Experiences with Splint bone fractures?

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megan_marie

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hey,

my horse has a splint on his near inside hind leg that came up a few weeks ago. He's never been lame, we had the vet out today to take a look and he was very very shocked with how big the lump was. As he didn't have an x-ray machine with him, he scanned him with an ultrasound (obviously this is not as good as an x-ray) but he is coming back to x-ray him in a couple days. He's currently applied a pressure bandage to prevent the splint getting any bigger and irritating nearby ligaments etc, and he's on box rest/walker for 10mins a day at a very slow speed. He's x-raying to rule out any fractures, and i was just wondering what symptoms your horses had if they had a fractured splint? How big was the splint bone lumo? Was the horse lame or sound? Was the splint/leg always warm? Was the leg swollen etc.? Hopefully he's just given himself a mahoosive splint and it'll just take some time to go down, rather than that he's actually fractured it. Can they fracture a splint and still be 100% sound? I mean I know the splint is a non-weight bearing bone, so is that possible?

Thanks everyone :)
 
Mine had a closed fracture following an accident in his stable, it was the outside of his off hind, the whole area was swollen and sore but the vet had ruled out anything other than soft tissue damage so he started walking in hand, he then went very lame and it was obvious to me there was more than just minor damage, the fracture, by then displaced, showed on xrays but not on palpation, there was no bony swelling, it had to be removed but no other damage was done.
It is nothing like yours but as your horse is sound, is not in pain I would suspect he has just knocked it and it will settle down over time, even if it is fractured it is probably stable so will be unlikely to require removal, if my horse had remained immobile I think his would have healed, either way it should be easy to treat and have no long term effect on his career.
 
echo what bp said. My horse was hopping lame - almost not weight bearing. Hers was inside of the near hind which she wrapped around a fence post :(

Mine had a huge swelling. Hers was broken in several places but stable so we left it where it was and she had many weeks of box rest. It healed up without a problem.
 
One of mine broke a hind splint bone into seven pieces .
She had surgery under GA and had a trouble free recovery over twelve weeks .
She went back to normal work .
 
My pony had a broken splint bone. He had swelling and was very slightly lame. Got the vet out and at first she felt that it was just bruising and to continue to ride in walk to get the swelling down. Two weeks still swollen vet back and x rayed and he had a broken splint bone.

It took him 7 months to fully recover {box rest with giant bandage for 10 weeks and then gradual rehab} but went back to his normal self and vet said once he recovered you would never have known there was a problem and he would pass a 5 stage vetting.
 
Ice bandages to help remove the inflammation, if you reduce the blood flow you will reduce the amount of bone deposited over the damage.

Soak an small hand towel in water, wring out and put in a plastic bag into the freezer, allow to freeze.

Wrap around the existing bandage and bandage in place, if you can do this several times a day you will help to keep the damage to a minimum.

We had a horse smash a splint bone in the paddock - it punctured the skin so became infected. the damaged portion was removed and the horse was back competing a couple of months later.
 
Mine had a fracture of the medial splint on the left front leg, most likely from a kick. He was obviously lame - nodding in walk - but not much swelling. Took about 8 months to recover, but made a full recovery. He came sound after about 6 weeks of small-paddock rest and was slowly brought back into work, but went lame again a few weeks into walking under saddle. New x-rays showed the fracture was still/again present. If you are dealing with a fracture, my tip would be to check state of fracture with x-ray before beginning with work again, and not just rely on soundness (mistake I/my vet made).
 
Hi, I have had two friends with hind splint fractures (one particularly bad but in a very young horse) and both are now sound, did take some time to heal, in the region of 8 months. They are both absolutely fine now. Was obviously very sore and lame to begin with, but in the grand scheme, it doesn't seem to take too long for the splint bone to start knitting itself back together fortunately. Don't panic, just give plenty of time and rest.
 
Mine fractured its splint last year. His leg was very swollen and it was extremely hot however wasn't lame in walk or trot. He made a full recovery after about 6 weeks of box rest.
 
megan_marie said:
hey,

my horse has a splint on his near inside hind leg that came up a few weeks ago. He's never been lame, we had the vet out today to take a look and he was very very shocked with how big the lump was. As he didn't have an x-ray machine with him, he scanned him with an ultrasound (obviously this is not as good as an x-ray) but he is coming back to x-ray him in a couple days. He's currently applied a pressure bandage to prevent the splint getting any bigger and irritating nearby ligaments etc, and he's on box rest/walker for 10mins a day at a very slow speed. He's x-raying to rule out any fractures, and i was just wondering what symptoms your horses had if they had a fractured splint? How big was the splint bone lumo? Was the horse lame or sound? Was the splint/leg always warm? Was the leg swollen etc.? Hopefully he's just given himself a mahoosive splint and it'll just take some time to go down, rather than that he's actually fractured it. Can they fracture a splint and still be 100% sound? I mean I know the splint is a non-weight bearing bone, so is that possible?

Thanks everyone :)
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My mare shattered her spint bone in 19 pieces, it was trickling blood and she was lame, that was the only thing that showed up.
 
Mine was vaguely lame and if I hadn't seen her get kicked pretty hard I wouldn't have thought much of it to be honest. But hers was an outer splint, at the proximal end of the bone (so absolutely non weight bearing, and just shy of the end that would have meant a minor surgery to remove the end of the bone). The swelling was really local and intense (it looked like half an orange taped to her leg the day of the accident), and over the next week it evened out and was pretty swollen from a couple inches above the injury, all the way to the hoof (I think that was mainly gravity and being confined though, as she tends to stock up a little when kept in anyway). Yours being an inner splint, it's not quite as good. But it's not the end of the world- as long as the bone knits nicely and doesn't calcify to the tendon he will be A-OK.

We did pressure wraps 3 days at a time twice (so nearly a week total), antibiotics (because the kick left a wound). No pain meds because if she doesn't feel hurt she acts like a loon. She paces in a stall so we made a tiny paddock to keep her happier outdoors, and I did standing wraps to help with the swelling and keep her from whacking it on anything else. I started full turnout a little earlier than recommended (we had a massive rain and the little paddock turned into a mud pit- I'd rather her walking in a bigger area than slipping in confinement) and nothing horrible happened. She's started controlled exercise in December, just started cantering and jumping low fences today :D And the massive goose egg has remodeled pretty well- it's still an ugly lump but honestly not as bad as I expected based on the first three weeks.
 
Mine has a massive splint that appeared suddenly last summer, never any lameness or heat and the vet reckons he knocked it himself. 6 months on it's still exactly the same. 3 months ago a smaller one appeared on the other leg (both inside front legs) and again no symptoms except for a hard lump. He was never fully out of work although we stopped any trotting work on hard surfaces/roads, and he's had most of the winter off so far, but still unchanged, not causing any issues.
 
My boy fractured his splint bone. It was swollen for 5 to 6 days and hosed every day until leg came down. I was told by many people he was fine as no lameness, when x-rayed fracture was found. He was on 5 week box rest and after initial swelling went down he was left with a splint. Which was left for 5 to 6 weeks so as all broken skin was healed, then we applied solution vet gave and splint completely went away. Fracture was hairline and healed on its own.
 
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