Pedal bone fractues

J

jojoebony

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The short verison:

Does anyone have any experience e.g.
how did your horse present
how was it diagnosed
what was the treatment
what was the final outcome?

The long version/back ground:

You may remember I posted about Stitch my just turned 2, 16 hh friesian X. He suffered a terrible tendon injury to his off hind August last year and had 5 weeks box rest before giving in and turning out due to his increasing frustration.

On Monday morning he was fine, Monday evening he was on 3 legs, took 3 of us about an hour and a half to walk him a couple hundred yards from field to stable aided by two packets of bute and nappies on both fronts for padding.

Emergency vet diagnosed abcess in off fore which had burst out through the heel and laminitis in both fronts. My vet came out next day and said no to laminitis and queried a badly bruised sole with abcess. Wednesday he came out AM due to the little guy being on 3 legs. He xrayed, fitted a imprint shoe. Got xrays back late that night which showed nothing (ruled out abcess and laminitis by this point) so came back out 11 at night to put his leg in cast. The cast really helped with the lameness for the first few days.

Vet coming back out tomorrow or Tues to remove cast, check him out and re fit cast whilst planning to admit him towards the end of week for further xrays - he says pedal bone fractures may not show up for 10 days? He did mention his P1, 2 and 3 bones are an unusual shape and perhaps they could be dislocated with a collateral ligament strain on top but seems to be leaning more towards a fracture.

Unfortunately now it's just a waiting game. He's so sore still spending about 50% time on 3 legs despite 4 bute per day and normally he is quite a tough lad (sound despite abcess) and was never lame from tendon injury - just unlevel due to muscle development.

Please post even if your situation didn't end well as I'm trying to get as much info on this condition so I know what to expect.

Thaks

Jo
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i had a 7-yr old event horse fracture the top off its pedal bone while out in the field. went out totally sound, saw him later on 3 legs, about as agonisingly lame as your horse.
took him to vet, x-rays showed the problem clearly, operation required as top had broken off completely (like the top off a pyramid) and would die off and cause problems. (sorry, not a vet, not very technical!)
operation successful, lots of box rest, slow return to gentle hacking then work, absolutely fine for about 6 months, then he went dead lame again on it. further x-rays showed that he was putting up new bone growth in the area, which my vet says happens sometimes. nothing they could do... i took him home, stuffed him with bute for a few days of fussing and spoiling, then he was pts.
hope yours has a better outcome. very best of luck.
 
One of the horses I managed, a 15yr old TB type (unknown origin
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) managed to fracture his pedal bone in front of my eyes in the field.
He was eating his feed, spooked, spun round, went hopping lame, to the blowing and sweating degree.
I slowly helped him hobble back to the yard (no transport available) and called the vet - wing fracture to the pedal bone.
The vets thought he had possibly been predisposed to it as he had sheared heels.
We gave him painkillers, and box rested him, bandaged all round. Next time he was shod (after the initial pain had subsided) he had eggbars on, to stabilise the heels and help it heal. He was never put into a cast, as the foot did that itself.
We wondered if he'd ever be sound, due to his age, but after approx 8 weeks, he trotted up sound on hard and soft, we brought him back into work with a lot of road work to strengthen the bone, and he resumed his work without any further problem.
Hope this helps.
S
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My mare fractured her pedal bone when she was 13, she is now 25 and still sound.

She came in from field so lame on her nearside hind that she couldn't put weight on it, was waiting to ring vets till morning and she was totally sound on it! Rode her out as normal but then a week later same thing, waited till morning for vets and she was sound again! This went on for 2 or 3 weeks so decided to get vet anyway. He couldn't find anything obvious. After 7 weeks of being lame one day and not the next and the vet not finding anything decided to have her to the hospital for full work up, nerve blocks and xrays. After 3 days of investigations the xrays showed up a fractured pedal bone and the gap was over half inch wide where it had fractured. It was the rear part of the pedal bone that had been fratured and the vet said if she could fracture in a good place then she has done it there. Prognosis was good despite the size of the gap. She came home for 3 months box rest and eggbar shoe fitting. She is an excitable mare and I dreaded keeping her in for this length of time as she wasn't allowed out of the stable at all not even for 10 mins for 3 months, but she was so calm and accepted that she wasn't allowed out. She healed very well and we have never had any problems with lameness from it since.

I do hope the outcome for Stitch is good news. Keep us updated.
 
As above the vets previously thought my mare had fractured pedal bone after jumping out of field. She was literally hoping on three legs ie the type of lameness where the vet sees a few strides of walk and then says hes seen enough. They said it was so classic they were 99% sure they would see a big fracture on the xray. Turned out not to be but I researched it whilst waiting for a call from horse hospital and the results ie outcomes were v varied.
 
My horse fractured his pedal bone a month after I got him. He came in lame after pulling a shoe off out in the field and despite box rest/bute etc it became clear it wasn't just bruising.

He wasn't hopping lame though, he came sound on 1 bute a day and even off bute you could ride him in a straight line but put him on a circle and he went lame.

Went up for nerve blocks and x-rays and he had fractured the wing of his pedal bone. He had 6 months solid box rest with special shoes (don't know name but they were a full circle) and then I was allowed to bring him back into work slowly.

That was 2 years ago and (touch wood) he has been fine since - SJs Disco/NC height, dressage, XC and hunts all fine. He recently had his foot xrayed (for another
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injury) and they checked the pedal bone and it has healed perfectly and there is no sign of any arthritic changes.

Good luck with Stitch
 
I'm afraid mine didn't end well. My mare was so lame I couldn't bring her in from the field - she was on three legs one day. She was predisposed to abscesses so I assumed that was what it was, and the vet came out to see her in the field and medicated her to get her in the stable. Vet thought abscess, so we did lots of poulticing, paring away etc but no abscess revealed itself. Remedial farrier came out to put glue on shoes on, still no improvement. She'd been on box rest with 4 bute a day for several weeks by this point and lost a hell of a lot of weight (she hated box rest). Eventually her foot was x-rayed and it showed the pedal bone had disintegrated. Vet hadn't seen anything like it before...gave us the option of box rest for a year to see if that would help make her field sound (she was 22 and retired from another injury by this time). We made the very difficult but "right" decision to have her PTS. To be fair, the vet said this was a very exceptional case, as the pedal bone was basically gone. He said in other cases it can repair.

Good luck with your horse, and I wish you the best of luck and a speedy and full recovery.
 
Friends horse fractured pedal bone and was not lame at all - slightly unlevel on occasion only - was BE Eventing and BD dressaging and not one judge picked it up. Finally went for xrays after intermittent shortness of stride and was diagnosed as broken wing of PB

Was operated on and was sound on return from horspital.

Back into normal work and as far as I know has been sound since - she has now sold him as he wasn't really what she wanted
 
I have a 16.3 fairly heavy ID hunter that broke one of his hind pedal bones (normally do fronts by all accounts). He was only slightly lame & for 6 weeks was being treated for an abscess, but when this never came out and vet finally xrayed, he was amazed to find complete outer third of pedal bone fractured off and coffin joint closed up. Prognosis was not good but after 8 months box rest (yes, 8 months), a few months turn out, several missed 'appointments' at the kennels, he amazingly came sound. He now has a very slight strange movement on this leg, but has just completed a full seasons hunting, jumping anything and never missed a day though lameness.
Don't give up hope.

HF.
 
Having read all this it seems wing fractures are the "best" type to get. What does that mean, please anyone know?
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Ronan fractured his off fore in the field 4 weeks ago on Saturday but luckily it was spotted very quickly (after the initial abscess debate!!) and he had a rim bar shoe on by the following Thursday. The bone was not displaced whatever that means. He is now down to 1 bute a day, from 4, and i am trying to be patient and hopeful. Some of these posts do make me feel that he will come back but there is a clear possibility he won't. This bone growth causes me most concern as it does make sense that as the bone heals it may produce a spur. I am giving him a general purpose supplement which contains calcium because I thought it would promote healing, but I am worried now that too much calcium may result in extra bone growth?

Vet says he wants the rim shoe on for 8 weeks then off to x-ray the foot, and then back on for another 8 weeks and then see how he looks....he is a 17h IDx aged 13 with not a lot of miles on his clock. We mainly hack, jump up to 80cm and do a prelim test (he can do Elementary but Mum can't).
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What are the chances do you think? The vet is only interested in getting him out to pasture so I can't ask him these sort of questions..
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..
 
Firstly, if it does turn out to be a pedal bone fracture, do not panic. Historically, pedal bone fractures meant a gloomy outlook. The options available were generally restricted to box rest, invasive surgery, putting the limb in a plaster cast, or applying bar shoes. The cost of surgery, it’s high risk nature and the skill required to perform the repair procedure make the decision to go this route both difficult and emotional. There is now another option which has been shown to have many advantages over surgery, and has a very high success rate for returning the horse to pre-injury soundness. Check out: http://www.hopeforsoundness.com/miscfiles/successfull-treatment-p3-fractures.pdf

Good luck. Do keep us updated on progress won't you.
 
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