Suspected shoulder fracture..

[utter-nutter]

bare with me...looking for anyone that has ever had to deal with this kind of injury....

Injury occurred xmas eve out hunting, horse landed badly after a hedge, think he spotted the ditch on take off and that threw him off balance/forgot where his legs were, he didn't fall, but landed very badly, cantered off okay, and then pulled up horrendously lame, initially thought he had broken that leg, was honestly the worst feeling seeing him like this, was 90% non weight bearing on that leg. By some sought of miracle we were only 50 yards from someones yard, and managed to move him there, angels in the form of my vets arrived within 30mins, prodded and poked him, confirmed it wasn't his leg and was further up and then x-rayed his elbow and gave him painkillers (cannot properly x-ray a horses shoulder, as too much muscle in the way so won't give a clear reading). That elbow x-ray showed nothing, (did say fractures can take 10 days to show) 24 hours later and he's ALOT happier and putting weight on that leg, 5 days later and he's almost sound in walk with the odds stumble, next step the 10day elbow x-ray showed nothing again, with no swelling or heat, we then took him home (saint of yard owner let us keep him there for 10days as we couldn't travel him)
Vet concluded as the elbow x-ray showed nothing and came from being castrophically lame to nearly sound (in walk) in such a small amount of time, along with the odd stumble, (him being in slight pain in having to lift that leg up and sometimes forgetting too) that its a shoulder fracture or something slightly less severe, but in that area. We've gone with worse case scenario with the shoulder being fractured and he's got 6 weeks box rest, 6 weeks in a small penned bit of the field and then we're going to give him the summer off. Vets have been saints and dealt with an emotional wreck of an owner on xmas eve, and they are confident he will come back as normal, without any extra 'care'.....but was wondering just wondered if anyone out there as had this kind of injury and had any success/advice with rehab..heard about people using a water treadmill (?) and i will be getting a physio out regularly,
Hes 13yr 15h cob, who is a absolute jumping/hunting machine, my absolute pride and joy, he has always lived out 24/7 and is dealing with box rest surprisingly well.
Hope I've made some sort of sense (sorry if not!) and big big thank you if you've made it through that (please ignore typos/ grammar, I'm not good with spelling!)

 

[scats]

No advice or experience but just want to send healing vibes his way and hugs to you xx

 

[AdorableAlice]

Would your vets refer him into a facility that can xray/scan/scintiraphy etc further up into the shoulder. Expensive so the sums would have to be done to weigh the cost versus a long spell off and hoping all is well.

 

[Equi]

I think you’re right to treat it as worst case scenario, and realistically if there is a fracture there’s not much that can be done about it in that area bar what you’re already doing. Sending healing vibes along

 

[utter-nutter]

Would your vets refer him into a facility that can xray/scan/scintiraphy etc further up into the shoulder. Expensive so the sums would have to be done to weigh the cost versus a long spell off and hoping all is well.

 

[redapple]

oh gosh that must have been so scary. No advice as you seem to be following the most logical option already but ope you are both feeling better soon.

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

If there was a fracture he would not be relatively sound in a matter of days.

The only way to be 100% sure is a bone scan or MRI. This is expensive - the pros - it will give you an answer as to what os wrong with him, you will know where to treat. Cons - the cost. If it shows nothing them you are back to square one and you need to look at muscular/soft tissue damage.

Very, very few horses survive shoulder fractures because you cant pin them, you cant restrict the shoulder into immobility, you can't whack a bandage on and you can't check up on the healing process very easily.

In theory if it is a minor fracture it can heal and in time your horse will be able to do everything he always did before.

As to water treadmills - my boss will kill me for saying this as we have one but ... take him to the beach, river, stream or dig a 15m trench, put hardcore on the bottom then fill it with water to walk him through. It does the same thing. But the water works the back and hind quaters more so than the shoulders and may be a fair bit of hard work to start with.

 

[still standing]

Not a shoulder fracture but my (now retired) horse had a hock fracture. Similar to your horse, from totally non-weight bearing initially, he became 'sound' in walk after about 2 weeks as vets advised to let him pick grass in hand twice a day, to avoid colic from box rest and we could watch him led there in walk. Around the hock, there is a huge amount of muscle to stabilise the joint and perhaps it is the same around the shoulder with your horse? Is he able to lie down and get up? To me, that was important as if he can do that, hopefully the injury/fracture is being held stable and could heal. I hope this is what is happening to your horse.

My very experienced equine practice vets insisted on 10 weeks box rest because equine bones heal more slowly than human ones, if it is a fracture. But if it helps, my horse did recover and became totally sound after 6 months, no sign of fracture at all on X-rays and vets said to bring him back into work (although I decided to retire him at that point as he was 20).

 

[Melody Grey]

One of mine fractured his shoulder in a rotational fall doing XC (in the days before collapsible fences clipped a wall with his fronts and over we both went). He was hopping lame at the time and for some time after. We took him home and box rested him for what seemed like forever- probably about 12 wks. He came sound enough for low level dressage for a while and then somehow did something else- we assume Re- fracture and went round the box rest again. He came out of it as a happy hacker but was mechanically lame- always a bit short on it. Our insurance paid out loss of use.

this was before scanning technology was being used as much as it is now and x-rays were written off as a prospect. What was noticeable with mine was that the injury was palpable - kind of healed like a ridge down the shoulder that changed in appearance when he did it again.
I hope you manage a better ending OP.

 

[ycbm]

You are wise to treat as a fracture. I had a friend whose horse was kicked in the shoulder. When it was sound after a few days she turned it out, and it broke and had to be PTS. Vet reckoned it was a hairline fracture which then gave out completely.

Good luck with yours, it sounds like he should be fine

.

 

[Orangehorse]

Have no experience, but join in with the general optimistic prognosis. Had a vet talk once, he really was an old school vet and he said that he had known many hunters who had a fall and were "a bit stiff, a bit sore, not quite right" whatever and generally they were roughed off and turned out for the summer and came back in sound for another hunting season, but if you really looked at them from the back you could see that they were crooked and that is how they were for the rest of their lives.

It sounds as though the vets are pretty optimistic and the treatment sounds sensible. When he is sound again and ready to work, ask the vets about some physio as his muscles will have become tight and working in a different way. I really, really hope he is OK and get to go hunting again next season.

 

[utter-nutter]

that was the vets concern, said that many people s

Not a shoulder fracture but my (now retired) horse had a hock fracture. Similar to your horse, from totally non-weight bearing initially, he became 'sound' in walk after about 2 weeks as vets advised to let him pick grass in hand twice a day, to avoid colic from box rest and we could watch him led there in walk. Around the hock, there is a huge amount of muscle to stabilise the joint and perhaps it is the same around the shoulder with your horse? Is he able to lie down and get up? To me, that was important as if he can do that, hopefully the injury/fracture is being held stable and could heal. I hope this is what is happening to your horse.

Yes can lie and stand up and seems very happy in himself

 

[utter-nutter]

When it was sound after a few days she turned it out, and it broke and had to be PTS. Vet reckoned it was a hairline fracture which then gave out completely.

Good luck with yours, it sounds like he should be fine

Yes she said that is a problem, people seeing there horses come sound quickly, think there better and then turn out and then the fracture gives out.

 

[utter-nutter]

Have no experience, but join in with the general optimistic prognosis. Had a vet talk once, he really was an old school vet and he said that he had known many hunters who had a fall and were "a bit stiff, a bit sore, not quite right" whatever and generally they were roughed off and turned out for the summer and came back in sound for another hunting season, but if you really looked at them from the back you could see that they were crooked and that is how they were for the rest of their lives.

It sounds as though the vets are pretty optimistic and the treatment sounds sensible. When he is sound again and ready to work, ask the vets about some physio as his muscles will have become tight and working in a different way. I really, really hope he is OK and get to go hunting again next season.

I'm hoping 6 months off will be the best healer, but won't bring him back into work until the vet is 100% happy, and will defy be researching physio

 

[irishdraft]

A friends horse fractured his shoulder out hunting, he was on 12 weeks box rest cross tied then carefully brought back into work, he did go on to hunt another couple of seasons before a tendon broke down