sorts of things to help with his circulation, bordom and general health.

Clipcloppop also had a similar injury before my horse, and she explains what she did with her horse.
She also sent her all the details - just look on my thread under 'will my horse get his life back' (the answer is definatly YES - but its a long hard road to get there. Good luck!)

xx
 
Oh, I forgot to say, my horse was not insured and we could not move him from the yard.
The total cost including all the bandages (which I did myself) tons of cotton wool and vet wraps. We had to change it every 3 days. The xrays, drugs and callout charges was 2000. A small price to pay for saving my boy :)

I was wondering how you got you horse to the vet? And which part of the country are you? I am based on the Isle of Wight!
 
HKJ said:
Oh, I forgot to say, my horse was not insured and we could not move him from the yard.
The total cost including all the bandages (which I did myself) tons of cotton wool and vet wraps. We had to change it every 3 days. The xrays, drugs and callout charges was 2000. A small price to pay for saving my boy :)

I was wondering how you got you horse to the vet? And which part of the country are you? I am based on the Isle of Wight!
Click to expand...

We're in Kent - so he was taken to Bell Equine in Maidstone. The vet splinted his leg and put a robert jones bandage on then he was sedated and transported to the vets. Not sure why he insisted he was taken there rather than treated at home - perhaps they thought it would need operating on. The fracture was visible straight away on the X-ray which was an indication of how serious it was. (Thankfully he is insured!)

He's still at the vets 6 weeks on. Still cross tied. Got a bit of a worrying few days ahead as they have had to take all bandages / splints off the fractured leg due to really bad pressure sores which have developed. He now has an infection in the leg which looks pretty nasty so is on antibiotics. There is a very nasty sore on the front of the fetlock which is infected, but the whole leg has swollen up and is hot - so think there is infection in other places too. :(

So all we can do now is hope the leg is healed enough to carry on getting better now it is unsupported, and he can fight off the infection. Poor fella - he has being doing so well so far too.
 
friend's horse broke its leg about 18months ago now (i think!)

was effectively cross tied for several months although this was done by building a scaffolding pen round him in the stable so he had the same room as he would in a trailer. Worked very well as was not restricted in his head/neck and couldn't twist the front (broken leg) by moving his hind quarters.

He had some problems with pressure sores as the leg was splinted from fetlock to near the shoulder but thankfully all sorted and the fracture healed. He is now being ridden again and I believe she intends to start competing again next year all things going well. :)
 
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