Rehab plan for horse with bruised bones in feet

[neverenoughtea]

Hi all, I'm after some rehab advice. My horse has been in the horse-pital with intermittent mild lameness and after x-ray and MRIs all round has been diagnosed with some bruising and inflammation to the bones in his front feet. He had been having a very successful eventing season and I had been running him barefoot for a year (16.1hh 8yo sports horse). Prognosis is good, but its a slow rehabilitation process. So he had 6 weeks field rest, shod in front with silicone pads, has been in walk work (20 mins per day) for 2 weeks and I'm about to up it to 40 mins per day for 2 weeks.

Has anyone else had a horse with a similar injury and did you have a rehab plan that worked you could share?

Many thanks,

Catriona

 

[monkeymad]

My horse was diagnosed with inflammation of her pedal and navicular bones last year. She was turned away for 6 months and shod in heartbars (which she is still in). I have taken everything very slowly with her, she is however 16 and owes me nothing (she enabled me to fulfil my dreams of eventing at BE novice and showjumping to foxhunter). I have made the decision not to jump her again. I would take everything ultra slowly, to be honest when my mare went lame (about this time last year), the weather was so wet I was more than happy to give her the winter/spring off work! I never kept her on box rest, altho the vets said that would be the ideal. I was in no hurry to get her 'fit' to do anything, so have just upped her work over the summer, and now she is schooling on the flat better than ever. In fact, I think a new dressage career may be calling.....!! Take it as slow as you can to ensure the inflammation can completely settle, I am careful about the surfaces I school on and I used to trot uphills on the lanes, which I now don't do. All the best x

 

[neverenoughtea]

Hi monkeymad, thanks for your reply. Glad your girl is well on the mend. This is a good exercise to train myself some patience and take it slow - finding all the short walk work quite dull after a couple of weeks, despite introducing pole and lateral work, and with the dark nights we are confined to the school 5 out of 7 days. Ah well! It could be a lot worse. When you did bring her back into work how did you do it? Was it a month of walk, with trot very slowly introduced?

My vet hasn't recommended box rest, and he is still living out 24/7, but probably not for much longer. Did you keep your girl shod? And did you use silicone pads?

Thanks very much for getting back to me as I haven't been able to speak to anyone who has had similar problems, and everyone knows what Google searching does for you...

 

[monkeymad]

I haven't had to use silicone pads as she is in heart bars, although when I evented her I did have pads in during the summer months (was very expensive as she is shod every 4 weeks!) Work wise, yes I started out with a couple of weeks of just 45min walk hacks and then increased the work from there. I am lucky to have fabulous parkland hacking and a lot of hills. As she had been turned out daily, in a hilly field, I didn't take it as steady as if she had been on box rest. There is no way I would put my girl thro the process of being barefoot, she has poor feet and if she looses a shoe she is very sore - for the work I want her to do and the terrain around here she needs shoes. As I said, my girl owes me nothing and I may well have thought about reducing her jumping due to her age anyway, but for you and your horse, I would pick the positives from this episode. You know he has suffered from concussion, so you can watch out from now on to reduce it, make sure you don't trot on roads, make sure the school surface is springy, choose your events with the better going etc. Did you event barefoot? Did he not need studs? I would speak to your farrier and get him to speak to your vet and look at the x rays, so they can decide what is best shoe wise.