Splint?? also in vet

4faults

4faults

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Hi all, my youngster has come in from the field today with a hard lump on the inside of his near fore on the cannon.

He is not lame and it doesn't seem to hurt him at all or have any heat in, I think it may be a splint but never had a horse with one before.
Vet is due out on monday as didn't deem it emergency, does anyone have any ideas in the meantime of what to do with it? Is there any way I can help it go down? Or any ideas of anything else it can be?
It is on the bone of the leg definitely not the tendon and feels like a bit of bone.

thank you in advance for any suggestions or advice
 
Hi, my then 4 yr old did this and I was gutted, I presume he had knocked himself in the field. I cold hosed it daily and turned out in brushing boots for a while until it settled. His got bigger for about a year then slowly went down, I can feel it but its more long and flat if you know what I mean. He wasnt lame so I carried on as normal.
Hes now 12 and he came in a few weeks ago with the same on the other leg! Ive just done the same as I did before.
 
I am gutted but thankfully hes not a show horse. They always find a way to worry you dont they haha.

So do you think I should carry on working him? Typical when he has qualifiers coming up :rolleyes:
 
just cold hose it and turn out in brushing boots, lemon is very good, cut in it half and squeeze it onto the splint. helps stop it getting any bigger! try and stick to soft ground while its forming.
 
I would just keep an eye on it and as Miss buffay says, avoid to much hard ground. The vet looked at his recent one as I wasnt sure at first as it was just a big swelling but he wasnt concerned. He wasnt lame and within a couple of days the swelling came down to reveal a splint forming. Thats about 4 weeks ago now and hes been fine. I would def turnout in boots though to stop him catching it whilst its forming.
 
Thank you for your help guys. I cold hosed it today as I really didnt know what else to do so will just carry on with that. Thank you again, you put my mind at rest :)
 
My youngster threw a massive splint, it took 3 months for him to come sound but he's fine now - he was lame from day 1 though so not like yours. I didn't call the vet - as you rightly said it's not an emergency, and the key thing with splints is that apart from a very few cases, only time heals.

Advice on splints seems to vary greatly, but I think if he's not lame then keep him going, gentle work on a surface seems to be what's recommended, avoid any unnecessasy concussion. If he's lame, some advice is to work through it anyway, but the more work you do the bigger the splint ends up. I rested mine as he was lame and I'm not comfortable with the idea of riding a lame horse. He was still lame after a couple of months rest though so I did eventually call the vet who agreed with my approach but also said that he should be improving by this time so we did DMSO (an anti-inflamitory gel that you apply directly) and that really sorted it out. If that hadn't worked he would have gone for xrays etc to see there was a more significant issue.

Interestingly she said that hosing a splint, or giving bute etc, is useful as it makes the horse feel more comfortable and helps any soft swelling, but doesn't actually influence the development of the splint at all.

Hope this helps.
 
If it's of any help, fatty has a whopping great splint in exactly the same place that is several years old, doesnt impede him in any way, have photos from before me of him doing advanced dressage moves etc

hope this helps xx
 
Important thing is to give the splint time to settle. If he is not lame on it then can continue work but I still would wait til vet sees it as if not given time to settle it wont have ay chance to reduce in size. The vet may inject it to try to reduce it and they can be removed by an op if necessary but this will scar of course.

Our exracer had one removed then got another hence why we have him now. It took 6 months to settle as he was a little off on it so he was rested and we used the gel the vet gave us once a day for 2 weeks.

He is fine now. If you dont trot on roads and ride only on good surfaces that arent too deep or too hard to avoid concussion as already said should be fine xx
 
found this post just in time - was going to ask the same thing ! I found one on coblet this morning on the inside cannon bone, just below his knee. No pain or lameness. He spends the day with a mini shetland, and they play for mad half hours, rearing, the lot, and I wonder if that's how he's thrown it ?

Thanks also for the advice. Do they go down once they've formed in time ?
 
My horses did but it went bigger first :eek: and took a couple of years to almost flattern. I did pretty much forget about it after a month or so as it caused no problems.
 
Thanks for all the advice guys.

Went down today to find bottom bolt on my stable door ripped off, slats in stable wall knocked through and scrapes all over the wall. Horses legs cut up and bumps all over them. Spoke to YM who said oh yes hes been getting cast did I forget to tell you?!!!!! Was rather annoyed as you can imagine.

Had asked her a few weeks ago if I could have a bigger stable as he had been cast once before and was told there were none so went over her head to YO today who has put him in a lovely big stable. Hopefully there will be no more problems now but Im glad I found the cause as I was at a loss at how he had managed it because he is turned out alone in boots.

Sorry to ramble but i have been fuming all day haha.

Thanks again for all the great advice :)
 
i would be fuming to :O im glad im not on a big yard where theres YM and YO, i just go straight to YO with any problems. only small place with 6 stables a 2 liverys including me, nice and cosy!
 
Sounds like bliss!!! I had my own yard up until April and im finding it hard to adjust to a livery yard again, although the YO is like an uncle to my OH so we have it bit better than most.
 
i was on my own little rented yard for nearly 2 years and moved through lack of facilities and must admit i prefer having abit of company but its just enough, i cant stand big yards where stuff goes missing etc, and my tb wouldnt cope with a big yard either, he has to be turned out when all the others are or he wears a hole in the floor! we help eachother by doing eachothers horses when were on holiday or staying away for events. thats handy that they are sort of a family friend, makes things easier except if things go wrong.
 
Oh im so jealous now. Ours has a clique including the YM and if I wasnt down there with my OH all the time I would feel totally alienated and intimidated, there is only one other liv who has bene nice to us and shes just come off her own place as well :-(
 
a couple of people i know have not stayed on one yard for more than a couple of months because other liveries have alienated them or not spoken to them for one reason or another and it just doesnt seem fair, and its usually the people that have been there the longest that dont like new people coming in. the last livery i moved from was problems with the YO daughter who was a spoilt brat and the yard before that was a phyco YO! if i ever moved again id go to a small yard like im on now. just doesnt make it fun if you cant socialise down there, best just keeping yourself to yourself but being polite if people speak to you.
 
Yeah thats what I have been trying, saying hello etc but keeping to myself and getting on with the neds, goodness knows we have enough to keep us busy. Could understand if they were kids but the majority are people older than me!! Im hoping they will back off in a few weeks, and that horsey will be better in his new stable, fingers crossed for tomorrow
 
my last mare threw a small one she was lame ect ect i rested her from work still turned her out n used ibuprofen gel it did go down not sure if the gel realy did work but id do the same again
 
Some will go down a little but rarely go totally and our boy's is still huge although formed and hard so stuck with it boo hoo.

The hard ground is a total buggar and his flared up from messing in the field but is fine with rest and tensolvet gel.

Magnetic bioflow boots are also good to increase bloodflow to area and a good herbalist can make you up a supplement.

It usually only gives future probs with soundness if ridden on hard ground or effects the suspensory ligaments xx
 
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