P1 (long pastern) fracture: any experiences?

[SlinkyMinxy]

Last week, my horse was spooked by a low-flying helicopter and went for a hoon round the field. She came in on 3 legs, and although the lame leg was swollen around the fetlock and pastern, it wasn't massively so. Vet diagnosed soft-tissue injury and prescribed bute, cold hosing and box rest. Vet came out again this week and found an abscess in the affected foot. However, we also decided to x-ray, more to rule out possibility of bone chip than for any other reason. We weren't really expecting to find anything but the x-ray showed a fairly severe fracture of the long pastern bone. It has basically split along it's length. Surprisingly, the horse is weight-bearing on it, although is obviously very sore.
The fracture could be treated surgically by screwing it back together but the horse is not insured and my vet felt that even with surgery the prognosis was not great - she will probably never be anything more than a happy hacker, if that. Given that the cost of surgery is around £5000, plus the inherent risks of anaesthesia and travelling a horse with a fractured leg, we have decided to treat conservatively (bute and box rest) and accept that her ridden career is almost certainly over. At the moment, the vet wants to get on top of the abscess, then see how much residual lameness is there before deciding whether to splint/cast the leg.
I would be really interested to hear from anyone else who has encountered this injury and what your experiences were?

Oh, and if anyone has a spare healing vibe they could send our way, that would be great too...

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[Elf On A Shelf]

We have had horses in the yard that have had their pasterns screwed back together on gone on to race again or have a competative life outside of racing. Pinning isn't the be all and end all and to be honest it is probably too late now to pin. But a good strong support bandage, box rest etc. And its amazing how well the body can heal.

 

[SlinkyMinxy]

Thank you for your reply. It's frustrating that the seriousness of the injury wasn't picked up earlier but the vet said today that she is nothing like as lame as she should be, so hid it really well. The swelling has gone down a bit and the vet was able to have a better feel of the bone, he thinks that it is quite unstable so she will definitely have a cast put on. Then it's just a waiting game to see how well it heals.

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