fractured leg healing time before decisions decisions...

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cazzax

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Hello everyone please be gentle am new!!. My filly ( pic) .... 3 year old has been kicked in the field. To say I am gutted is not half of it. She appears to have fractured the top of her radius very near her elbow in two places (one crack with one tracking from it). Prognosis so far is that recovery seems good and that with box rest (she was on all sorts of painkillers and sedative for first four weeks and antibiotics due to cut) she should be fine. She has her off days i think related to lying down, as she is not cross tied (i don't want to stress her with her being young and she is very quiet). HAs anyone else had a similar experience and please share the good and bad. She has her next xrays at the end of month and then they are hoping to get her walking for a few minutes a day. Am I being cruel??????? she seems fine if not bored:(
thanks everyone :). Have delayed putting her in foal as think its better for her to have all the goodness to herself to recover if she does....
 
no your not being cruel! clipcloppop on here would be a good one to talk to, her horse had a fracture and was cross tied for quite some time. hope she has a speedy recovery! oh and welcome :D
 
Yep - my boy got kicked in the field and got a hairline fracture. box rest for 6 weeks or so and he was right as rain!! honestly, he was totally fine.

Took it very slowly bringing him back into work with just walking for 2 weeks but he was completely fine. (until he got kicked in the field AGAIN and had sequestration of the bone on the same leg, so a rather unpleasant operation/scraping of the bone and some more box rest).

I'm sure she will be fine :) and if she seems happy chilling out on box rest, she probably is!

Welcome to the forum too btw
 
Very scary when it happens! My horse was kicked a year ago, fracture travelled down from just below hock for 6"; He was box rested for 6 weeks, then walked out for 6 weeks whilst staying in still, then back very, very slowly into work. One year on there is no evidence of the injury and he is totally sound. As yours is so young, the healing will happen quicker; In fact my vet reckons a fracture is better to have than a tendon injury as the bone, once healed, will be as strong if not stronger than before. Good luck!
 
thank you! and thanks for the welcome!. She is fine... thats the thing!!! she is getting some feed and lots of attention, and some lovely equine neighbours for company so I do not feel to bad - just niggling doubts really. I think i am nervous about the outcome in three weeks of next xray. Put it this way... I am drinking far too much vino! ;)
 
ahh thanks Alex, hers is a little shorter but in two places making it more vulnerable apparently. Its a times like these I wished I had....wait for it....'boned up' on horse skeletal stuff at college. At least I still have humour :)
 
I would seriously reconsider not cross tying, lying down is not the problem it is putting stress on the leg when getting up that causes the problem, at best it can stop the fracture healing at worse the fracture can totally break. Horses take to it far better than their owners, and a horse does not need to lay down. Also speak to your vet with regards to pain killers as it is better them feeling sore and not being silly than pain free and doing more harm. Another thing I do believe is that box rest is just that, no bringing out at all, whether to muck out or tie outside to groom, I do it all in the stable, that way they seem to resign themselves to that fact that that is the life at present, bringing them out, gets them excited and they then think they are going to do something and when you put them back in the stable that is when they start to stress.

As said above Clipcloppop went through all this with hers do a search on her posts as she has gone into detail.

It is not cruel at all, horses have no concept of time like we do as long as they have food, water and company and something to entertain themselves most do cope.

Best of luck the time will pass quite quickly.
 
My horse fractured his radius too. The vet stressed he musnt lie down as the fracture could break totally so he was cross tied for about 12 weeks with a robert jones bandage on for about 4 weeks. It was supposed to be less than that but the fracture didnt heal as quick as expected. After that he had 4 weeks normal box rest then turn out for a week in a stable sized make shift paddock, then into a small field, then I started riding again. It was so hard at the time but its like a distant memory now and he is fine. He did have to have a bone chip rempved about 6 mths later as it didnt disolve as hoped and abscessed.
Hang in there, it will soon pass. My vet was really concerned about my boy lying down though. Only saying this as I never thought my horse would cope with being cross tied but I think it upset me more than him. He had haylage 24/7, a water bucket hung over his door and coped brilliantly.
Good luck
 
thanks this is her tenth week. She was well and truly doped up and did not move herself for the first three weeks or so. Fine balance like you say between letting her be in pain so she did not put weight on leg and making her semi comfy. I think between me the vet the other vet and owner of yard we decided against tying up as she was standing on three legs for a good while and hopping around. She has only started weight bearing in the last two weeks but they seem to think that this is an excellent sign hence a few more weeks box rest before a short five minute walk. Next problem will be containing a young horse that seems to have grown another two inches in the time from galloping down yard!!!!!!!! xxxxxxxxxx
 
Hello and welcome and a large hot choccy!

Friend's ex-racer. Cracked across at the top of his foreleg. We didn't know at the time, but it was something like two milimeters off going all the way through! Anyhoo, box rest. Not cross-tied as he couldn't cope. He lay down, bounced around a bit, but on the whole did very well indeed. It's been about four months now (I've lost track of time), but Friend has just started riding him :D. He seems fine so far :D

Good luck with your lass.
 
cannot believe how many vets have recommended cross tying on here. Mine was quite explicit that it was an option and nothing more. I think their thoughts were that the horse would not attempt it due to the pain level? to be honest, she is a strawberry roan with a grey body and there were no poo marks on her for at least four weeks so heres hoping that she was sensible and did not try it! I just need an outcome. Why are humans so impatient!!!!!!!
 
Ta Mozart see... this is the kind of impression people have been giving me.... Don't worry all will be fine just wait and if all else fails put her in foal!!!!!. Think i need a hot choccy but vino toooooo damn good. ;)
 
I remember it well :D:D:eek::eek:
I was supposed to walk him twice a day starting at 5 mins and building up to an hour, yeah right!!
First attempt, I thought it was a good idea to go in the school as its enclosed. It took 2 of us hanging off him to get him out as he leapt and flung himself about. All I could think was vet said 'one false move and it could snap!' I resorted to walking up and down the yard with riding hat and chifney just to try to keep him on the floor. We tried sedalin but that only worked for a couple of times as he got so excited when I arrived at the yard it stopped working. Turn out in the small paddock was hairy!! He bucked on the spot and trashed it in about 2 days, turn out in the big field was heart in mouth, he galloped up and down the fence.
We lived to tell the tale :D
 
cazzax said:
cannot believe how many vets have recommended cross tying on here. Mine was quite explicit that it was an option and nothing more. I think their thoughts were that the horse would not attempt it due to the pain level? to be honest, she is a strawberry roan with a grey body and there were no poo marks on her for at least four weeks so heres hoping that she was sensible and did not try it! I just need an outcome. Why are humans so impatient!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

My horse lay down twice whilst cross tied, well poo stains suggested that :D
 
Blimey, 10 weeks you are well on your way to recovery :) :).

I think a lot of vets recommend cross ties, due to what they see on the xrays, an incomplete hairline fracture, can very easily fracture right through with any additional stress added to it. Every fracture is different, so different vets, different horses and different breaks will give different opinions. Horses take to cross tying far better than 99% of owners, we had one on a yard that we lost due to the owner loosening the ties and the horse laid down got up and snapped the whole leg through, so if a vet advises it now, I follow the letter to the T and ignore human emotions and feelings.

You really do sound as though you are so nearly there, if not there, the one we had here was cross-tied for 7 weeks another weeks box rest then meant to be walked in hand but was far to much so we made a stable sized paddock for him and three weeks after was back into a normal field.

Keep going the end is really really close now.
 
hi my girl is on week 2 out of two months box rest due to a splint fracture its horrible i dont take her out of the stable at all i was never advised to cross tie or anything but this prob cos the splints not a main weight baring bone but i hope yours recovers fully its not nice having them in 24/7
 
My horse has fractured from his knee up to the elbow- also due to a kick in the field.
What i really dont understand is why everyone else on here only got 6 weeks box rest!! I'm into my 5th MONTH!!!!
I chose against cross trying as my horse wouldnt lie or walk anyway- he was in too much pain, also 2 vets treating advised it only as a last resort if he started going down.
I have to admit the last 2 weeks i have been putting him in a tiny field as he went from Mr perfect box rester to dangerous and was going to injure himself or someone else.
I knew it was make or brake and thank god it payed off his leg held up to the syco moves he pulled and now he is a much easier happy horse (but still officially on box rest!)
The vet is out tomorrow to re-xray and see how things are going, I really have no clue what he will say as we vary between being sound to not right.

Cant wait for tomorrow though its all getting really quite hard tbh I just want a proper "yes he's ok" or not

I dont think your being cruel at all, your giving her the best chance for recovery and doing it the kindest way you know. I wish her a speedy recovery xxx
 
thanks peeps, Yes it is hard to believe that some have only had six weeks and others five months!! must be the level of damage sustained perhaps. Its a funny old situation really because I cannot wait to see how she is getting on in three weeks time but part of me is dreading the results...again!!!!. How have those that have come out the other side managed the riding aspect of recovery?. I was hoping to start mine this autumn if she is ok. Just biting, tack on and long reining.... I cannot help thinking that I won't ever be able to do the stuff I really wanted to do with her like x country or eventing.
 
I was dreading riding him for the first time as he is normally very spooky and after the school episode I wasnt going to risk going in there but he was fantastic. He had had a couple of weeks in the field to chill though so I went out on a short hack with my friend and he was so well behaved. We just walked for the first couple of weeks and I built it up from there. My main worry was his leg snapping! Daft I know but I remember cringing when we jumped a log for fear of what would happen when we landed. Vet said to treat him as normal and not to worry about that.
 
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