Horse Kicked in Forearm, Still hot after TWO weeks!

[noahsgroom]

My horse was kicked by another horse on a trail ride. The kick was directly on the long extensor muscle covering the radius.

The horse who kicked my horse did not have back shoes. The skin was not broken.

Two days later when back in town, i had the vet out and had X rays. No fractures. I was told to ice, sweat at night, bute and rest for several days.

Now, 14 days later, the injury site is still warmer than normal and the muscle is still swolen - but does not feel like fluid.

The vet can not come back out to do more xrays / ultrasound for two more days. The mentioned bone bruising, soft tissue damage and sequestrums.

Anyone have experience with this?

[GraceLikeRain]

My guy had that same kick but it was completely resolved in about 7 days. I too would be worried about swelling and heat two weeks out. I’ll be interested to see what others think could be going on.

[keysfins]

Compartment syndrome a possibility?

[2tempe]

My horse did something to cause “significant trauma” to withers, 3processes impacted. Swelling went away VERY slowly and remained hot to touch, at least this long. Turned out there was a deep pocket of fluid about 3 inches below the wither peak. Could not feel it, only visible on ultrasound.

[silverdog]

If the vet is talking sequestrum with no wound then there may be some bone chips in there. Not to scare you but a friend of mine had a horse with the same injury - told no fracture. A week later the vet was picking bone fragments out of a wound and 10 days later they euthanized him after the bone broke when the horse stood up in the morning. Please take your horse to a referral center and get really good rads taken to definitely r/o any sort of fracture.

[feuerkracher]

I had something similar happen to a young horse. No visible fractures on the initial xray, but 3 weeks later, we xrayed again and found a sequestrum. It was surgically removed and she is sound and happy. Fingers crossed it will be as easy for your guy.

[Ghazzu]

It is good that the area is going to be reradiographed.
It is not uncommon for hairline fracture to be non-visible on initial rads, and visible after enough time has passed that the remodeling process has progressed.

(although I hope your horse is merely muscle sore from a significant bruise!)