Fractured Splint Bone

Yes! pm me if you like. Oskar fractured his splint bone (inside near fore) in June 2007. He did it being a twat in the stable and smashed a pre-existing splint, shattering the bone. Idiot pony.

TBH there wasn't much swelling or lameness, far less that I would have thought, but the x-ray showed a clear fracture. He had surgery under a GA to remove the bone fragments and basically to remove the rest of the splint bone that wasn't yet fused to the cannon bone.

The surgery was uneventful, and he made a full recovery. He was on box rest for around three weeks, followed by controlled walking and turn out in a small pen. He was back in work in september 2007, and touch wood it has never bothered him since. Originally he had a big lump but no scar, now the lump is hardly visible.
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Yes - my old boy, now sadly passed on was kicked and had his off hind splint bone smashed to smithereens.

He had to have it surgically removed, followed by 1 months complete box rest, 1 month leading out in hand then 1 month being ridden every day before being allowed out into a small paddock for a couple of weeks and then back to normal.

I would add that he was 21 years of age at the time and still competing regularly - he went on to do so again at the same level until he retired.

Had the skin not been broken and splint bone just fractured and not smashed then the vet said box rest alone would probably have been enough.
 

Thats a happy ending then
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And very reassuring.

My mare has two fractures in ther splint bone on her left hind and will be going to Newmarket to have it removed.
She's not been lame at all but there is abit of swelling, not much though.
When you say controlled walking, do you mean in hand?
 
Hi - my mare was kicked while at stud and ended up at Rossdales having half her splint bone removed under GA whilst pregnant. Recovered really well, even to the point where she was a complete cow to load, kept leaping off the ramp and everything!! And this was just a week after the surgery. As she was living out, I made up a small pen of electric fencing and she did her box rest in that. I then just kept making the 'pen' a little bigger and eventually she was turned out. I have to say, the healing process was amazing, so neat once the staples came out (after about 10 days I think) - to the point where you would never even of known it was there. She's as sound as a pound on it and has no lump or anything at all to show it ever happened. I hope that helps a bit.
 
Yes, walking in hand is not fun! but the good news is the prognosis is quite good for an injury like this, provided you have a good surgeon of course! Oskar's possibly could have been treated conservatively with just (lots of) box rest, but as he's a competition horse and quite young we decided to go for the surgery and I'm glad we did.
 

Louisesb, that is fab. Thank you. I feel really reassured now.
Letting her do her box rest in the field is a fab idea, my mare is a complete, well, mare! To keep in, she will go mad and possibly kill me in the prosscess. What a good idea.
Im feeling much more positive about it all now.
Thank you every one.
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Has anyone any experience of this? If so, what did you/vet do?

[/ QUOTE ]my mare fractured her splint bone in july and had surgery to remove all the bone fragments and the remaining bone that was not fused. vet said it was the worst fracture he had seen in all the years of doing this type of surgery. she had 1 week in hospitail then came home did 6 weeks of box rest which was a nightmare as he had to end up putting her into the sm allest stable as she was buck etc in her box and she was on a hay only diet.she then done 1 month in jhand walk out then. got sedated and put into a small well fenced paddock which shje jumped out of oin day one and was in the feild with the rest of the horses. nearly gave me complete heart failure but she was ok and has been out by day every since and has started to be ridden in walk and slowly building it up and the vet was out last week to do jabs and i asked him to give her a once over and he asked what leg it was so it must be well healed.
 
hear are a few pictures 2 weeks post surgery
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<a href="http://s321.photobucket.com/albums/nn368/tikino1997/?action=view&current=36f5981a.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i321.photobucket.com/albums/nn368/tikino1997/36f5981a.jpg" border="0" alt="rosie"></a>
 
good grief! That's a HUGE incision/scar! My horse had only the most tiny incision area and no scarring at all, but i guess his fracture wasn't so bad!

I suppose the splint bone doesn't actually DO much (other than cause problems/get fractured) - the second and forth metacarpals/metatarsals are left overs from evolution from when horses had toes!
 
yeh it was a hugh scar but it was the only way as her splibnt bone was totaly smashed up and to be honest it was a better outcome than i though going with the state of the xrays
 
10 years or so ago we had a mare who was kicked and fractured her splint bone behind. It was a straightforward fracture and no surgery was needed. After a brief spell of rest and building up her exercise again as others have said she was completely fine and carried on working at and beyond the previous level.

Good luck but this is one injury that you probably don't have to worry about in even edium term.
 
hi my horse fractured his splint bone when he was 7yrs old ( in a hind leg) the 'loose bit' was removed under G/A . the only problem i had was durring healing he developed proud flesh which had to be trimmed and he wore a pressure bandage to discourage more proud flesh developing. he has never suffered as a result of this injury and is still sound and in work still at the age of 28yrs
 
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