ShaunaL
Well-Known Member
Most of you know of my little yearling colt, Jedi, I have been posting him a lot lately. We gotten some pretty bad news today that I'm distraught over. If any of you have any experience with what we are going through I'd really really appreciate it
This will be a long post as I want to get all the details in.
Some history, Jedi came home in late May. He was lame on his right rear when he arrived with the hauler but he also had a pretty good scratch on his front right leg so we figured he fell in the trailer. He seemed fine by the next morning. I gave him a few weeks to settle in before starting show conditioning. As soon as I started working him he went lame again, same leg. On the advice of our vet (my husband is a small animal vet but we have a great guy who helps him with our minis) we put him on stall-rest. Very frustrating, he's bored, I'm bored, we missed 3 shows
Fast-forward to now ~ he seemed ok on that leg in the stall so we decided to slowly start exercising him again. A week or two ago (when we took the pics I've been posting) I worked him very gently one time in the yard. Walked him for a bit first, took some stacked pics, then let him trot around the yard a bit... he pulled up 3 legged lame after 2 times around.
Sigh... ok, of course I put him up right away, called our vet to schedule x-rays (was our plan if he went lame again with working). The x-rays were done this morning and I just got a devastating phone call with the results.
The films are bring sent to a radiologist for a second opinion so I'm trying to keep it together until then but it appears that Jedi suffered a crushing injury (most likely a kick from another horse) to his growth plate at some point. It looks like it's been trying to heal over time, and failing, obviously. He also suspects torn ligaments in there, altho those would be the least of our concerns.
He has given Jedi a guarded prognosis pending the radiologist's report
Growth plate injuries in young horses, especially a crushing injury like this one, are really not good.
I can't even believe this, he's so happy and good-natured about the whole thing, it's been hard for me to really accept the magnitude of his injury. I am trying to stay calm until we hear from the radiologist and see what he thinks. I am willing to do surgery or whatever it takes to make him pain-free if there's anything we can do but my vet did not sound hopeful. He says that even if he makes it there's almost no chance of him being able to be driven or do much activity. I don't even care about that right now, I just want him alive and pain-free!
Have any of you experienced this in your young horses? Have you had good results with surgery, stall rest, etc? You can PM me if you don't want to post it.
Thanks for listening, I feel a little better sharing it
Some history, Jedi came home in late May. He was lame on his right rear when he arrived with the hauler but he also had a pretty good scratch on his front right leg so we figured he fell in the trailer. He seemed fine by the next morning. I gave him a few weeks to settle in before starting show conditioning. As soon as I started working him he went lame again, same leg. On the advice of our vet (my husband is a small animal vet but we have a great guy who helps him with our minis) we put him on stall-rest. Very frustrating, he's bored, I'm bored, we missed 3 shows
Fast-forward to now ~ he seemed ok on that leg in the stall so we decided to slowly start exercising him again. A week or two ago (when we took the pics I've been posting) I worked him very gently one time in the yard. Walked him for a bit first, took some stacked pics, then let him trot around the yard a bit... he pulled up 3 legged lame after 2 times around.
Sigh... ok, of course I put him up right away, called our vet to schedule x-rays (was our plan if he went lame again with working). The x-rays were done this morning and I just got a devastating phone call with the results.
The films are bring sent to a radiologist for a second opinion so I'm trying to keep it together until then but it appears that Jedi suffered a crushing injury (most likely a kick from another horse) to his growth plate at some point. It looks like it's been trying to heal over time, and failing, obviously. He also suspects torn ligaments in there, altho those would be the least of our concerns.
He has given Jedi a guarded prognosis pending the radiologist's report
Have any of you experienced this in your young horses? Have you had good results with surgery, stall rest, etc? You can PM me if you don't want to post it.
Thanks for listening, I feel a little better sharing it