Sequestrum, experiences please

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smellsofhorse

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My boy was kicked when in the field.

After a week of antibiotics and hoping he was x rayed and found to have "quite a large" sequestrum. Just below his stifle.

He is now on bow rest, baitryl and waiting.
It will be x rayed in two weeks to see if the bone starts to nit back together.
If they need to operate to remove it, it wont be for atleast a month, they dont want to cause more damage and need the infection to go away.

It will be scanned too to see if there is any ligament damage.

Any one else have similar experinces?

Whats the the healing/recovery period?
 
My mare had one on the outside of her cannon. It was never removed and she had no problem with it after slight lameness for a couple of weeks. It was very clear on the xray that a whole "bite" of bone had come loose. Good luck with yours.
 
Had one exactly as you describe. Racehorse came in 5 days post kick injury. Had been on Baytril from 1st day. Impossible to get near horse to clean it/examine without sedating as he had nnot been given any anti-inflammatories - and was very sore. Operated on 7 days after kick to remove fragments (which were huge). Due to th amount of bone removed he had 8 wks box rest and is now walking out in hand. Should be back in full work approx 6mths post op. Has been sound since 48hrs post op (previously non weight bearing). Very lucky to have missed the stifle joint! Hope yours is as simple. :)
 
glenruby said:
Had one exactly as you describe. Racehorse came in 5 days post kick injury. Had been on Baytril from 1st day. Impossible to get near horse to clean it/examine without sedating as he had nnot been given any anti-inflammatories - and was very sore. Operated on 7 days after kick to remove fragments (which were huge). Due to th amount of bone removed he had 8 wks box rest and is now walking out in hand. Should be back in full work approx 6mths post op. Has been sound since 48hrs post op (previously non weight bearing). Very lucky to have missed the stifle joint! Hope yours is as simple. :)
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Sorry to hear yours is so long term.

The vet has said they wont operate for atleast another month, he has said the fragment is huge!

Ive been reading stories on the net about horses needing more than one operation, others never healing and having to be put down and others even when they have healed its been 9 months to a year before they are back in work.
 
My 5 y.o mare had one in feb this year. Came in one day, gave her a quick groom and rode. About half an hour into riding my friend noticed her leg was bleeding so got off to have a look and saw what looked like a small-ish cut inside her nearside foreleg about an inch, (maybe less) above the knee. Vet came, sedated and cleaned it up and turned out to be what looked like quite a deep puncture wound. Tried stitching and dressing it but when he came back 2 days later it was getting infected so took stitches out and just dressed it. She was on trimethoprim powders to start with but switched onto oral baytril afterwards. She was scanned at 2 and 4 weeks, on the 4 week scan the vet spotted the bone damage & sequestrum. Thankfully it was only small bits so not too concerning long term but the vet did think it would need operating on. The op was booked but for one reason or another the vets had to cancel it several times, then i was away so i was postponed about 4 weeks- and i'm so glad it was! I got back off holiday, the lump had reduced significantly so vet came back out and re-scanned and it had absorbed itself. The hard lump remained for a few months but it's gone now. You really wouldnt know to look at it. It was very sore to the touch to begin with but she didn't have a lame day at all- even under saddle the day i discovered it. She was on box rest for a total of about 6 weeks.

Hope all goes well with your lad. From what my vet said they don't usually affect long term soundness, just take a little while to either go or heal if operated on. I'm sure he'll be fine :-)
 
My chap had what we assume was a kick injury to his elbow. Initially treated with anti inflams and ABs, all calmed down, then 3 weeks later literally blew up overnight, hopping lame, huge swelling. Turned out to be a sequestrum, that caused massive inflammatory response.

Anyway, whipped into horsepital, removed and cleaned up. Can't remember how long he was on box rest for, but it was a reasonable amount of time, then slowly back into work over a period of weeks. I went straight into ridden exercise as he'd have killed somoene on the ground! This was 8 years ago, and has never had a lame day since. His McTimoney therapist commented that he is a bit tight around the scar tissue, but that really is the only ongoing issue from it.

Don't scare yourself too much reading round the internet ;)
 
WOW, wasn't I lucky? I should perhaps add for other people's info that on xray on the first day it was not showing, it only showed after another week when it was totally clear that a whole bite of bone was not joined to the cannon at all.
 
My horse got kicked just below her hock and developed a sequestrum. She also had 8 fractures of the splint bone very close to the hock. This is going back 12 years or so and no one wanted to operate due to the fact that it was all so close to the hock and was unlikely to be a success in terms of guaranteeing soundness. The decision was taken to put her on box rest, keep flushing/dressing the wound and wait and see. Box rest went on and on and eventually lasted 10 months :( I don't think I'd ever have entered into it if I'd known how long it would take, however the horse couldn't have cared less, I was the one who was a wreck! After the 10 months an xray finally showed a good callous and she was allowed to be walked in hand then turned out in a small paddock and eventually back out with her friends. She even came sound, although by that time I'd taken on another horse so she had a foal for a friend and then lived the life of Rilley being a lawnmower!

Forgot to say - there was a channel from the sequestrum to the skin and eventually the sequestrum was expelled through the wound.

Good luck with your horse, just prepare yourself for a longish recovery (hopefully not as long as mine, I think 10 months in the stable is a bit extreme these days!)
 
Thank you for your experiences.

Reading the internet is a bad move, you get the horror stories!

I think he has a good chance of making a full recovery but as everyone says it going to be a while on box rest and operation or not building his fitness up again before he is back to his usual self.

He hates being on box rest though, thats the worth thing, if i couldnt ride him for a year i could cope but the thought of him being stuck in for months is the worrying bit.
 
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