Stress fracture, infection, what is it!!

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Flying_Form

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* Before you read this… Vet is coming out again first thing Tuesday morning !

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to to know if anyone else has experienced this as I’m so confused and worried about my horse.

She is a horse who is accident prone, will get cast in her box and scrape herself (her banks are sky high these days), be silly in the paddock with her mates and give herself a bang, find herself in silly situations you didn’t even think was possible… in essence she always has me and my wallet on my toes.

Came out of her stable to be turned out for the day about three weeks ago. Noticed one of her legs was very stocked up (she never ever stocks up when in overnight). Hand walked her for a bit which brought swelling down, trot her up (not lame) and then cold hosed and noticed there was heat, filling and a lump along the front of her leg/canon (I don’t even know if you’d call it a lump, just an area along her shin a bit more raised than the rest).

Put her back inside and rang my vet. He came out that day and x rayed. I initially thought a stress fracture of some sort as it had the appearance of bucked shins and I can remember yearlings getting them a lot when I used to groom for some racing yards. X ray showed nothing. Vet put her on antibiotics in case it was some sort of infection/cellulitis as it was rather inflamed but she wasn’t lame, asked me to not ride, and to turn her out on her own in a small paddock as I usually would during the day to keep swelling down, and if I noticed any worsening in the coming days, or alternatively no change in two weeks to call him back out.

Two weeks passed there was an improvement. Raised area still there but had gone down majorly, swelling was minimal to none and she was still sound. Then… This morning leg was back up inflamed and lump still present. No changes in routine, she hasn’t been ridden since first initial vet visit.

Vet was meant to come out tomorrow but has called and let me know there is something high priority tomorrow and it will be Tuesday. While I wallow and wait for him to come out - any ideas on what this may be?

I know a stress fracture can sometimes not appear on x rays but she’s still sound. In terms of infection, there is still heat in the leg but surely a round of antibiotics would have cleared this up?

If we had been competing the day before I feel it would be easier to guess and I’d have something to blame, but so confused as it happened so suddenly. so hard when you want your horse to be okay. She doesn’t appear to be in any pain and is happy to let you poke and prod while she eats her grass, but I hate not knowing !
 
SEL said:
The waiting is the worst. Any chance of a foreign object? Would explain why its come back up despite antibiotics
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I had thought about it but thought it would have shown up on x ray? Suppose if it was a splinter or something it would be harder to see on a scan 🤔 food for thought… I might make up a poultice and see if it draws anything out… wondering if I should stick it directly on the bump or lower/higher ?
 
So my ridiculous TB had a swelling down the front of the cannon bone earlier this year- I had convinced myself he had managed to do something to his extensor tendon - looked just like a bucked shin. Got my very good vet out and it was a random skin infection that was thickening the area in front of the cannon and nowhere for the swelling to go. A few days of some lovely steroid cream and it went down a fair bit. It took weeks to disappear entirely but I stopped worrying about it! Good luck x
 
Could be a sequestrum, they’re not always apparent on X-rays taken immediately after incident. It’s usually between 2-3 weeks for the bony splinter to detach fully and be recognised by the horse’s immune system as a foreign body.
 
avthechav said:
So my ridiculous TB had a swelling down the front of the cannon bone earlier this year- I had convinced myself he had managed to do something to his extensor tendon - looked just like a bucked shin. Got my very good vet out and it was a random skin infection that was thickening the area in front of the cannon and nowhere for the swelling to go. A few days of some lovely steroid cream and it went down a fair bit. It took weeks to disappear entirely but I stopped worrying about it! Good luck x
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That’s very interesting as she had a bit of canon crud along the front 🤔 might let him know that could be a consideration, thanks! (I hope it’s that straight forward!!)
 
rhino said:
Could be a sequestrum, they’re not always apparent on X-rays taken immediately after incident. It’s usually between 2-3 weeks for the bony splinter to detach fully and be recognised by the horse’s immune system as a foreign body.
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Oh gosh I hope not 🙈 thanks for the suggestion though and good to know that the bone doesn’t always show up on x ray!
 
rhino said:
Could be a sequestrum, they’re not always apparent on X-rays taken immediately after incident. It’s usually between 2-3 weeks for the bony splinter to detach fully and be recognised by the horse’s immune system as a foreign body.
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Oh really? I’m in a similar boat to the OP with my horse who got stuck in a gate. 4 weeks later and there is a hot hard lump and the leg has filled. I was wondering about a bone chip but had assumed we would have clocked it earlier.
 
BBP2 said:
Oh really? I’m in a similar boat to the OP with my horse who got stuck in a gate. 4 weeks later and there is a hot hard lump and the leg has filled. I was wondering about a bone chip but had assumed we would have clocked it earlier.
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That’s what my vets have told me, and I’ve seen that pattern with 2 of my own now. I think they’re more common when there’s an actual wound though.

It’s not always bad if it is; horse number 1 expelled the fragment (he had a kick so very lucky not to end up with a bone infection as the sequestrum tract wouldn’t heal initially) and number 2 absorbed the chip himself within a few weeks and has no residual swelling.
 
Yes possible foreign body or sequestrum.
These things can definitely take time to show on xray.
A fellow livery horse got kicked and at 6 weeks a fracture finally showed on xray luckily the vet had advice strict box rest and large bandage just in case.
He had been xray weekly since the kick.
 
avthechav said:
Any update??
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Yes! Sorry for not updating sooner as the real update has only actually happened this morning.

Another x ray taken, lots of cloudiness on leg where lump was showing infection. Another round of antibiotics ordered, vet looked for any puncture wounds around leg and found one small scab which he picked off and didn’t think much of. By chance he applied a bandage with some animalintex poultice dressing to the lower leg. He wanted to see if it might draw infection or something out while antibiotics were doing there thing, he said to try for a couple days but he was doubtful anything would come out.

Day 1 and 2 of the bandage was mainly just blood/nothing. Then on day 3 I was about to give up, reapplied animalintex as per vets instructions and this morning a small wooden splinter was sticking out of the scab along with some gnarly fluid/puss weeping.

Don’t know how this happened, she loves a good scratch so maybe was rubbing against one of the trees or fence?

Hoping this is the answer - vet said it likely is as a wood splinter that got infected because wood wouldn’t show up on x ray and hard to detect. going to rebandage for the next couple of days until all the yucky infection is drawn out. Vet will come out once antibiotics are finished to check the leg and potentially scan again to double check there’s nothing else there like a fracture in case she kicked a fence or tree and the splinter is a clue for something worse underneath🙈

So almost 99% certain that is all, but a 1% chance it could be something else too.

Further proving the point - with horses it could be ANYTHING! Will update you all after next check but the mare is only delighted with her break from work as you can imagine 😂 sometimes I feel she plans these incidents for a holiday!
 
I'm delighted you managed to draw a splinter out. My old lad got (what we assumed was) a blackthorn in his fetlock - I spotted a tiny scab when I was grooming and thought nothing of it. 2 days later his leg blew up and he was none weight bearing on it. The tiny scab had become a weeping hole. Cue an emergency vet visit on a Sunday (of course), a shot of antibiotics which he adversely reacted to and almost collapsed, a shot of adrenalin, a long course of ABs, Xrays, a dig around looking for a tiny FB (fail), and about 2 months off work. The swelling on his fetlock remained for a further 6 months, although he was fully sound on it. FBs are a nightmare to deal with and the tiniest thing can cause devastation.
 
Well I hope it resolves OP and horse gets better soon and back in work.

Although not as dramatic I had something similar, also to a rather accident prone horse. Presented with filled leg, it is so long ago I can't remember if she was lame, but I don't think so.

The vet thought it was a tendon strain, so box rest for xx weeks. I decided to bandage her legs - support of the non injured leg, as we used to do. The next morning I came out to the stable and took off her bandages to find a large amount of pus from the injured leg and on closer inspection, the smallest, tiny little wound on the back of her leg. I phoned the vet but I don't even remember her coming out to see. I poulticed and put ointment on, but as soon as the pus came out the swelling went down and I was back riding her within days.
 
Orangehorse said:
Well I hope it resolves OP and horse gets better soon and back in work.

Although not as dramatic I had something similar, also to a rather accident prone horse. Presented with filled leg, it is so long ago I can't remember if she was lame, but I don't think so.

The vet thought it was a tendon strain, so box rest for xx weeks. I decided to bandage her legs - support of the non injured leg, as we used to do. The next morning I came out to the stable and took off her bandages to find a large amount of pus from the injured leg and on closer inspection, the smallest, tiny little wound on the back of her leg. I phoned the vet but I don't even remember her coming out to see. I poulticed and put ointment on, but as soon as the pus came out the swelling went down and I was back riding her within days.
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Thank you! Yes her leg is perfect this morning and no swelling. To be fair, once the initial infection had drawn out the last day the swelling reduced humongously thereafter. Her dressing has been clear/no infection since Sunday thankfully.

Vet is coming back out to x ray on Thursday but says she should be fine to ride once her course of antibiotics is complete. Planning on taking it very easy!

Definitely a lesson learned that if the swelling isn’t going down with rest/bandaging that there could be something a little bit outside of the box occurring apart from your usual sprains strains and fractures! As devastating as the above can be long term, sometimes not knowing can be worse when something isn’t as straightforward.

Thanks for all your help everyone 😊
 
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