Penetrating wound to pedal bone.

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rouxel

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Does anybody have any experience (good & bad) of the above?

This morning my poor foal, somehow in a 6 acre, fairly muddy field managed to find a rusty old nail and stand on it! The nail penetrated about 1 ½ cms into the front of his pedal bone.

Luckily I found him within a couple of minutes of him standing on the nail (was turning out other horses) and he was seen by my vet within an hour, he was immediately sent to the vet practice for X-rays. Initially the plan was to operate under GA to remove the nail and clean the wound site, but after consulting specialists at Newmarket that was deemed to be too risky, as the foals bone is still so soft & structure small, there’d be a high risk of causing greater damage. The only treatment option was to remove the nail carefully, flush out the hole and put him onto an aggressive course of IV antibiotics. He will be at the vets for at least the next 5 days.

Neither my vets, nor the vet at Newmarket (thanks to the wonders of modern technology) have seen a nail actually penetrate into the pedal bone before. In an older horse with harder, stronger bones it would have almost certainly resulted in a fractured pedal bone. The vets being very guarded about the prognosis due the risks of infection, but we’ve got to give the little chap a chance and a least I found him so quickly after the injury so hopefully there will have been less time for bacteria to take a hold.
 
where i used to work we had a clydesdale mare get a nail fairly deep in her frog the vet came out, managed to get it out and gave her antibiotics, she wore a poultice, and we tubbed her foot twice a day for a while, she never got an infection and it cleared up very quickly, sorry couldnt say nothing about pedal bone, i wish you every luck that your foaly will be ok x
 
My heart sank reading your post, but there's a lot to be positive about - your swift action, the fact the foal is under supervised veterinary care, and the resilience of young horses. I do hope he makes a full recovery. Please let us know the outcome. (((((((vibes for foalie)))))))
 
Someone at my old yard had a horse that stood on a nail and it penetrated the pedal bone - I wasn't there when it happened, however she told me that it was initially removed and flushed out, however infection later set in and she had to have part of her pedal bone surgically removed. This was done at Liphook apparantly, and I think it was Lingfield vets that first attended. May be worth your vets calling those practices to see if they can share any information?
 
I hope it works out well. If you can keep the infection away, then i reckon you might be ok. It's only my opinion, but i had my 11 year old PTS last saturday, after 2 years of battling lameness in both front feet. Turn out he had degenerative pedal bone disease in both legs. Was in lots of pain. The vet at the equine hospital put it down to over hunting, excessive wear and tear, and just bad luck. Vet also said that it can happen in one foot, which is most likely to be from a puncture wound to the pedal bone, where infection sets in. Thats why i say try to keep infection away.

Really hope everything works out for you.
 
Years ago I was sharing a ID X mare that cut her frog deeply open penetrating the pedal bone area when we were out hacking - she wasn't lame and it was passers by who pointed out that she was bleeding. We assumed it was a sharp flint that had caused it. We had to get the vet out there and then and luckily we were right by the only house in the woods as there were no mobile phones then. She was picked up in the trailer and the vet was very concerned with infection. She had to be poulticed every day for quite a while as well as antibiotics - I forget how long it was about 15yrs ago but she came through it OK and had no long-lasting effects.
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Asyou have got it quick it would seem your foal has an excellent chance of recovery - fingers crossed it works out well
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