Treatment
The horse should have a reduced workload for 1–3 weeks. If a trainer does not decrease the workload sufficiently, and the splint bone continues to receive concussion, the injury is likely to continue or worsen. Light exercise on soft ground is best for a horse with splints, as work can help encourage the needed bone growth to heal the splint. Those trainers concerned with the cosmetic appearance of their horse usually prefer to hand-walk twice daily and keep the animal stalled until the splint is resolved, eliminating the chance that the splint will accidentally be knocked during work and the swelling increased.
Several days of cold therapy, sweats, and NSAIDs can help a "hot" splint. NSAIDs can help reduce the inflammation and help the bone growth by doing so. However, none of these treatments are incredibly effective. The most important factor is time. Counter-irritants, which increase inflammation, only hinder the formation of bone and can actually prolong the healing process.
Surgery to remove the fractured end of the splint bone, particularly in the lower third, is typically successful. However, surgical removal of the bone growth in large splints, performed by chiseling it away, usually does not produce satisfying results. Often, bone growth is stimulated by the surgery, and the size of the splint is increased. Only about a third of the time is surgery at all successful.
Read more about this topic: Splints
Famous quotes containing the word treatment:
“If the study of all these sciences, which we have enumerated, should ever bring us to their mutual association and relationship, and teach us the nature of the ties which bind them together, I believe that the diligent treatment of them will forward the objects which we have in view, and that the labor, which otherwise would be fruitless, will be well bestowed.”
—Plato (c. 427–347 B.C.)
“To me, nothing can be more important than giving children books, It’s better to be giving books to children than drug treatment to them when they’re 15 years old. Did it ever occur to anyone that if you put nice libraries in public schools you wouldn’t have to put them in prisons?”
—Fran Lebowitz (20th century)
“The treatment of African and African American culture in our education was no different from their treatment in Tarzan movies.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)