Healing vibes! Splint bone break.

[Bav]

I'll try my best to condense this, hahaha!
So yesterday at 2pm I had a call from the yard to say my horse had been kicked on the outside of her near hind, they'd had a look and could only see blood (she's a grey so often looks worse then it is) no swelling and she was walking ok, but just to let me know. I got there an hour later and it had ballooned but I could only see a very small wound.
I've had a horse that broke its splint bone before and I had that niggling feeling. Freakily it's in the exact same position on the exact same leg as the last one!! I cold hosed, which brought the swelling down, conferred with my YO and decided to put some manuka honey on the wound, cooling gel on the rest of the leg and to pad and bandage and reassess in the morning.
Well, this morning I undressed it and it stank. So I immediately rang the vets and told them to bring the x-ray machine as I just knew by then what it was.

Well I was right, two breaks to her splint bone. It's broken like a partially opened door, with the hinge (or so to speak) also broken. She rang to speak to the big boss of the practise as my first concern was it displacing and her requiring surgery. She throughly cleaned and dressed the wound, started her straight on antibiotics and Danilon and went off to show the big guy the x-rays, as he said that they don't like to refer immediately for surgery with the splint bone if the chunk hasnt totally become dislodged. At this point I'm pretty chill (ish) because I know the prognosis is often good with the splint bone.
However there was shadowing to a part of the cannon bone that none of us could decide either way what precisely it was so then I'm balling like a child.

About half an hour ago I had a voicemail to say she and the big bloke have declared her cannon bone perfectly fine, and that they're going to give her a week to see if her splint will knit itself back together, re x-ray and then if she needs surgery then go from there and vice Versa.

I'm expecting (from memory) lots of stressful box rest, she's not even allowed out her stable to muck out presently. And probably more tears (of joy or worry at the prospect of knocking her out and chucking her on the surgery table)
But here's my question, now I'm older and wiser and as much as this may sound bad, she means and is worth more to me then my old horse all them years ago and there seems to be more about that could help so I want to get this recovery 100% right! Are they any supplements to promote bone regrowth, would magnetic boots be good for when/if we reach that point further along in recovery?
I'm so angry at my pis* poor luck at having two horses to break their legs, but horses are horses and there's nowhere to direct my anger.

I have just spent £80+ on premier equine xtra protect turnout boots though as the break is above where her normal turnout (just brushing boots) boots are.

Sigh, just in time for Christmas!
Soggy Malteasers on offer as my 1 year old has sucked them and put then back in the box...

 

[Tyssandi]

I'll try my best to condense this, hahaha!
So yesterday at 2pm I had a call from the yard to say my horse had been kicked on the outside of her near hind, they'd had a look and could only see blood (she's a grey so often looks worse then it is) no swelling and she was walking ok, but just to let me know. I got there an hour later and it had ballooned but I could only see a very small wound.
I've had a horse that broke its splint bone before and I had that niggling feeling. Freakily it's in the exact same position on the exact same leg as the last one!! I cold hosed, which brought the swelling down, conferred with my YO and decided to put some manuka honey on the wound, cooling gel on the rest of the leg and to pad and bandage and reassess in the morning.
Well, this morning I undressed it and it stank. So I immediately rang the vets and told them to bring the x-ray machine as I just knew by then what it was.

Well I was right, two breaks to her splint bone. It's broken like a partially opened door, with the hinge (or so to speak) also broken. She rang to speak to the big boss of the practise as my first concern was it displacing and her requiring surgery. She throughly cleaned and dressed the wound, started her straight on antibiotics and Danilon and went off to show the big guy the x-rays, as he said that they don't like to refer immediately for surgery with the splint bone if the chunk hasnt totally become dislodged. At this point I'm pretty chill (ish) because I know the prognosis is often good with the splint bone.
However there was shadowing to a part of the cannon bone that none of us could decide either way what precisely it was so then I'm balling like a child.

About half an hour ago I had a voicemail to say she and the big bloke have declared her cannon bone perfectly fine, and that they're going to give her a week to see if her splint will knit itself back together, re x-ray and then if she needs surgery then go from there and vice Versa.

I'm expecting (from memory) lots of stressful box rest, she's not even allowed out her stable to muck out presently. And probably more tears (of joy or worry at the prospect of knocking her out and chucking her on the surgery table)
But here's my question, now I'm older and wiser and as much as this may sound bad, she means and is worth more to me then my old horse all them years ago and there seems to be more about that could help so I want to get this recovery 100% right! Are they any supplements to promote bone regrowth, would magnetic boots be good for when/if we reach that point further along in recovery?
I'm so angry at my pis* poor luck at having two horses to break their legs, but horses are horses and there's nowhere to direct my anger.

I have just spent £80+ on premier equine xtra protect turnout boots though as the break is above where her normal turnout (just brushing boots) boots are.

Sigh, just in time for Christmas!
Soggy Malteasers on offer as my 1 year old has sucked them and put then back in the box...

Sorry to hear this, my mare fractured her splint bone in 19 pieces due to a kick, (which is why we wont put new horses straight out into the herd) She went on to make a full recovery and do sponsored rides, never troubled her again, though at first there was a risk of the hock being infected sue to how close it was

 

[littledonkey]

My daughter's horse badly fractured his pelvis & damaged his hip 3 years ago we fed him the herb comfrey (commonly known as knitbone) we don't know if it helped his healing but he is sound & doing all we hoped for.

 

[Bav]

Sorry to hear this, my mare fractured her splint bone in 19 pieces due to a kick, (which is why we wont put new horses straight out into the herd) She went on to make a full recovery and do sponsored rides, never troubled her again, though at first there was a risk of the hock being infected sue to how close it was

Argh, it's such a pain. Knowing her she probably instigated it with her face pulling and smarminess. It's just so sucky!

My daughter's horse badly fractured his pelvis & damaged his hip 3 years ago we fed him the herb comfrey (commonly known as knitbone) we don't know if it helped his healing but he is sound & doing all we hoped for.

Oh that's interesting, thankyou! I've never heard of it before! Off to google it now!

 

[Slightlyconfused]

My daughter's horse badly fractured his pelvis & damaged his hip 3 years ago we fed him the herb comfrey (commonly known as knitbone) we don't know if it helped his healing but he is sound & doing all we hoped for.

We fed our ex racer who had decided to pick a fight with a electric fence and lost so degloved his rh down to his cannon bone as it's supposed to help heal bone and soft tissue faster.

 

[Fiona]

Our loan Welsh pony was x rayed last summer for a hind leg lameness, and was found to have an old splint bone fracture. He came sound in about a week, so no further investigation but the x rays were really quite amazing. Top was complete, bottom was complete but there was a gap where the middle of the bone should have been.

Must have been quite a major injury at the time, but apart from that once where he banged it in lorry he's never taken a lame step with us...

Fiona

 

[Clannad48]

Our 17H DWB mare fractured her off hind splint bone in 5 places in October 2010 (picture in one of the albums on my profile), we were told by the vet we could either have the broken off bits of splint bone removed or to go for bandaging and box rest, so we went for four months of box rest which as you are aware is quite stressful. I think the worst thing was when we were allowed to hand graze her - she took off at full gallop, went up a long hard track, galloped back and jumped over a very tall mounting block, then stood and grazed calmly as if nothing had happened. We got the vet out straight away and he declared that she was made of stronger stuff than we thought. Since then she has competed at all disciplines and last year was completing 64km Endurance competitions. Yes it will be a long hard road, but like us the majority of the boxrest will be in the winter whch, depending on your grazing, can be a good thing.

Good luck

 

[Happycat]

My horse broke his off hind, lateral splint bone due to a kick in the field in March. My vet initially hoped it would knit but unfortunately six weeks later it moved slightly and he had to go for lag screw fixation surgery - his was a proximal break.
Is it the distal end of splint that your horse has fractured? Better prospect of full recovery if so.
My boy was on box rest until June then allowed to walk in hand several times a day (it was like flying a kite). Eventually he was allowed out in postage stamp sized paddock - I expect you've been through very similar with your previous horse.
I bought comfrey and various other things eg German chamomile for antibacterial properties, barley grass for immune system etc from naturally animals online. That said, being lower leg it has taken all year to heal and bone will continue to remodel for quite some time yet. Ive been using magnetic boots too - I'll do anything that may help.... At the very least, they're warming up his leg and increasing blood flow to the damaged area.
My horse has only just come sound and I'm able to start slowly bringing him into work in the new year, so as I'm sure you know, it can be a long slog. I really hope you and your horse cope ok with the box rest and wish you a less complicated and speedier recovery than mine has had.

 

[milliepops]

my physio gave my mare laser therapy when she broke a splint bone.
never had any issues with *that* leg since

 

[SO1]

My pony had a broken splint bone in 2012 and it took 7 months to him back into full work but vet said at that point you would never know he had an issue and he would have passed a 5 stage vetting it healed so well.

If I remember rightly he had 10 weeks of box rest with a large bandage on and then started going on the horse walker gradually building up the time and then about week 16 he started having a bit of turn out 5 minutes at time gradually increasing and was able to start being ridden in walk.

He is 14 now and still does everything he used to do before the bone got broken including jumping. I think the rehabbing once healed is important when they have had a long time on box rest to build up the strength again.

 

[Louby]

Im going through the same atm. I'd had my new horse 6 weeks and everything was going great until the field bully was turned out into the herd and ran my poor horse ragged, kicking her too. She was very lame but thankfully had no wound but a xrays shown a fractured splint bone, right at the top near the hock. My vet said to turn her out as box rest can often cause more problems if the horse stresses. So she had a couple of weeks field rest (in a field with the oldies) and she came sound. It wasnt displaced thankfully but she also had abs as a precaution and the horsey metacam as a pain killer/anti inflam. The problem Im left with is a large swelling just above the hock on the inside which has now gone smaller but spread to the side of the hock. It was scanned yesterday and shows trauma, common with a strain, which we presume is her frantically running away from the bully, there is fibrous scar tissue forming which the vet is concerned will join and potentially restrict her movement. She is having a steroid injection next week in an attempt to release the pressure as its in the tendon sheath and hopefully to remove the swelling. Then its physio too. I dont think straight forward splint bone fractures usually cause an issue but fingers crossed all goes well for your horse.

 

[Bav]

My horse broke his off hind, lateral splint bone due to a kick in the field in March. My vet initially hoped it would knit but unfortunately six weeks later it moved slightly and he had to go for lag screw fixation surgery - his was a proximal break.
Is it the distal end of splint that your horse has fractured?.

It's the lateral near hind pretty much just over halfway up, I don't know the technical jargon, but am waiting to receive the e-mails of the x-ray as I'm so nosey so hoping to post them on here. It's not broke entire through the bone it's more like made an an outer chunk break off. My gut reaction, and my first response on viewing was that it is quite displaced and the bottom part of the chunk has come away quite a bit but the top bit is still aligned. I'm hoping this makes some sense? It's like somebody has partially opened a door.

I might try and get hold of some magnetic boots. I know it's going to take looonnngg, and I never wanted to do anything big or wonderful but was hoping to eventually find brave pants big enough to see me do BE80. I don't think I've got it in me to spend money every month on a pretty field ornament and I do believe she's the kind of horse that enjoys her job. Jeeess I'm dreading the box rest!! Flying a kite is going to be an appropriate description!! 😂

Small mercies in that the 'big boss vet' has called and the cannon bone is perfectly fine, re x-ray in 1-2 weeks and see how it looks and go from there. At least it's winter and like another poster has said, it's inevitable that they'll all be on restricted turnout shortly anyways.

 

[Happycat]

My boy's was JUST under his hock. It was a communited fracture - fractured into about 5 or 6 pieces but not displaced initially. He had a Robert Jones bandage and strict box rest, Danilon and karidox antibiotic as a slight laceration and concern of bone infection. Once the lower part of the bone moved - and it was just a fraction, it caused him a lot of pain and that was when surgery was the only option.
They did an incredible job. The incision wasn't even an inch in length and only two staples. He was bandaged from coronet band to practically his stifle. That was to prevent too much movement.
He's doing well now though - it's 9 months later, he's recently become sound again and has been walking out regularly in hand and has daily turnout in small paddock. Vet and surgeon now want him worked under saddle in walk for very short periods. I've been told that there is some bone proliferation showing on recent xray, so we could well be heading in the arthritic / spavin direction. He's only 9 but who's to say that wouldn't have happened anyway and clinically he's not showing any signs just yet, time will tell. I'm just being very positive, have followed instructions, walked him endlessly, had the Physio out to see him often and fingers crossed we get back to doing at least some of the things that we used to.
It certainly hasn't been my favourite year, let's put it that way!