PEDAL BONES - Please read!!

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Icecreambanana

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Hi, does anyone know this situation and how to deal with it?

I have recently been sold a horse with a rotated pedal bone, and the 5 stage vetting didnt pick it up. The horse is now no use to me so what can i do?

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Sue the vet? unless there is any chance this has happened since the vetting, they can turn quite quickly. I would have thought it would have been obvius at the vetting unless the norse was nerve blocked
 
Why is it no use? I have a horse who HAD pedal bone rotation in all 4 feet. Once found, it was treated with remedial shoeing and he is now eventing happily. Has your vet said that it cannot be treated? I'd get a second opinion if I were you.
 
This horse is wanted for BE up to Novice level and the concussion on his feetis likely to make him lame...this is the view of the farrier and my vet.
 
The rotation was there before the vetting, it was just missed. He was in the care of a dishonest person who chose not to mention it, so went un-noticed until xrays showed it up earlier on this week.
 
The pedal bone can turn in a matter of days. I think that rotation would be obvious at the time of vetting. If you requested bloods as part of your vetting they would have known if the horse had been doped to get it through. The stress of moving to a new home can be enough to do the damage.... part of the reason why insurance does not cover illness during the first 14 days of ownership.

Don't despare. You need the help of a Vet, obviously not the one who did the vetting. They will be best placed to advise.

Rotation of the pedal bone can be corrected. Takes a long time though. If the horse is truly of no use to you, give it to someone who will put in the time and effort and expense to re-habilitate it... and give the horse a chance.
 
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This horse is wanted for BE up to Novice level and the concussion on his feetis likely to make him lame...this is the view of the farrier and my vet.

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Still say you should get a second opinion. My horse competes with heart bar shoes on, it's not a problem.
 
I am truly gutted though, in the short time that i have had him he's been wonderful, but i don not have the time or the money to spend on shoeing to improve his pedal bones. I want him to go somewhere where he will have fun and be loved, but i have no idea who would want him? Should he be sold as a hack?
 
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Rotation of the pedal bone can be corrected. Takes a long time though. If the horse is truly of no use to you, give it to someone who will put in the time and effort and expense to re-habilitate it... and give the horse a chance.

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My horse was treated in the May and competing in July, just by having the remedial shoeing it corrected the position of the pedal bone in a very short space of time.
 
Best of luck to you. Please don't give up too easily, there are specialists for this kind of thing. We are lucky that our farrier is one of them
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Let us know how you get on.
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i don not have the time or the money to spend on shoeing to improve his pedal bones.

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If you can afford to go eventing you can afford heart bars!!! If you try replacing your horse every time it breaks you're going to go through a lot of horses. Plus, I can't see anyone rushing to buy him unless you're prepared to lose a lot of money. Its bad luck that this has happened to you but you're not the first and at least the problem might be treatable. Good luck, be patient and I hope you turn out to be able to compete your horse.
 
Rotated pedal bones wont be picked up on a 5 stage Vetting unless you insisted on x-rays to the feet! If the horse was sound on the day then it is not the Vets fault, I presume the Vet took blood which can be tested for dope! If this is the case and it is found that the horse was doped you can take the previous owner to court for your money back.
 
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Rotated pedal bones wont be picked up on a 5 stage Vetting unless you insisted on x-rays to the feet! If the horse was sound on the day then it is not the Vets fault, I presume the Vet took blood which can be tested for dope! If this is the case and it is found that the horse was doped you can take the previous owner to court for your money back.

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EXACTLY!!!!

Did you have his front feet x-rayed? Because if not you have no evidence and if he was sound, no ground to blame the vet.

It'll cost you a lot, lot more if you give him away as a hack and buy a new one than to try to sort out his feet.
 
I discussed this with my EP this morning when he came to trim my horse's feet, just out of interest really. He gave me a technical but encouraging reply, and said that he has a special interest in foundered horses and has many case studies of bringing them back to soundness.

If I try to explain what was explained to me I will probably get it wrong, but he was interested in your case Twigg so I'm sure he would discuss it with you even if you aren't in his geographic area (West Sussex). PM me if you want the details.

He said heartbars will seem to help a horse with pedal bone rotation be sound enough to ride, but take them away and the horse is still lame. He said that you need to act to bring the hoof back into line with the pedal bone before the reattachment occurs which puts down a sort of scar tissue which is hard to do anything about. A period of about 6 months out of shoes under the management of a qualified DAEP will heal the hoof and correct the rotation and then if you chose to put heartbars on to compete you would be putting them on a healthy hoof.

That is the gist of it, but please don't pick me up on the detail, I don't profess to have expert knowledge, which is why you might want to discuss it with my EP. I have total respect for him, he is not a tree-hugger, and I have seen him turn around desperate cases.
 
My horse has rotated pedal bones which were not discovered until she was x-rayed. Until he saw the x-rays my vet thought her lameness was navicular.

As someone else has said, you cannot blame the vet!

My mare has remedial shoeing which does not cost a fortune (compared to the cost of selling your horse and finding another one which could have an entirely different set of problems), and after her initial summer of intermittent lameness has been sound with the correct shoeing since the diagnosis.
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Get in contact with the EP as suggested above. There are numerous cases of horses that have been brought back into soundness through the "barefoot" route. You can still have shoes on to compete when the rehabilitation is complete.

Of course, they can't promise miracles, and it depends upon the damage, but I have personal knowledge of a horse that was written off by the vets after 12 months of remedial farriery and £5,000 worth of insurance money. It is back doing endurance now, in shoes for the competition season.
 
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