Fractured pedal bone help

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tinybear

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ok to cut a long story short, my pony is out on loan and i have been told she may have a fractured pedal bone and in such will be returning to me.
obviously i will be contacting my vet and getting there advise and help. but at this point it's still being investigated by the loaners vets so we don't know for sure. would the vet be able to tell to some extent how she did it?

if it is a fracture i believe the recovery rate is very good, and from what i've read it involves a lot of box rest and then thereafter light turnout. in more serious cases a special shoe is put on for the hoof to be more stable?

now my main concern is how do i get her back? it's about a 2-2&half hour journey. will she be fit for travel and if so how would that work?

it's a very distressing time and at the moment and i'm sick with worry.
 
I think the vet will be the best person to advise on traveling but I would expect it should be fine if they are used to traveling and you take care to give a secure footing for the journey, probably a thick layer of shavings on the floor and it may be best that she has a shoe on or something to offer support, pedal bone fractures are usually fairly stable due to the structure of the hoof being the best support.

As for how it happened unless the loaners can remember a specific incident it may have happened at any time and just been a very unlucky misplaced step with more serious consequences than normal, the recovery tends to be good if it is a simple fracture as the foot acts as a cast to aid recovery.
I hope all goes well and if I were you I would be contacting the loaners asking them to ensure their vet communicates with you and your vet gets all the history sent over immediately so you are kept fully informed and in the loop, you may need to speak to the insurance co as well to make sure all expenses continue to be covered, you may find some will pay for professional transport, NFU certainly pay certain costs so it is worth looking into.
 
I know it's easy to say but try not to worry until you get the pony xrayed and know for sure that it is a fracture. In my experience both farriers and vets when presented with a horse obviously lame with a foot injury will say it's either a abcess or a pedal bone fracture. In most cases it's the former.
 
I've had a horse with a broken pedal bone many years ago (mid 1980's). She did it eventing when she put a half step in before a palisade fence and hit the top of it hard. We travelled her twice by trailer (an old wooden one) to the vets. The first time was fine; it was thought that she just had pedal ostitis. I bred a foal off her, but after weaning she was still lame, so we returned her to the vet. Have to say that this time she wasn't stable in it, but by that time her pedal bone (which we hadn't previously realised was broken) had repaired itself but had worn away part of the navicular bone.

These days vet science and farriery is more advance when dealing with such things as pedal bone breaks, and I'm sure there will be some way of stabilising the hoof prior to travelling. I think you will probably find she is OK to travel, especially if she has support in the trailer/vehicle.
 
At this point there is no diagnosis, so don't panic. A broken pedal bone is a hard injury to do, it requires a huge blunt trauma to cause it, since it's encased in a fantastic shock absorber (the hoof). It's possible, but not likely that this is the real issue, if it is, it's the one and only condition where I would fit a bar shoe to a horse, to prevent any flexion and therefore to assist the bone knitting together.
Fingers crossed for you that it is more simple once diagnosis is made.
 
vet I worked for back in the the early 80s screwed a pedal bone back together. He used x rays and mathematics to work it all out on paper then went in blind using a drill. It was boring to watch but incredibly the horse made a full recovery and returned to the track.
 
My horse was X rayed as the vet suspected a pedal bone break - actually it turned out to be an abcess that was tracking round his foot. When I had a fit at the possible fracture she was very optomistic, she said they fit a circle shoe to stabilise it and box rest for xx weeks.

I know one horse that broke her pedal bone when catching the lip of a reinforced ditch at a cross country training session.
She did come back sound, but she didn't event again.
 
My horse fractured both his hind pedal bones in a nasty accident in a trailer two years ago. He ripped open both his hind hooves resulting in so much loss of tissue that you could see the pedal bone inside. He contracted infections in both feet, spent 10 days in hospital, 4 months on complete box rest and then was allowed limited time in a small stable sized field. He was shod with reverse shoes and then egg bar shoes behind and I travelled him to Newmarket once a month to have this done. He travelled on the advice of the vet and he never had a problem. To cut a long story short, the broken parts of his pedal bones eventually dropped out through the holes in his hooves once the pedal bone had regenerated itself sufficiently. His feet have healed without any problems and he is now back in full work-dressage, jumping, hacking and winning! As others have said, speak to your vet to get proper advice but hopefully Ted's story will given you hope as his was definitely not straight forward!
 
Street_Skill said:
My horse fractured both his hind pedal bones in a nasty accident in a trailer two years ago. He ripped open both his hind hooves resulting in so much loss of tissue that you could see the pedal bone inside. He contracted infections in both feet, spent 10 days in hospital, 4 months on complete box rest and then was allowed limited time in a small stable sized field. He was shod with reverse shoes and then egg bar shoes behind and I travelled him to Newmarket once a month to have this done. He travelled on the advice of the vet and he never had a problem. To cut a long story short, the broken parts of his pedal bones eventually dropped out through the holes in his hooves once the pedal bone had regenerated itself sufficiently. His feet have healed without any problems and he is now back in full work-dressage, jumping, hacking and winning! As others have said, speak to your vet to get proper advice but hopefully Ted's story will given you hope as his was definitely not straight forward!
Click to expand...

Blimey....
 
My pony recovered and came sound after box rest, then restricted space turnout.
We have no idea how he did it
He was sound when I brought him in to his stable at night and on 3 legs by morning.
My friends horse also fractured a pedal bone in the field. After months of box rest he is now back in full work.
So don't despair !
 
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