splints behind

[clairefeekerry1]

hi.

had the chiro out last night and she said my horse has a splint on his hind leg. he's been off with a pelvic injury/undiagnosed hind lameness and i've never seen it before plus he's been looked at to death by vets and physios etc and no one has ever mentioned it. he's also been scanned and x-rayed to death with nothing showing in that splint area. could the chiro be mistaken? and if not will it cause him any problems?

 

[cptrayes]

I've been following the story of your horse's difficult-to-diagnose is-it-in-the-front-or-the-back lameness and I would say that this is part of the jigsaw.

It is just about possible that your chiro has mistaken a very large spavin growth for a splint. And before anyone says that they cannot come up like that, one did on my horse, seemingly overnight, two years ago and he has never been lame for a moment on it, but it was, and remains, HUGE.

If it is a splint, then it may indicate that to cope with his injury your horse has been putting some very unusual stresses on the membrane that sits between his splint bone and his cannon bone. They are fairly unusual in hind legs.

Far from it "causing" him any problems, it may well indicate that his problems are resolving themselves. I hope so, because you have been at your wits end and the bottom of your purse with this one, I know.

 

[only_me]

Splints are unusual in the hind legs. Was it hot to touch? If it is cold then it has formed.
It could be causing some problems, and could be a sign of extra stress on that leg, so I would start with that hind and examine it a little closer to see why

 

[mil1212]

My horse developed a splint on a hind leg at the age of 14 - 18 months ago he started having all sorts of leg issues, and when we started treating him for arthritic hock changes and his work load lessened the splint formed (almost overnight), which in itself did not cause any noticable (extra!) issues. It was xrayed at the time and is definitely a splint, albeit a very small one. This kind of goes along with what cptrayes says.

ETA - IF it is a splint, once it has formed it shouldn't cause any further problems. My horse went on to develop one on a foreleg too..... but he has poorly legs !

 

[clairefeekerry1]

interesting. thank you for replies.
its not hot, its hard and quite small and on the inside of his hind leg. his legs and hocks have been x rayed twice and bone scanned with nothing showing. he's now had 5 months off and had thermal imaging done on him very recently which showed nothing so hoping that whatever was wrong with him has sorted itself??? about to get on next week so will soon know. i thought maybe its developed as we've had alot of hard frosty ground and he's been throwing himself round the field?