Hi, my horse broke his hind left splint Bone on september 22, went through surgery and healed perfectly. After a couple of months had colic surgery with 4 months rest…lucky me this week hé broke his right splint Bone. Obviously i m pi…ed off and financially i cannot go through another surgery, vet bills etc, my question is if someone has had horses that did not get surgery to remove a bottom pièce of splint Bone and healed fairly well. Thanks a lot.
I have a horse with a broken splint bone in his hind leg. We consulted a surgeon but opted not to do anything. He is perfectly fine on it, he does get fussy with the farrier on that leg but otherwise never had issue with it. The break is towards the top of the splint bone with about 3/4" of missing bone where the break happened. I do dressage with him; no issues doing lateral movements or turns on the haunches etc…
Do you have the xray of where the fracture is?
I had a horse that also managed 2 splint bone fractures. Attempted surgery with the first (midway on right front) , but horse had an anesthesia reaction during prep and went into cardiac arrest. Anesthesiologist managed to stabilize him, but surgeon (wisely) opted not to operate. We let it heal on its own. Horse was sound in about 4 weeks. It was unsightly for a while, but over time fracture site smoothed out and unless you knew it was there, it was unnoticeable. Mid Atlantic decided that based on his medical history and the fact he wasn’t even lame, surgery was a last resort. Gave him 2 weeks off, walked him under saddle for 4 weeks and gradually put him back to work. Final x rays showed that 4 of the fragments had realigned and healed. The bottom piece was reabsorbed somehow. He was on his way back to full work at week 7.
I never had a problem with either fracture. He worked soundly (flat and jumping) until age 23 when arthritis finally caught up to him.
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I too have had a broken splint bone heal on its own. My horse broke the tip of his and after six weeks or so was fine with no issues since.
If the broken splint bone isn’t displaced they do tend to heal.
Not AT thé moment, have to Ask vet to send but looks liké thé one i had last year, thé bottom piece
If the break is “high”, more chance that it will heal well without surgery. Because of the attachments between the splint bone and cannon that are still holding the broken piece in place. Low fractures are usually removed, not as secure as the high ones. But yes, you can try wrapping it firmly, and hope that it is secure enough to heal without surgery. I’ve had one low break (was removed- it was a long time ago, and not expensive in those days), and one high break, which was just bandaged up firmly, and healed up just fine for a sound racing career and jumping career afterwards. Good luck.
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I had a horse break a hind splint bone. It was lower down and slightly displaced. There was concern that it was too far away to heal properly without surgery, but we decided to wait and see. It healed just fine and the lump was eventually pretty small.
I had a horse put a leg over a trailer divider on the long drive down to Thermal and break a hind splint bone in the process.
The splint bone break was deemed a “non issue”, with more focus on the cuts high up inside that hind leg.
He was back to showing by our 3rd week in the desert and won his High AO classes through the week.
So I guess that’s just to say that it can be anything from a relative non-issue to a more major issue. But my guy is 22 now and that particular issue hasn’t caused him any further problems.
Many, many moons ago, back in the late 70’s, I had a horse that fractured a front splint. Right after I got home from college for the summer. There was no surgery for him. We wrapped, stall-rested, and at the end of about 10 weeks, he jogged sound and I could get back on him. Just in time to go back to college. My sister got to ride him while I was at school. And she went to camp in the summer. Next time I got to ride him was during the 10 days at Christmas.
Mine IS not lame at all, hé was only sensitive when palpation thé first 3 or 4 days but still it IS broken. It s thé lower part, like 6 months ago:roll_eyes:
