Update: pedal fracture Horse folks, WWYD in this situation?

[2pinkmom]

We recently moved into a new rental. Part of the deal was that two off-the-track TBs pretty much came with it. They were acquired by the landlord as pasture ornaments, and I think he realized he was in over his head with them. They lived on his weekend farm, with a farm manager looking in on them occasionally. He is a lovely guy that would pay for anything the horses needed, but not knowing much about them, only did what the farm manager told him he ought to do. My husband was excited, I kind of sighed but agreed to take them. I needed a companion for my old Percheron gelding anyway. I also figured that if i came out of the deal with one trail sound horse, i would consider myself ahead of the game. I met the horses. One looked slightly off, the other fine. The healthy one looked about 4, the injured one about 2.

Fast forward about a month. My friend and I go to pick up the horses. The bay that had looked off to me the last time hobbled up on two legs. Our mouths both dropped, but there was no way I could leave that horse there alone. The problem was in the right back foot, with a lameness coming and going on the left front. I had my vet out to examine the two and do fecal samples, etc. The chestnut got a clean bill of health. He is actually a really nice mover, and I'll be sending him off to the trainer for a couple of months. The bay apparently suffered a catastrophic injury on the track. The vet isolated it as the foot, and nerve-blocked to see if there was an abbscess. Even with a nerve block, it was obvious something was horribly wrong. He still couldn't back up, and he preferred to rest it on the toe. The coffin joint is bulging, pointing to a broken coffin bone. We opted not to X-Ray, since it was obvious. The only question was whether it was clean through or just affecting the wings. I asked her point blank if considering euthanasia was jumping the gun. She said she thought it was perfectly justified, given his age, and the fact that he is obviously in pain. Both horses are actually 4.5. The bay just looks young because he is under-developed from being muscled off the food and/or lack of appetite from pain. We decided to see what 30 days of a proper diet would do. I've been stabling everyone to eat, and giving the bay 4 pounds of rice bran pellets along with beet pulp, ration balancer, and all the hay he wants.


X-rayed today and found a rather impressive pedal fracture going up through the coffin joint. The vet can't tell how old the injury is because the bone never looks knit on X-Ray. Given his level of underdevelopment combined with the information I got from the farm manager, it seems most likely the injury was sustained on the track. Unfortunately, his tattoo is completely illegible - black skin on his upper lip and dark ink. The prognosis for soundness isn't great.

The foot seems to be getting worse. Last night when I went to bring them in, all he-- broke loose. The bay kept charging my percheron, biting him hard on the flanks and anywhere else he could reach. It took me 15 minutes to get them in because I had to get behind the gate several times to avoid the melée. Once in, he fought over his stall door with the chestnut, and gave me the stink-eye when I entered the stall (slowly) to feed him. This morning, he charged back from the far paddock to attack the Percheron when I brought him out. I swung the halter at him and ran him off.

I think, coupled with other signs, that this behavior indicates a change in his pain level. I am experienced enough to handle this behavior, but it just isn't a good point in my life to do so. I am alone most of the day with two small daughters, and I would have a real problem if I got clobbered. And my percheron shouldn't have to live with this horse gunning for him. I'm leaning towards euthanizing him at this point. My rationale is that he's been off the track at least a year, and the break hasn't healed. He is in some degree of pain, and it cannot be managed by anti-inflammitories or he will hurt himself worse. Given his breed, age and behavior so far, he is not going to be attractive to people as a companion horse. I can give him a comfortable existence and death. If I sell him or give him away, I can virtually guarantee he will not find the same with someone else.

If this was your horse and your life, WWYD? My husband is upset with me because I already had to euthanize my old TB in the fall. He's calling me the equine Dr. kevorkean. :-(. Do you think I'm jumping the gun here?

 

[muddyhorse]

I would put him down. He is in pain. you have taken reasonable steps to alleviate the pain it has not worked.

As for hubby tell him to go in and feed him

 

[patandchickens]

It sounds to me like he is in a lot of pain from a likely-basically-intractable injury. (The latter is a big factor, IMO -- it would be one thing if this were something you could realistically expect to pretty much go away with a few months' treatment, but I seriously doubt it from what you say).

As long as you can get the horse's owner (landlord) to sign on, I would advocate ending his suffering.

Sorry, it's tough, hang in there,

Pat

 

[babyblue]

imho I would put him down. hes not sound, time and vet care cant make it better. hes a danger to humans and other animals, the safest and kindest thing is to relieve him of pain and the only way to do that is put him down.

 

[WingingIt]

I don't currently own any horses, so I want to make that clear up front, but it sounds to me that he's in worse pain than before. Your right that a lot of time and a month of you care have happened and he's hurting worse now than before. I think putting him down is the kind thing to do. Is the owner aware of everything that's been going on, or did 'comes with the place' mean they are totally yours now and your the new owner? (Sorry, I wasn't clear on that part.)

 

[lil'turkeymama]

I would have him put down.You'll be doing him and your other horses a kind favor.It is not heartless or mean,just the right thing to do.Sorry you have to go though that again but it will be a relief once its over with.

 

[Gloria's Gang]

When my mare was 27 I had to make the hardest decision of my life. She was very arthritic in her legs, had cushins disease and a large mass on her shoulder. She required lots of expensive meds for the cushins that I could not afford. I also had two small children. She was miserable and depressed. I owned her for 17 years and was not about to send her to someone else in that condition. I had several long conversations with my vet about putting her down. He reassured me that, given the circumstances, it was the humane thing to do. I know that I tried everything for her and gave her the best, most spoiled life a horse could have.

It seems you have tried everything and given this horse every opportunity to heal. You also have to think of your safety, your childrens and your other pets. I commend you for trying so hard to give this horse another chance and you have my condolences. Deciding to euthanize an animal is horrible.

 

[welsummerchicks]

It sure sounds like he's getting aggressive at feeding time, but I don't think it's clear that means his pain has increased. Horse relations and behavior change over time, and it could actually mean the horse is feeling better.

Sounds like you'll put him down.

Me, I'd have the foot xrayed, and find out what's going on with it. I wouldn't have waited on the xray, but say I had, that might affect the prognosis.

Without xrays, the diagnosis is only a guess. It's not clear it's a fracture, despite the bulge - it could be a keratoma, cancer, chip, a foreign body that has gotten lodged inside his foot, or any number of other things, that lump might be an old healed injury and have nothing to do with his pain or problems.

It's possible he could have broken a bone in his foot at the track and they didn't feel like repairing it, but given how neglected he was out with the previous owner, I'm betting he stepped on something in the pasture where the two of them were hanging out with so little oversight for so long.

You said when you first saw him he was slightly lame, the second time, he was much lamer. That sounds really odd, but it also sounds like he got that injury in the field.

If something has gotten embedded in the foot, or punctured the foot, it would probably need to be cleaned out and all the affected tissue removed. These injures often heal very well, sometimes they don't. Sometimes, if a horse steps on something long and sharp that penetrates the sole of the foot, it is not salvageable.

If it was a keratoma, I'd have the keratoma surgery done and plan for it to take a long time for the hoof to heal and grow out.

If it was a pedal fracture, I'd make a plan with the vet about what to do. If he thought the treatment would reduce pain and improve the horse's quality of life, I'd set up a meeting with me, the farrier and vet so everyone was on the same page, probably wind up he'd shoe the horse with the EDSS plate and that plastic hoof packing gunk, and put the horse on stall rest with a long acting sedative, or whatever the vet thought he needed.

The EDSS plate and the whole process that goes along with it, is very, very successful with pedal fractures and I would expect that like many horses, this one would be completely sound after treatment.

 

[EweSheep]

Keeping in mind, it would be very expensive to treat the horse with numberous x-rays and all the treatments you need to get this horse better.

I would put him down even I don't have alot of information but being nasty to humans and other horses, no one would want him.

 

[2pinkmom]

To clarify a few things:
-The horses now technically belong to me. We executed a contract and I bought them for a dollar each.
- they have only been with me for about 2 weeks.
-he was certainly lame when I first saw him, but I'll add the caveat that I didn't see him walk more than a few feet. In some part, the lameness on the left front contributed to the shock value of the second meeting. That has healed and just appears to have been a strain, perhaps from compensating for the back foot.
- The landlord kept them in a safe field, with as much high-quality forage as they would like. They didn't get a ration balancer or much in the way of everyday handling. They received basic farrier care.
- the farm manager mentioned to me that he was told that they came off the track due to injuries. One thing that raised a red flag to me even prior to this is that a vet gave them vaccines without doing any kind of physical examination on them. I called to see if I could have their records, and they could tell me nothing. No ages, heart rate, respiration, nothing. I believe that in this state it is technically illegal for a vet to administer any kind of vaccine or prescription drug without doing a basic physical. I'm wondering if this was deliberate, as the contract states that they are "young and thought to be healthy". I think this injury existed all along and they just didn't want to delve into it for obvious reasons.
- the landlord only had them 6 months. While I agree that it is possible the bulge in the joint is an old injury, It seems unlikely he could have lost that much condition that fast. I seriously thought he was a long yearling when I saw him. The landlord seems to have beenctold by the farm he came from that he was 2.
-the area around the bulge is warm.

I do think the vet is probably correct. she is one of
the best in the area. She has never led me astray before, and tends to be pretty balanced. She'll push for diagnostics if she thinks the situation warrants it. We started with the most obvious and worked to eliminate potential diqnosises from there. There was just
something about her reaction that spoke volumes. While it could be something more exotic, given this bpy's age and background, if it
walks like a duck, it probabably is. But Welsummer brings up a good point. And there certainly isn't anything to lose in X-raying the foot.

The thought had occurred to me that he could be getting fresh because he's feeling a bit better. I just don't see any correlating improvement in the lameness level. Again, that may or may not mean anything. I'm going to kick this around some more before making a decision. They were both coming along pretty nicely. With all the snow and ice, we haven't been able to do any real ground work. But we've been working 5-10 minutes every day on standing and picking up feet and respecting humans' personal space. It was just like something snapped the other night. His eyes were different somehow. I didn't feel like he would necessarily come after me for coming into the stall (I'm always in the habit of getting the horse's attention prior to stepping in), but he was definitely sour looking, poor soul.