Denver Veterinary Clinic
Dealing with Horse Splints
A splint is a soft swelling or a bone-like enlargement between a horse’s splint bone and cannon bone. Symptoms can vary from a minor unsightly blemish to the severity of the horse becoming lame. Symptoms of an acute or new splint include:
Old splints, called cold splints, turn into hard bumps or blemishes and are no longer painful for the horse.
What Causes Splints?
Several causes lead to splints, but the syndrome is most common in young horses where the ligament that attaches the splint bone to the cannon bone has yet to harden into bone. When this ligament stretches or tears new bone is laid down, resulting in a firm swelling. Splints in young horses typically occur on the inside of the front legs, where they bear most of their weight.
This syndrome can occur in hoses of any age if they suffer a trauma or blow to the leg. These traumatic splints occur in either the outside or inside of the leg. They happen just as frequently to the hind legs as they do to the front legs.
Treatment
To help reduce the size of the lump, you should wrap the leg and let the horse rest until the splint cools out, meaning that there is no longer any heat or pain. It is a good idea to alternate between cold therapy and sweat wraps to reduce the tissue reaction and the size of the lump. The size of the splint will only go down while the splint is hot. In most case a permanent blemish will remain, but the horse will more than likely not be lame.
Visit Your Local Denver Veterinarian Clinic
If you own a horse and suspect that it may be suffering from a splint you need to have it x-rayed immediately to detect if there is a fracture. For more information on horse splints or to make an x-ray,
contact your local
Denver vet clinics today.