Guess the problem

Fractured accessory carpal bone, back of the knee? (Probably not even a leg x-ray! 😄)

Spot on! Not many people realise the gap in the round bone shouldn't be there as they see that it's a joint and assume its just another one of the collection of bones. Because this was a vertical fracture we couldn't pin it. Plus the horse was 11yo and due to retire from racing so it just brought that date forward a few months. It healed absolutely fine.
 
This one will confuse you lot. Its really not obvious where or what is going on with this one but it was a hefty injury. The horse did come back to race and win again in time though so a perfectly fixable one.
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot_20230724-181055_Gallery.jpg
    Screenshot_20230724-181055_Gallery.jpg
    193.2 KB · Views: 109
The little line up high on cannon is a bit of a red herring, I think it’s a bit of a false artefact. It’s a fracture of the distal end of the splint bone. You can see the ‘button’ down at the bottom of the image hanging out next to the cannon bone and not with the rest of the splint.

No treatment but rest and hope the button would reabsorb, which it presumably did as didn’t cause any further issues.
 
View attachment 118586View attachment 118587

I don’t have undoctored images of this but this is the most random equine diagnostic image I’ve got I think. Anyone like to guess the imaging modality and what the arrow is pointing at?
My arabi fractured his pedal bone in an almost similar place but his was just a slight line starting at the edge going into the middle, he was hardly lame in a straight line worse on a circle with offending leg on the inside.

First vet missed the fracture he had 12 weeks in a cast on box rest and it was completely healed.
 
Gutted I missed the condylar fracture one, I was ready with my lag screw fixation as the answer!

Anyone who is interested in cool fracture repairs, I highly recommend the exceptional Dr Patty Hogan who is a NY based orthopaedic specialist.

Edit: Deleted the image but I do recommend her Twitter page. Not only does she perform fetlock arthrodesis but also complex fracture repairs where horses can return to ridden work (she also doesn‘t just treat racehorses!)

Just for you - a special one! If I can find the video of one of these being done I will post it. Not sure if I do though.
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot_20230725-065600_WhatsApp.jpg
    Screenshot_20230725-065600_WhatsApp.jpg
    135.5 KB · Views: 91
  • Screenshot_20230725-065612_WhatsApp.jpg
    Screenshot_20230725-065612_WhatsApp.jpg
    286.7 KB · Views: 95
Just for you - a special one! If I can find the video of one of these being done I will post it. Not sure if I do though.

That’s quite an impressive one! I’m assuming they used standing surgery for that?

Have you had any with a PSB fracture that they’ve fixed with surgical fixation? Or any slab fractures to the carpus they’ve used lag screw fixation on?
 
That’s quite an impressive one! I’m assuming they used standing surgery for that?

Have you had any with a PSB fracture that they’ve fixed with surgical fixation? Or any slab fractures to the carpus they’ve used lag screw fixation on?

Yeah all of ours are done standing.

We have only had 2 psb fractures in all my time there. One was shattered so was pts. That was Big Bad Boris. The other was left to heal by itself. I have an xray of that one, haven't posted it yet. We didn't do anything with it. Nor do we interfere with knees. We screwed one once and it literally screwed the horse so we haven't done it again. We leave them to heal themselves.
 
I’m going to guess fractured pelvis. But I’m guessing.

Yup. Where the yellow line is it should be a natural curve. Instead there is a step where the pelvis has broken and displaced. It's really not an obvious one unless you know you were looking at a pelvis - which hopefully none of you lot ever have to!
 
We're at a disadvantage here because if you take an xray or do an ultrasound, presumably you know which part of the body you're aiming at. :D
 
IMG_2937.jpg

I have access to lots, but I’ll stick to one of my own horse. It’s probably easy, but only if you know what it’s supposed to look like!
 
Omg I just realised whatever I just marked goes all the way up the leg 🙈

It does. So this horse started off with a splint bone fracture. At their 4 week xray check up we saw the horizontal crack all the way across the bone too. If that had moved or displaced the horse would be dead. Luckily for the horse we spotted it when we did, wrapped it back up for a few weeks, rehabbed and they raced on for another couple of years. It's a really weird rare one as they rarely crack horizontally without it being fatal. It wasn't seen at he first xray as you don't always see the full extent of the damage for a few days. So it will have been sitting their waiting to show.
 
It does. So this horse started off with a splint bone fracture. At their 4 week xray check up we saw the horizontal crack all the way across the bone too. If that had moved or displaced the horse would be dead. Luckily for the horse we spotted it when we did, wrapped it back up for a few weeks, rehabbed and they raced on for another couple of years. It's a really weird rare one as they rarely crack horizontally without it being fatal. It wasn't seen at he first xray as you don't always see the full extent of the damage for a few days. So it will have been sitting their waiting to show.
I was expecting the horse to be pts or retirement with that xray, that looked quite bad. I am glad the horse was okay at the end

How did it manage that? Horses being horses?
 
Top