My horse was diagnosed with a fracture off the back of the central tarsal in his hock.
There is the option to try shockwave therapy to see if he responds to the treatment and see if it heals.
Anyone else out there with similar experiences and if so, was shockwave used and was it successful?
Thank you for any thoughts
Not exactly the same location, but Keebler had a slab fracture of the front of the third tarsal bone. We don’t know exactly how it happened, but the usual mechanism is forced hyperextension, like getting a hind leg stuck in mud and yanking it up. He came in one day hopping lame, with what looked like a rope burn on his gaskin, so we speculate he may have rolled close to the electric fence and zapped himself then struggled up awkwardly, or he put a hind leg down in one spot near our little creek where there is some mud and yanked it.
In any case, it was a slab, about the size of your pinky fingernail, and was non-displaced. He was really lame sometimes and not lame at all at other times. this was actually a tough diagnosis to make. He healed up really nicely with just 4 months of stall rest, and although there is a slight “bump” that remains on the x-rays, it does not involve the articulating surface of the hock joints themselves and it doesn’t bother him at all any more. No shockwave–vets thought (correctly) it would heal just fine on its own.
Again, not sure if it’s even remotely relevant to your case but I hope your outcome is the same: good! 
Thank you deltawave for sharing your experience. I really appreciate it.
I have been told the prognosis is poor and am awaiting another consult on the radiographs. And I will probably get one more. It can’t hurt at this point!
My horse is comfortable and isn’t showing any signs of pain and is not on any pain meds. If you look at him you wouldn’t think anything is wrong with him. He’s currently stalled and handling it well (usually lives in pasture), attitude is good, and he is able to go on hand-walks.
I’m not sure what happened. He has had a left hind lameness for some time (which we thought might have been related to his shivers) that we just haven’t been able to figure out. Perhaps there was something there all along and it finally gave.
He heals well (you should see the pics from the rattlesnake incident last year) and my vet said he might respond to the shockwave therapy.
I hope the other vet consultations might have some different thoughts. I’ll post updates once I know more.
Thanks again!
Hi! I know this is a very old thread, but I’m curious how things worked out for your horse? My horse was just diagnosed with a crush fracture of the central tarsal bone after being lame for 6ish months. A number of vets looked at him and we tried rest, NSAIDs, etc. with zero luck. I finally decided to bite the bullet and do a CT scan, which is how we discovered this. We have no idea how it happened or when, but the affected joints are already in the process of fusing/bridging. He is unfortunately still quite lame after the recommended hock injections. Any advice would be appreciated!
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