Jingles!!!
Keep us updated!
Just wanted to give everyone a little update. Today I watched my little girl walk across her stall weight bearing on the leg with the fracture! I know it is early yet but love being able to see some progress in such a short time.
GREAT !!! Thanks for your update ~ Jingles continue ~
Great !!!
Jingles & AO ~~
Just wanted to give everyone a little update. Today I watched my little girl walk across her stall weight bearing on the leg with the fracture! I know it is early yet but love being able to see some progress in such a short time
Yes, itās amazing how quickly they become weight bearing again! Sounds like things are on the right track! Keep us updated.
[QUOTE=alyssap87;5517142]
Just wanted to give everyone a little update. Today I watched my little girl walk across her stall weight bearing on the leg with the fracture! I know it is early yet but love being able to see some progress in such a short time.[/QUOTE]
Ours was also a yearling filly very lame, originally thought it was a hoof abscess on the hard frozen ground. She was being careful in the herd and no-one was bothering her, but after a couple of weeks with no change finally had the vet out to check her. I should mention that we raise the youngsters up country with a fellow breeder who has large acreage and a dry, cold winter unlike our wet one at the coast.
Turns out it was a displaced Olecranon fracture into the joint. I drove 4+ hours each way in December up the mountains and haul her back home where the equine vets are, and we opted for surgery. 10 hole ASIF plate, minimal weight bearing her choice initially ā¦ she was a super patient.
She is now 10 and a great broodmare, trots sound ā¦ unfortunately a second injury at the same time, we suspect kick, meant no riding career. Hers would not have had a good outcome on stall rest, and she does have a little arthritis showing on x-ray, but a pedigree we couldnāt replace since her sire had died just the month before.
Good luck with your filly. Hope she comes around and heals well.
I know you already decidedā¦but for the sake of discussionā¦to me it would depend on if it was displaced or not and by how much. A displaced fx = surgery, a non or not much displaced one would be stall rest. FWIW I have a 13 YO daughter with the same injury (fell down the stairs at home)ā¦the surgeon has her on āstall restā (sling/no gym/no sports) and monthly x rays with only a small displacement. Teenaged humans get antsy on stall rest too!
My experience with this type of fracture, unfortunately was a lot different than what most people have already mentioned.
My 6 year old AQHA gelding (trusted partner) had his olecranon fratured in 03. We had extensive x-rays taken, but the fracture was in so many pieces that I was given a 0% percent recovery, even with sugery (basically it was non-operable). We sent the x-rays down to Pullman for a second opinion, and they gave us the same general outcome. Sadly, we opted to go with the humane option at that point and my gelding was put down.
I sincerely hope that your filly makes a great recovery, Iām encouraged to hear that so many others have had success with this type of injury.
[QUOTE=Amoroso;5528388]
My experience with this type of fracture, unfortunately was a lot different than what most people have already mentioned.
My 6 year old AQHA gelding (trusted partner) had his olecranon fratured in 03. We had extensive x-rays taken, but the fracture was in so many pieces that I was given a 0% percent recovery, even with sugery (basically it was non-operable). We sent the x-rays down to Pullman for a second opinion, and they gave us the same general outcome. Sadly, we opted to go with the humane option at that point and my gelding was put down.
I sincerely hope that your filly makes a great recovery, Iām encouraged to hear that so many others have had success with this type of injury.[/QUOTE]
sadly a compound fracture is a whole different thing.
[QUOTE=camohn;5527064]
A displaced fx = surgery, a non or not much displaced one would be stall rest. [/QUOTE]
Yes, my girlās fracture is not displaced. We actually brought her out of her stall a few steps today to see how she was walking and if you didnāt know she had the fracture you wouldnāt be able to tell. It has been a little over 10 days and I am really shocked at the improvement. It will be really interesting to see the 30 day x-rays. I donāt know if it helps but we have the ComfortStall flooring in the stalls (like padded floors). I also hung a hay bag so she doesnāt have to stress that area to reach down for hay. But am really hopeful for a full recovery at this point.
alyssap87 - that is really good news! Iām sure the comfort stall flooring helps (minimizing concussion), and the hay net is a hreat idea.
Best wishes - and thanks for the update.
A little late to this thread, but back in 1981/82, I had a 3 year old pony with a nasty fracture of the olecranon process - completely separated, nasty fragments and bits everywhere. It happened Halloween night - some kids let him out of his stall and of course he made his way over to the mare that was in an isolated stall (with only a stall guard) because she kkicked stall walls so badly she was going to break her own legs. We found him about 24 feet from her door. Not too hard to put together what happened.
Anyway, the vet who came out on the ER call was not my normal farm vet from the practice, but I knew him really well since he came out to the surgery/layup farm I worked at (I had the layup/surgical stalls so I knew all the vets in the practice, including the senior partners). I told John that if we had to put down Rebel (he was a rescue and my uber favorite), I was OK with that, but I needed time, so he needed to let me know my probabilities, as it were. No sneaking this one up on me, let me know!
John, ummm, well he went on to be a really good trainer, but his skillset was not in delivering 20something girls bad news, flirting was more his style. So he kept saying it would be OK, it would be fine. I wanted to believe him. Even after I saw the x-rays.
So he told me we were going to put Rebel in a stall for 6 months and things were going to be just fine. And I believed him.
Within that 6 months he gave up being a vet and decided to become a trainer. I think that worked out well for him, I used to see him on the Derby trail quite often.
So 6 months later I started turning Rebel out. On his first day out he jumped a 4 board fence (he was under 12 hands, but this was his trademark move) and ran around the asphalt parking around the barn for 20 minutes before letting himself be caught.
I think we declared him sound.
Withing 5 months I was back to showing him in driving as I had before, and I happened to get a shot with the broken leg fully extended in a near identical frame from a picture before the injury. It was evident he had the same extension as before. So I got a copy of the old pic and the new pic and sent it to the senior members of the practice as sort of a āthanks and look at the success story!ā
It was odd, the senior partner who did most of the surgery and another one who was the real leg lameness guy never talked to me about Rebel while he was on stall rest. But they were damn near immortal in my eyes (two of the three partners went on to be presidents of the AAEP and the third was actually more well known and just settled for the Emeritus title) so they were not exactly slouches in their field and I certainly was in awe enough that I wasnāt going to talk to them about a subject they hadnāt bought up. Besides, my regular vet who took over the case after John was done, was part of the practice and Iām sure he told them anything they needed to know, right?
But I was so proud of how well Rebel was doing, I had to share, right?
Heh heh, thatās when I learned that John was told in no. uncertain. terms. to tell me that the ponyās ONLY option based on the x-rays was to be put down. End of story. So John, big weenie that he was, came out to the farm and told me ā¦ āstall restā. My vet figuring he didnāt want to be part of this mess, opted for silence, figuring a month into this white hot mess would be called in to do the dirty work and put Rebel down. Except Rebel just kind of never actually needed it. He stood very still for a while, and then he moved a little, but not a lot. And then he moved around some more, but by god that pony took care of himself, and we were all just assuming 6 months stall rest and he was gonna be fine (life WAS simpler before the internet, thatās for sure).
Needless to say the sr. vets were somewhat confused and then surprised to get success story pics from the ādeadā pony!
And he went on until I lost him at 27 from colic, and he had sticky stifles from standing around for 6 months and later in life developed DSLS that retired him from driving at around 21, but the one thing he NEVER was, was lame from that break.
This is Rebel, a few weeks before I lost him
A few years later (hey, this was thankfully before the internet) I found out how there was a newly developed surgery - bone plate and screws - it had just been tried back then IIRC, and with fairly limited success - like maybe 20% for breeding soundness back then. But they sure werenāt doing it in Florida - or practically anywhere except New Bolton. Not that I had a trailer or that kind of money, so John may have been a weenie, ending up making the right decision for the wrong reasons, but I was damned grateful!
Alyssa87 -
How did things turn out. I have a coming 2 year old with a possible olecranon fracture. Weāre opting for stall rest i a SoftStall stall.
[QUOTE=Canterbury Court;6818075]
Alyssa87 -
How did things turn out. I have a coming 2 year old with a possible olecranon fracture. Weāre opting for stall rest i a SoftStall stall.[/QUOTE]
She healed perfectly and is now coming 3 and will be started under saddle in the next few months! We will see how she holds up under saddle but she sure can play hard in the pasture with no problems whatsoever. Her x-rays were great- couldnāt even tell there was an injury there afterwards.
1 Like
I should also mention that we kept her on Platinum Performance Osteon during recovery. Not sure how much of a difference it made in her recovery but thought it was worth it to try and was recommended by the vet.
Good luck Canterbury Court and keep us updated!
We had a horse get kicked while out to pasture and fracture his elbow. We took him to the hospital and had surgery done. The horse came back 100% with no scar and no related hinderances. He continued in full work for another 5 plus years before being retired for unrelated reasons.
One of my mares did this. I did not do surgery. Just gave her time. No stall rest. She was quiet anyway and didnāt move around much. It healed perfectly on itās own in about 8 weeks.
We had one. We did the surgery and the fracture was plated. She was 100% sound for performance.
We have her in standing wraps on both sides to she bears weight equally. Wonāt eat her bute molasses grain but is already moving better. Swelling down a litle.
Daughter strained her back practically carrying the filly out of the field to the gate and getting her in a trailer for the 150 yard trip to the barn. She is my hero! Getting drugs and a back rub.
We have her in standing wraps on both sides to she bears weight equally. Wonāt eat her bute molasses grain but is already moving better. Swelling down a litle.
Daughter strained her back practically carrying the filly out of the field to the gate and getting her in a trailer for the 150 yard trip to the barn. She is my hero! Getting drugs and a back rub.
Wishing her a full recovery, Cindy!
Our filly did really well and is now a perfectly sound mare. 
