Fractures - fractured neck - advice needed

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daisycrazy

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Hi, my young horse fractured his C2 vertebra in his neck three weeks ago landing on his face over a fence. There is a detached fragment on the right hand side as well as a longitudinal fracture on the underside of the vertebra extending into the joint with C3. He is amazingly bright about it all, though swollen and his neck does not look like it normally does, not surprisingly. He does not have full movement. We have x-rays.

Our vet has said 6 months box rest, feeding and watering him at head height to stop him moving it too much, wait and see. There is obviously a high chance of the C2 C3 joint developing arthritis and possibly fusing. Apparently it is not a particularly crucial joint for movement, but obviously if there is anything we can do to reduce the problem we want to do it.

I am giving him homeopathic treatment including arnica and symphytum but I haven't any experience of fractures in horses or myself so I'm not sure what I don't know. Someone at Glasgow University saw the x-rays and said not operable, but again I have no idea.

I want to know if there are any particular specialists in this area and also if there are any supplements I should be feeding (e.g. MSM, chondroitin, etc). And anything else I might not have thought of. All help very gratefully received.
 
Thanks. I have heard of horses which have gone on to compete, so I haven't given up hope, but I do want to give him the best chance possible. I will talk to my vet re contacting John Wamsley, thanks for that.

Anybody any ideas on supplements, etc??
 
I know a stallion who did something similar as a youngster, he had a very strong neck when it happened which the vet said helped his recovery. He went on to be a Grade A show jumper who competed internationally but was very wooden to ride and couldn't bend to one side but this never seemed to hinder him at all. He is retired now and I am not sure if he has athritus now but he competed successfully at top level well into his teens without any problems. Hope everything works out for you.
 
Ooh, we did this in lectures today. Apparently many horses make a fantastic recovery from this and go on to compete etc so that you wouldn't know they'd done it. Mostly it's a case of box rest.
 
i would def recommend a good joint supplement, it will aid the healing and help the other joints around as they will be working harder than usual to compensate for the fractured area, you need to feed the one with glucosamine, chondroitin and msm in it as high a dose as possible. If C2 fuses with C3 then function will obv be a little compromised but really its C1/2 thats more important, since he;s young his body will adapt for the change and in time you probably won;t even notice allowing plenty of recovery now will stand him in much better sted for the future so don;t rush things.
 
Thanks for the advice - and the stories of horses going on to compete. My horse had a very strong and supple neck so I can only hope he will compensate. Unfortunately it seems very likely it will heal crooked and he also has whiplash, so just have to wait and see.
 
I bought a horse that had factured it's neck or something similar. We never knew until we spoke to the breeders. When you looked closely his neck had a bump up near his ears. It never affected him and he is still going strong now. Probably not that helpful as I'm not entirely sure what happened.
 
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