Horse stood on nail - now has 50:50 chance of survival. Experiences??

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SillySausage

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Sorry this will be long, please bear with me. My boyfriend agreed to take on a friend's horse to get fit for the polocrosse season for him as he is currently out working in Africa. Eventually he decided he was not coming home and asked if we would like to keep her for the foreseeable future. A week after getting her she was lunged (first time in 6 months of being on the yard we have used the lunge pen and it is used daily by 5-10 horses) and stood straight on a nail from a shoe (about 3/4 full length). It went straight in her foot, in the 'dip' between her frog and sole. We poulticed straight away and left her as the farrier was coming in the morning.

Farrier came dug around (not our farrier but the owner's), said all was fine and that she was foot sore from the shoeing so to turn her out, which boyfriend did fairly reluctantly and decided to go back in an hour to see how she was. Half an hour later friend calls to say she is hopping lame and that her farrier was there, did we want a second opinion. Said yes and he had a good dig around and found an infection, so off we took her to the vets for antibiotics.

Vet ended up nerve blocking, x ray-ing etc as he said it was in a dodgy place. A lot of her foot was dug out (down to the soft tissue) but he said he thought it would all be ok. We had to stuff her foot with iodine soaked dressings daily and wait until the hole healed up and all would be good. Only to worry if she was exceptionally lame (because of the amount of dressings we had to stuff it with she always started off slight lame until it had compressed down) and not weight bearing. Unfortunately she just wouldn't stay in the stable and I had to turn her out 24/7 as nobody wanted to leave their horses in with her (vet agreed this was fine as she is very calm in the field).

Fast forward two weeks and we went to get her in and she was lying down. When she got up she was horrendously lame and did not improve walking in so we took her back to the vets. Vet got in touch with a specialist in Newbury who requested her for an urgent MRI.

She went in on Thursday morning and said we could pick her up in the evening. At lunch we got a call to say she has put a hole in the bursa tendon and chipped her pedal bone :( Her body is trying to reject the floating bone (there is some kind of pocket around it I cannot remember the name), hence she is so ill, and she has had to stay in to have immuno-suppresent drugs and all sorts of other things to try and stop it. We should know on Monday what the next step is, but if this doesn't work we either operate or have her put down. They have given her a 50:50 chance of pulling through this weekend.

They do say however that incredibly there is no infection, which means not all hope is lost. If she does pull through this we are looking for a year's recovery with the tendon.

I just can't believe it. My boyfriend has wanted this horse for years and loves her to bits, he finally gets the chance to have her and this happens we are totally, totally heartbroken as she is such a sweetheart and has really got under our skin in the short time she's been with us. Not to add - but they also say we will be close to or more likely over our insurance limit of £5000 when this all finishes and we now have another horse to pay livery for who will not be ridden (though of course we will just be glad if she makes it through this).

Does anybody have any experience of any similar injuries? I'm trying to remain very positive and I feel like I'm the only one. She's a tough little Argentinian ex-polo pony and a feisty little one at that, but it seems everyone around me has already given up...
 
This happened to my friends stallion the day the Tour de France came through this country.. oh about 4/5 years ago. She was miles from home and the race officials refused to let a trailer through to get her so she had to lead her boy home. Her farrier refused to visit but ours went out to her and told her to call vet straight away. Vet hospitalised the horse at Bell Equine and he had numerous scans etc. The prognosis was not good as he had similar injuries to yours minus the chipped bone. He had a massive infection ad was on IV antibiotics for a couple of days. Think he was in hospital for two weeks and then came home but the infection flared up and he went back for another week.

Despite the lousy odds he is 100% fine now. Vets all say he was very lucky to have survived as the offending nail entered in the same area as yours and punctured the bursa that protects the joint, which was where the infection occurred. However, it cost her the best part of £2k over the insurance limit, think the bill was around £6800!!

I wish you the very best of luck, a horrible decision to have to make but maybe good to hear about a horse that survived the same and went back to full work and fitness, xx
 
How awful for you and the horse! What a horrible accident to happen to her! I haven't had experiences in similar injuries so can't comment, just wanted to say I hope all goes well for her and that she pulls through x
 
Our Arab mare did the exact same thing last year (& the same spot). We didnt remove the nail, left it in for the vet to remove (vet was with us within half an hour i should add), she was given antibiotics & bandaged up straight away. I wasnt prepared to mess around with it myself...no hoof no horse. She was sore for a while but sound within a month.
Good luck, i hope she comes good.
 
I had a similar incident with my mare, YO was fixing fencing and dropped and old nail from his pocket. It went straight through her frog and came out of her heel.

I got a phone call from another livery saying what had happened and they had pulled the nail out. I loaded her straight into the box and took her up the vets.

Vets put probe in and x-rayed and luckily nail had missed tendons and ligaments by 1mm.

She ended up staying at the vets for about a week on a drip to fight any infection and then she was allowed home but had to be on box rest for 1 month.

She made a full recovery but she didn't have the same damage as your mare has.

Can't remember how much it cost as insurance paid out (and it was about 6 years ago).

Really hope your mare makes a full recovery. Will keep my fingers crossed. Keep us updated
 
my lad trod on a nail (one of those nail in electric fence connectors somehow pulled out) which went through the tip of his frog, through the tendon and navicular bursa. I lost him *BUT* it was due to infection.

I found him within an hour of doing it and he was hospitalised straight away so in your shoes i would be feeling positive.

He had two operations to clean it out (he was only two so wanted to give him every chance) i think he was there a couple of weeks but not sure - bill was initially 6-7 k but the vets did drop the bill to help me out initially quoted within insurance limit.

he had a massive white cell ( i think white?) count straight away so infection had set in straight away.

the vets stressed that the first hurdle was getting past the healing stage without infection, and i did get to have him home before he went down hill again and i decided enough was enough. it turned out that the infection had gotten in further up in the bone where they couldn't get to (was a risk)

Sorry not a happy outcome to report, but i would be feeling hugely hopeful with no infection at this stage.

vets did have one come back to full work with similar ( cant remember full details as that time was a bit of a haze to me)

there is also a huge thread on one of the american horse forums detailing a horses full recovery which i gained alot of strength from. it was a horse health site which a vet ran, was subscription - if that rings any bells for anyone (it was an old thread 4 ish years ago)

Good luck and best wishes to you and your girl
 
Had the same thing with my old boy, 16 years ago ,he trod on a nail and it went into the navicelar bursa ,he was operated on twice at Liphook Hampshire and the vet said he will always be lame and they wanted to put him down .I took him home and he went out in the field for 10 months a bit hoppy but in good cheer and enjoyed life . I woke up at 4am one morning and thought Why cant they de nerve him? I rang the vets at 9am when they opened and he was there the following week and operated on. It took 6 months for full recovery but he was sound enough to do most things, we jumped him but not as much or high as before, but dressage he did really well, you soon get kicked out of the ring if your horse is un level but he never did. He is still being ridden now 16 years later and him being 26 years old ,he does not do much these days but will plod out if we want him to.He enjoys life gallops around the sand school or paddock and plays with the others.One of the best Brain waves I have ever had.But why the Vets did not think of it I never know.We bred him so he has been with us 26 years , he has not been easy horse he was operated for colic at 4, back problems at 7 ,and then the nail at 10, but he has had a good varied career show jumped up to Newcomers, Dressage 75 points ,winning working hunter championships , being placed ameture Hunter Royal Windsor,(while his back was iffy)So good luck, I hope it all goes well.
PM me if I can help.

This is him at 22





Pictures below is a differnt horse
 
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Huge sympathy to you and your OH.

Very sadly this happened to my mare four years ago. We were having a jumping lesson and she landed on a fencing nail buried in the arena surface. It perforated her DDFT, navicular bursa and coffin joint. A mess unfortunately and not a happy story. She wasn't weight bearing and we lost her within a few hours the vet did an X-ray to see how far nail had went in - used rubber probe as they removed it on site. She was a box walker and we were given a very poor prognosis and tbh the box rest she would never have coped with so I had to make the devastating decision to have her PTS.

Freaky story was another girl on here horse had near enough the same injury on the same day. They operated and initially progress was good. However horse developed recurring infections (which was partly my vets rationale for not treating my mare) nine months later this horse was PTS too. It's not really what you want to hear but I guess I'm just saying the warning is infection so if that's at bay then you have a better chance than most.

Good luck hope horse pulls through x x
 
My own horse stood on a nail and has made a full recovery despite much negativity from the vets. A friends horse also had the same injury which ended his racing career but he did come sound and went on to be reasonably successful in dressage. Keep your chin up, they can come back from this.
 
I once led a horse out of his stable to discover he had a 6" nail sticking out of his frog (not a horse shoe nail, a real nail :eek:). The owner pulled it out before the vet got there. It took a long time and it had some damage (its a long time ago I don't know or remember exactly what) but he made a full recovery. I hope yours does.
 
kizzyjerry said:
Sorry not a happy outcome to report, but i would be feeling hugely hopeful with no infection at this stage.
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Yes the vets have said because she has no infection that they are hopeful. I think considering she's been a pain in the bum and has forced me to turn her out 24/7 and the fact her poultice came off in the field once means the worst that could happen in terms of potential infection points have happened. She is at least in the best place now if this does happen.

Obviously if infection does set in the odds become even more stacked against her.
 
Stateside said:
Had the same thing with my old boy, 16 years ago ,he trod on a nail and it went into the navicelar bursa ,he was operated on twice at Liphook Hampshire and the vet said he will always be lame and they wanted to put him down .I took him home and he went out in the field for 10 months a bit hoppy but in good cheer and enjoyed life . I woke up at 4am one morning and thought Why cant they de nerve him? I rang the vets at 9am when they opened and he was there the following week and operated on. It took 6 months for full recovery but he was sound enough to do most things, we jumped him but not as much or high as before, but dressage he did really well, you soon get kicked out of the ring if your horse is un level but he never did. He is still being ridden now 16 years later and him being 26 years old ,he does not do much these days but will plod out if we want him to.He enjoys life gallops around the sand school or paddock and plays with the others.One of the best Brain waves I have ever had.But why the Vets did not think of it I never know.We bred him so he has been with us 26 years , he has not been easy horse he was operated for colic at 4, back problems at 7 ,and then the nail at 10, but he has had a good varied career show jumped up to Newcomers, Dressage 75 points ,winning working hunter championships , being placed ameture Hunter Royal Windsor,(while his back was iffy)So good luck, I hope it all goes well.
PM me if I can help.
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He looks very well! It's funny you should mention the above, it's one of the first things my OH suggested. I've never had any experience with de-nerving so I don't know a lot about it, but his logic made pretty good sense to me.

If we make it through this weekend then I may well PM you to hear your experience, thank you very much.
 
*sprinkles* said:
My own horse stood on a nail and has made a full recovery despite much negativity from the vets. A friends horse also had the same injury which ended his racing career but he did come sound and went on to be reasonably successful in dressage. Keep your chin up, they can come back from this.
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Thank you. I guess I understand the negativity from the vet, last thing we want is for them to tell us she will be fine for us only to go and lose her.

I think we're feeling at such a loss because when we said bye Thursday morning we didn't really fuss over her as such because we thought we would be going back. I can't help but worry because she's a sensitive soul when it comes to the people who handle her, and I'm a bit soft in the head :)
 
I haven't had experience of this, but sending vibes for a good outcome for you and glad to see some positive messages here. It's made me wonder, though, do vets advise that a nail should be left in situ or removed straight away and a poultice applied? You wouldn't want any unqualified person to remove a nail from your foot, but you'd hope to get to hospital for it to be assessed for the likely damage before removal, so isn't the same applicable to horses?
 
My boy did this two years ago, he had stood on something and punctured his ddft and the navicular bursa both of which was infected. I saw the incident and vet was there within the hour though they originally missed it!
He went out to the vets a few days later and they had to flush the infection out ,again giving him a 50/50 chance.
He did not recover as fast as they would like and was 8/10ths lame when I took him home with not really any hope of survival.
He's a difficult horse and not the best to handle at times and had successfully dragged two nurses across the yard whilst on three legs !!
I wondered if he would do the box rest, I brought him numerous stable toys and a mirror to keep him occupied and he seemed fairly happy to stay in , much to my suprise! We where told it would take three of us to change his dressings but in the end I could do it by my self!
He did three months box rest where he went up to 2/10ths lame he then had a bad week and the vet pretty much told me to put him to sleep I asked to give him a couple more weeks which we did and again he came back up to 2/10ths lame on 1sachet of bute.
Thinking this was the best he was going to get we turned him out.
Well I'm always scared to say it touching wood as I write it ! He's gone from strength to strength first coming off the bute totally but he's also now sound :o something we never ever thought would happen! I'm even playing with the idea of getting on him!
He shouldn't be here and I smile just seeing him walk up the feild!!
He's an older boy just turned 20 this year admittly I knew he is a bit of a sensitive boy who Doesn't handle pain well so was willing to give him a bit more time as I could see the improvements daily!
The only thing we were missing is the MRI . So we never really knew how much damage to the tendon there was. The vets had used all the money on flushing the infection.
I did use some herbal remedies on him which seemed to work a treat and he dramatically improved whilst on them and he also wore magnetic boots which seemed to help!
Good luck with your girl sending healing vibes :)
 
So sorry to hear of your horses accident - Are they able to go in and remove the chip of bone as this will cause a lot of problems as it moves around.

Many years ago I lost my yearling - not with a nail in the foot but by being kicked in the hock by a newly shod pony - the nail head punctured her hock joint and infection set in - she was on massive doses of antibiotics - they joint was opened and flushed and filled with crystapen - a crystal form of penicillin. Three months later she was still only sound when on antibiotics and the vet advised that she be PTS. The septic arthritis had set in and with each flare up the bone was being damaged more and more and could he said disintegrate under stress - such as on a turn
 
suffolkmare said:
I haven't had experience of this, but sending vibes for a good outcome for you and glad to see some positive messages here. It's made me wonder, though, do vets advise that a nail should be left in situ or removed straight away and a poultice applied? You wouldn't want any unqualified person to remove a nail from your foot, but you'd hope to get to hospital for it to be assessed for the likely damage before removal, so isn't the same applicable to horses?
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In an ideal world yes. Unfortunately, it happened late on a Friday night and we honestly didn't think it was that far in. The head of the nail was sticking a good 3cm out and we definitely didn't envisage that pretty much the entire nail was still intact!
 
alext said:
I wondered if he would do the box rest, I brought him numerous stable toys and a mirror to keep him occupied and he seemed fairly happy to stay in , much to my suprise! We where told it would take three of us to change his dressings but in the end I could do it by my self!

He's an older boy just turned 20 this year admittly I knew he is a bit of a sensitive boy who Doesn't handle pain well so was willing to give him a bit more time as I could see the improvements daily!
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Ah a stable mirror is the one thing I didn't try that's a consideration. I tried all of the toys in the world but it was as if they weren't there she was so stressy :(

And to your second point - this horse thrives on pain! She is an amazing polocrosse horse, and to anybody who doesn't know the game - it involves a lot of contact and she's brilliant at driving other horses off! She has lumps, bumps and scars everywhere. When we got her, we asked the vets what a large hard bump was on her side and he reckons that years ago she has smashed a rib (most likely with a mallet from her polo days) and it hasn't been sorted! She didn't show lame with this for two weeks, which the vet says is incredible.
 
Ladyinred said:
This happened to my friends stallion the day the Tour de France came through this country.. oh about 4/5 years ago. She was miles from home and the race officials refused to let a trailer through to get her so she had to lead her boy home. Her farrier refused to visit but ours went out to her and told her to call vet straight away. Vet hospitalised the horse at Bell Equine and he had numerous scans etc. The prognosis was not good as he had similar injuries to yours minus the chipped bone. He had a massive infection ad was on IV antibiotics for a couple of days. Think he was in hospital for two weeks and then came home but the infection flared up and he went back for another week.

Despite the lousy odds he is 100% fine now. Vets all say he was very lucky to have survived as the offending nail entered in the same area as yours and punctured the bursa that protects the joint, which was where the infection occurred. However, it cost her the best part of £2k over the insurance limit, think the bill was around £6800!!

I wish you the very best of luck, a horrible decision to have to make but maybe good to hear about a horse that survived the same and went back to full work and fitness, xx
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OP so sorry to here about this :( I do hope he makes a full recovery and the bill is under your insurance limit.

In regards to the race officials refusing to let your trailer through. Not a criticism, but had that have been my boy. I would have ignored them driven down any barriers in my way and dealt with the consequences afterwards. As no race would be more than my boy.
 
I had this happen to an employer's horse in the 70's - now things were very different then. He picked up a long nail on a road near the yard. Immediately went hopping lame - got off to look and was horrified by what I saw. It was a long way in near the point of the frog. I flagged down a car for help, the lorry was brought to get him back to the yard, and the farrier was called. The nail had already been removed, so he dug the area out, it was poulticed and he was put in a clean yard and stable area. He never got an infection and recovered fully! Once he was sound (a few weeks) he was shod with a pad. I now realise he was lucky, but, in those days x rays were rarely done unless you suspected an actual break, and horse hospitals were only for the very rich and I think there were only one or two in the country. So there can be a good outcome. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.
 
Op he to is very very stressy ! He's very attached to my mare so I had to put a grill on his stable just so she could go out ! :o and even then as you said he would ignore all toys and just bounce at the door! The stable mirror changed this behaviour and he improved about 90% enough that I could leave him! He is an extremely friendly horse though and not very bossy so he thought it was a friend and I often found him wickering at it !
Toys wise they are extremely expensive especially when they are on box rest but his favourite is an uncle jimmy licky ball!!
Pain wise which was our main concern really as he was soo lame! Only you know your horse and it sounds like you know her well enough to know when she is in too much pain .
Im not normally one to go against the vets advice but he was bright in himself and I could see the improvements, if he hadn't been bright or interested in life he wouldn't be here now .the vet and farrier had all given up on him and I must admit the day I brought him home from the vets I didn't think he'd make the week!
 
My mare stood on a square head tack. Had to have bute and antibiotics but despite poulticing never got pus out so not sure was infected. She had to be stabled for 10 days and was lame for 6 weeks. The nail went in at the toe about quarter inch back from shoe. She is fine now.
 
My pony stood on a 6 inch nail whilst cantering in a lesson at the beginning of the year. He suddenly went hopping lame and pulled up, when I got off I found a nail had gone into his frog on the left fore about 3/4 of the way up towards the heel. We pulled it out as couldn't move him with it in and some blood came out. We boxed him back home and he seemed OK on it, even managed to buck going onto the lorry. I spoke to the vet who advised tubbing the foot and poulticed overnight to prevent infection. Next morning he was hopping lame so vet was called, he did a bit of digging to see if there was any pus but didn't find any and he was worried about how deep the tract was going. So he put a probe up and x-rayed, the nail had gone all the way up to the pedal bone but luckily hadn't got the navicular bursa so the vet was optimistic if we could prevent infection he should recover. So we had about 2 weeks of tubbing and poulticing and got through a lot of duct tape! Pony then was allowed to be grass walked and turned out and then back into work.

I was incredibly lucky as it could have been a lot more serious. I would also advise to get the vet out as soon as possible even if you think the horse looks OK.
 
alext said:
Op he to is very very stressy ! He's very attached to my mare so I had to put a grill on his stable just so she could go out ! :o and even then as you said he would ignore all toys and just bounce at the door! The stable mirror changed this behaviour and he improved about 90% enough that I could leave him! He is an extremely friendly horse though and not very bossy so he thought it was a friend and I often found him wickering at it !!
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Nightmare aren't they!! Ours is very friendly too, but she latches on to one horse specifically and if that single horse isn't in all hell brakes loose.

I now have a new horse that we picked up yesterday so looks like we will going against everything we've ever done before and will actually be TRYING to get them to become attached to each other to make life easier once she is home!!
 
Phone call from the vet this morning was very positive and said she is now sound in walk so they believe the immuno-suppresants are working.

Hopefully (as long as everything continues in the right direction) we should be able to go and get her tomorrow or Tuesday :) :)
 
Great news! If she's come sound in walk already that sounds good!

Yeah they are a nightmare but my bond with him is so special now! He makes me smile especially when he sees me and comes trotting up the feild!!
If shes clingy a stable mirror may be worth considering, I got mine of eBay it's acrylic so it's not too expensive think about £30 worth it's weight in gold!!
 
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