fractured splint

[lucy5]

hi i havent posted on here in a while!
my mare has just come back from the vets after 5 nights she has fractured her splint bone in hind leg and has mildy damged the other hind due to a nasty scrap in the field. vet said she is on 1 month complete rest and next month she can be walked after which she will go back for a re x ray
juts wondering if anybody else has encountered a fractured splint? how did you deal with it? and how long was it till they were back in work?thanks for any advice
lucy x

 

[eventersrus]

My event mare fractured her splint bone she had about a month in then turned out for the whole winter,l had it re xrayed and it was healing but not as quickly as l hoped,but it did heal and went on to event as normal

 

[hollibobs]

My horse fractured his splint bone last August, after lots of messing around with vets he eventually had it operated on in January of this year. He had two chips of bone displaced, one of which was very near the suspensory ligament I was told, therefore the opertation was best.

He came back into work in February, just walking out in hand to start with. He has evented and Showjumped this season and has made a complete recovery.

 

[Halfstep]

Mine fractured the medial splint on a front leg. There were a number of bone chips so he had the surgery. He was at the vets hospital for five days after the operation, but was totally sound the whole time after he had it done. He had around three weeks box rest and started work again two months after the operation. He does have quite a large splint-like lump where the bone has calcified but no scar at all.

 

[Charlie77]

My boy was kicked and fractured his out side splint bone and had a crack through the inside splint bone, (I just thank god that the horse that kicked him had no back shoes on) He was on total box rest for a months & was on box rest for 3 months it was supposed to be 4 (I think this was 3 years ago now) but we made a tiny paddock for him 14 x 14 so he couldent run round but was out & could see things going on & eat some grass he was only put out for a couple of houres a day while Dad could keep an eye on him.

Cutting a long story short i bought him back in to work with no problems, i decied that i would not jump him any more though unless in a sand school, A year latter i had to take him to a specialist vet at New Maket (He had suspected ring bone, which it turnes out he didnt have!) any way while i was there they re - x rayed the broken bone & The Vet said not to worry about it and that it would now be stronger than it was before! So we went back to jumping & it never did cause a probelm,

Infact the vet said they can function perfactly well with out a splint bone & in some cases they will remove the whole bone, i think the good thing with my boy was that the fracture was clean i think you get more probles if you have chips or splinters of bone. 3 years on he has just been diagnosed with arthritis of the coffin joint! I just have the worst luck!!

 

[lizzieb]

My horse fractured his splint bone on inside of near fore in April 2005. He had 6 weeks off then brought him back into work slowly and he evented again late August and has been sound with it since. When it first happened there was a massive lump but now it's shrunk so much even I struggle to find where it is!

 

[emma_lg]

My 19yr old mare fractued her splint bone on front leg by a kick from another horse, 10 years ago.
She had 6 weeks resting, then walking in hand/going out...re x-rayed, then upped her going out and started to bring her back to work. It healed very well and there has always been a bony lump on outside of leg where the re-growth of bone. Her leg was split open by the kick but no scar left. Also, in the middle of all that I had to move her to new yard...which went fine despite my nerves and worrying!!!
Never had any problems ...did dressage, jumping, hacking, etc...

 

[Andy66]

My mare fractured a splint bone when she was 4. I was very worried about it because she was racing bred and hadn't yet started her jumping career. So long as there is no other damage to anything else such as a suspensory ligament the prognosis is very good. My mare had about 2 to 3 months box rest and was fine. She went on to race and win 5 races. The splint bone never bothered her at all. We do now have her on Premier Flex which is a high spec equine joint supplement.