Equine Limb Fractures

Photo by Ricardo Gomez Angel on unsplash

Prior to the 2006 Preakness Stakes, horses that broke a leg were considered beyond repair and routinely destroyed. But then came Barbaro, the thoroughbred favored to win the Preakness that year, which shattered its right hind limb in several places and underwent five hours of surgery. Its story offered hope that perhaps not all fractured limbs are beyond repair.

Equine surgeons have been successfully treating certain bone fractures for some time, even before Barbaro's accident. But the prognosis of a horse with a broken leg depends on what bones are broken. A break in one of the smaller, more distal bones in a horse's leg, for instance, may be repaired by placing a few screws during surgery.

With fractures higher up the leg, the bones are much harder to fix. The musculature in that area is much more extensive and gaining access to the surgical site can be difficult. It is also much harder to stabilize the area, as most orthopedic surgeons want to immobilize the joints both above and below the fracture sight for several weeks after surgery.

In general, injuries occurring on the racetrack involve the lower limb. Barbaro's injury was such an example, and so too was Eight Belles', the filly that collapsed after winning the 2008 Kentucky Derby.

Eight Belles' cases illustrates another issue that complicates track injuries. The average thoroughbred weighs approximately 1,000 pounds and can travel at speeds up to 40 mph. If a horse sustains an injury while barreling down the track, a simple fracture can quite quickly lead to a catastrophic injury or cause a shift in stride that affects other limbs.

Eight Belles broke both of her front ankles. Injury to one leg may have led to a change in weight bearing that caused the other to fracture. Compound fractures, in which a bone breaks through the skin, have a bleak prognosis due to the high risk of infection.

While the location of the fracture and its severity determine whether or not surgery may be feasible, there is another issue that equine surgeons have to contend with: recovery. Explaining to a horse that it needs to remain calm and not sprint back to its stall after surgery is not easy. To prevent a horse from undoing its surgeon's hard work, many horses awake on a soft air mattress, or in the case of Barbaro, come out of anesthesia while suspended in a pool of water.