Injury (bone chip) in comp horse

N

Navalgem

Well-Known Member
Joined
28 April 2007
Messages
1,456
Location
Lancs
www.addienasporthorses.com
Anyone any experience of this? How long does it take to recover? It's a 2mm chip at the top of his pastern (front) luckily it's not near the joint but horribly swollen and hot, he's on bute and walks (he's not good with box rest which is how he got the chip - was on box rest for suspected suspensory branch damage and kicked/climbed the walls.) I've to ring vet in 3 weeks with an update and we'll see how we go from there. Just wondered if anyone could shed any light?
 
Hi this could get long sorry! this is just my experience of a bone chip but this wasn't in the pastern!! ....my horse had one but his was at the back/side of elbow the vets think he had always had it but it had not lifted free untill we found it (i took him in because he was lame on it for the first time ) because he was lame we had to make the decision to remove it. he was on box rest and cross tied for ages think in total about 6 months box rest with little walks then i turned him out took a long time to get him back he used to drag his foot (they had to go through the muscle betwwen elbow and knee) eventually after doing poles etc to try get him to use it he jumped out of his litte paddock and took off which actually helped because he loosened the leg off. he came back to ridden work and even did one event which he flew round but after that he started stopping....this horse would never stop and lived for xc he was stopping at silly stuff small sj etc...but i had entered him for highclere all ready so i took him... think adrenaline got him round the sj but he stopped dead at the first xc fence! i saw the vet after and he said that with the op he had had sometimes they get lesions on the leg which never heal...he wouldn't of been a happy hacker so i retired him he lives out with our youngster now .
I think alot of his problem was that they had to go through the muscle to get to it and he was such a sensitive horse as well....like i said i have no experience of one in the pastern and would have thought it would be easier to get to it it ever had to be removed. hope he recovers quickly :)
 
I'm sure there are loads of different possible outcomes of bone chips; depending on location, size etc etc. Small ones often can be completely removed with no lasting effects.
My experience was of a very large chip (2-3cm) off the tibia below the stifle. This was treated with cross-tying but was operated on to remove as not enough improvement shown.
The mare is now sound in the field (one year on) and is in foal. I am still hopeful that she will be able to come back into work, probs. she won't go back to intermediate eventing but you never know.
I was just happy that the bone chip was removed successfully and I am able to give her as long as is needed for the tissue damage to repair in her leg.
 
Only experienced bone chips in hocks, on two different horses.
First took about 12 weeks to get back into work, second more like 5/6 months.
As ASD has said different size chips, different places and different horses will have different outcomes. Fortunatley neither of ours were operated on, both had an excellent outcome and went back to full work and competing.
Good luck with your boy, hope he recovers fully and very soon.
 
My horse as a youngster had a chip around his fore knee joint, he came in one day from the field very lame and with a knee the size of a melon, had him on box rest for a week or so on bute whilst the swelling went down and xrays confirmed the chip. He probably had about 3 months off in total, with xrays during that time. The vets decided not to operate and later xrays confirmed that it had dissolved.

We just built him up gradually as you would with any horse who has had this amount of time off, and it hasn't affected him since. (It was about 4 years ago).
 
There really are too many factors to give a definitive answer. As above, size, location, reason for the chip, other damage to the joint etc. can all affect the outcome.

It's standard practice to get competition horses fully xrayed for vettings in North America and a fair number show chips that would not have been investigated for any clinical reason. I've ridden horses that presumably have had them for years, and sold horses that had them on the basis of "before and after" x-rays combined with a sound horse, doing a job. In other cases the chips seem to resolve themselves, especially in young horses still modeling bone.

Sometimes the chip moves and can cause problems intermittently (I have both a knee and a finger similarly afflicted). Sometimes the horse can go on with them for a bit and suddenly have problems. Sometimes the problem appear during the formation of the chip.

I have to say, I am a lot more leery of a chip and a lame horse that doesn't resolve fairly quickly, and haven't seen too many lasting "cures" of that long term sort of problem without surgery. Yes, you can calm the inflammation surrounding whatever reason the horse has the chip in the first place, but if the process is ongoing or the chip is actually in a place to cause a problem, rest may. Many people I know who have had horses diagnosed with chips (even ones with no outward symptoms) opt to have them removed fairly early in the process, as it's a relatively simple procedure. TB people seem to take them out as a matter of course and don't even seem that fussed about it! I suspect sport people are going in the same direction. (Which does mean, of course, if you use a horse for breeding you have no way of knowing if it ever had them or not . . .)

I've managed older horses with "active" chips with injections, anti-inflammatories etc. but obviously there are costs to that plan, too, and I'm not sure I'd start it on a young horse, especially one I hoped to compete, when a more aggressive course might effect a full cure.

Of course, the traditional way of dealing with OCD lesions/chips was to cut back the horse's food and wait it out. Clearly at least some horses did come sound with this regime, which would suggest there are horses treated now that would have got better anyway. Personally, I'd give a horse 6 months to sort itself before I'd do anything invasive, but then I tend to err on the side of caution.
 
Last edited:
My tb mare had this problem this time last year she was on box rest following surgeryto remove the chip.
The bone chip was on her foreleg on the cannon bone, showed up on x-rays and ultrasound on Friday and was removed on the Monday, she was then on 8 weeks box rest and then on field rest for a further 4 weeks. She came back into work and has been fine. (although she has aged more this last year but she's not a young horse or a good healer from a previous op).

She wasnt lame with the bone chip but there was a wound that wouldnt heal hence the op. They said we could try poultice to remove it but surgery was recommended and far quicker as if the poulticing hadnt worked she'd have to have surgery anyway so we went with vets advice.

She's had no problems from the op since. She competed at Coniston hunter trials end of summer and did unaffiliated SJ over the season without probs. She has a scar yes but she was never a show horse due to a previous op and scars.

Good luck with yours, for us it was an easier time than her previous surgery, far less complicated.
 
Thanks for all the replies!

Bob originally had suspected suspensory branch damage, swollen outside fetlock, heat and lameness, was on bute for 10 days and walking in hand, still sound off the bute few days later, then we got froze up, he literally climbed the walls, imagine a child with chalk scrawling on breeze blocks, and kicked the hell out of them, fracturing one block and knocking several chunks out, massive swelling, mega hot and crippled, which is how the vet suspects he got this bone chip. It's only a 2mm chip and isn't near the joint, she's hoping it'll be gone in 3 weeks, it's about 2 months since the suspensory branch damage but now some of the swelling is subsiding I can still see swelling round the damaged branch. I asked about an ultrasound but she just said wait until after xray. Should I insist on one or just leave it and see what happens?
 
That probably depends on whether or not you're going to do anything different if the ultrasound shows anything more, considering he's already resting.

Tbh, an acute injury is probably more hopeful than if the chip was the result of a growth/chronic condition. Obviously the bone has sustained an sever trauma and that will take time to settle down but the body can do miraculous things! I know I'm not a horse but I know exactly when I got the chip in my finger and it took over 10 years to actually bother me and even then, only intermittently. The joint looks a bit odd but it works fine.

Has he been x-rayed previously? Is there any chance the chip is not infact new, but an existing problem he stirred up?
 
my horse had a bone chip and another issue (foot balance) he had 6 months box rest. He does have a permantly fat leg tho from where the swelling stretched the tendon sheath. its purely cosmetic though.
 
I did ask that TarrSteps as he hasn't been x-rayed before. The vet said that it was possible it was old but unlikely given the swelling and some other stuff that I can't remember that only appeared in that area after the wall kicking incident. I really need to be able to pay more attention when I'm freaking out lol. How does bone just dissolve though?

I don't think the vet plans on doing anything different with him after an ultrasound as he was sound before the chip, I was concerned that if it was bad I'd probably take a bank loan and have considered stem cell treatment or anything else that might help, but she's fairly convinced all will be well without costly intervention. It's just me with bald patches. :(

To be honest I don't care what it looks like or really how long it takes (within reason - 3 years would probably be pushing it but 12 months seems reasonable) as long as he can have a comp career as he's no quiet hack, though as long as he wasn't in pain I'd keep his as a field buddy for the youngsters. So I am feeling more hopeful now, thanks everyone who replied, I REALLY appreciate it.
 
my pony had a huge bone chip 1/2 way up his front cannon bone from a kick and then he got calcified bone around the chip.

he had the x-ray, got booked in for surgery and basically the vet scopped it out with an ice cream scoop as the calcified bone was all soft and needed to be scraped away.

he recovered very well, had around 3 months off in total and never had another lame day and didn't even have a bump or scar to show what had happened.

one word of warning- he turned into an absolute fruitloop afterwards which was attributed to the general anesthetic and never really got the same personality back and was always very difficult.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top