Wither fractures/injuries?

Illusion100

Illusion100

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Has anyone had the unfortunate experience of having a horse who has suffered a wither fracture(s)?

What was the experience/diagnostics/treatment and end result?

Any success stories?

Sorry if this brings up any bad memories but any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
 
A friend had one which went up in a lorry, resulting in a fracture. It was PTS fairly swiftly after diagnosis I'm afraid but I don't know the details.
 
One on our yard is currently recovering from fractured withers after going down in the trailer. He has had several months off work but should be given the go ahead to start ridden work next month. The vet seems hopeful that he will make a full recovery.
 
My friends mare fractured her wither by being bowled over by a bigger horse in the field while tarting about. They only found out about it after the event when she went in for a bone scan for something else :-/ she has always compete
 
I had an extra heroes who I discovered had had at some stage fractured his wither quite badly, he needed a lot of regular physio and was tricky to fit a saddle to but he did cope.

I knew another who was up rideable. And had to be pts.
 
I had a mare who suddenly started rearing, and was diagnosed with a fractured wither. She had some sort of laser (? not sure I've remembered that right) treatment and it did heal, but she had always found being ridden stressful - we'd rescued her from a very poor home - and so we decided to retire her. We lost her soon afterwards, but it was colic, not her withers. The vet thought she might have done it in the field rolling on a stone.
 
I know of a TB stallion that broke his withers in training aged 3, he was gelded and rehabbed and became a lovely riding club horse. It didn't effect him in later life (he must be about 9/10 now), the only thing was it made him about 15.3!
 
I have a mare who fractured her withers as a 5 year old after rearing up and falling over backwards when refusing to load. She landed withers first onto the ramp of the horsebox and crushed a number of vertebrae. The vet at the time gave her a very poor prognosis and you could physically see that her withers were crushed. It was confirmed by x-ray and fairly conclusive. I can't remember the treatment but I think she was box rested for a very short time and then out in the field. Think she was only off for about 6 months in total. She went on to make a full recovery and evented consistently at 2 star level until she retired at 17. She is still happy in the field now at 24. She did get some stiffness under saddle as she got older which could possibly have been due to the injury. Her withers look weird and it affected her saddle fit a bit but thats about it.
 
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