up date on suspected tendon sheath infection,

[leanne123]

well the wound has healed nicely, the infection is gone and it didn't reach the tendon sheath, the swelling is reduced in the knee but still not completely gone.
well i had the vet back out 2 weeks ago to check his leg and although the swelling has gone down alot and the wound has healed. hes still not getting any better hes in pain when he turns and really struggles when he trys to turn on his bad side, and hes showing signs of lameness not bad but you can see hes feeling his leg if you know what i mean.
the vet gave him a weeks course of anti inflamatrys and said to take him on short walks in straight lines to get him moving as hes been on box rest for almost 14 weeks now.
the vet came back last week to check him again , there was still no change so we decided to x ray his knee and just above to see what was going on.
the vet rang me later and said that there is trauma damage to the front of the bone just above the knee. the surface of the bone has come away from the rest of the bone. and to put him back on box rest and he will come back out again in 20 days to check him and decide where we go from then.
have any of you heard of such an injury or know of any sites that i could find out more info on this please.
thanks for reading and taking an interest leanne.

 

[Dougie]

oh thats sh*t, poor boy. sorry no experiance of bone dying through trauma. hope it all works out

dougie xx

p.s i would still be requesting a referral...lame after this length of time isnt acceptable, i would expect vets to have picked this p much quicker but hey thats me.

p.s.s im not having a go at you

 

[Lucy_Ally]

Slab fractures of the 3rd carpal bone are quite common in racehorses, there are surgeries that can be performed which your vet will probably discuss with you should they feel conservative management isn't working. The prognosis is usually good though with a high percentage of racers returning to racing, recouperation time can be up to 11 months however.
Good luck, bones usually heal better than tendons though which is something to be thankful for!

 

[leanne123]

thanks will do a search on slab fractures.
the vet is saying its worse than he thought, and he has sent another vet from the same practise to examine him too for a second opinion. he says we could lazer it over a period of time that could make it heal faster but may not actually heal as good as it would if left to heal alone.
he wasn't showing any lameness until just over 2 weeks ago which is why i had the vet back out and decided to have it x rayed. as i've had loads of broken bones myself before i had a feeling it would show up a hairline fracture at the worst.
at the moment we are thinking of giving him a bit more time to heal itself , and with it being winter were not really missing out just yet.
we were going so well with the schooling though before this happened, looks like were gonna be sitting on the side lines a long while yet though.
i really don't mind that though, i just hope to god hes gonna make a full recovery in the end, and hes loving all his massages with muscle rub and his leg being clayed up twice a day. which he likes to get all over his nose and then rub all over my jacket and hair. (lol, he finds that quite amusing)
thankyou both

 

[Louby]

Really sorry to hear about your horse, I really hope you get some better news in 3 weeks.
My vet mentioned laser treatment too for my boys fracture, he said research shown it helped to heal it faster, he hasnt had any though as its healing quite well on its own. I dont know anything about fractured bones in horses but Ive had to cross tie my poor horse for 6 weeks up to now so he cant lie down. Have you been told to?

 

[leanne123]

no because hes so big at 18.3hh he dosn't lie down that much in the stable. hes getting really bored and fed up though now.

 

[Patches]

I know nothing about this sort of thing, but is there a possibility that the infection has eaten into the bone and caused this damage? You say he wasn't lame until about 2 weeks ago so I'm assuming that this fracture had happened when the problems with infection first started 14 weeks ago.


Rotten luck, I do hope he gets sorted soon.