Coon footed or sesamoid bone fracture?

So at the horse shelter were I'm volunteering is a mare, for about 1 year, with very strange front legs. I google it and found an article about Fracture Of The Sesamoid Bones

Here is a picture that seems to show exactly the same condition as this mare that I'm talking about.




Here are some pictures, she must gain a lot of weight but she is way better than how she came to us. The pictures are from this summer so in 6 month she gained some weight. She has 15 + years old and she is just a pasture ornament now.

She seems to be fine, she doesn't show any signs of pain. I guess that the injury is healed now.

For me it's pretty obvious that in the right foot she may have a sesamoid bone fracture but the left foot seems to be ok. Can it be a fracture only in the right foot? Or she is just coon footed with a leg injury in one foot?

She was seen by a doctor but the doctor decided that she is fine as she is so no treatment. I have no idea if the doctor gave her a diagnostic and couldn't find out.


What do you think about it?









This one is more recent than the others, is from november.



DISCLAIMER << GRAPHIC >>
Here is a video of her in the first day when she came to us. Here she is on her way to the shelter. Now she doesn't limp like that, she walks pretty normal.
Rita - Episodul 1 pe Tare.ro

I honestly have no experience with it, but from the picture and article it sure sounds like the sesamoid fracture fits the bill.

I just have to say though, bless your shelter for taking her in. The video was awful to watch, the poor dear in such bad shape with all those wounds and desperately reaching for that bread. It was heartbreaking to see. You have done a very good thing.

Poor girl : ( She looks like a sweet horse.

Someone actually rode the horse in the first picture? : /

How strange that both she and the horse in the example picture seem to have the same injuries, even down to the scrapes on the hip bone and butt. The world is full of odd coincidences. I think you probably hit the nail right on the head as far as the fracture. I am not sure but I would guess that maybe her tendons on the left front were stretched out a bit as a result of carrying most of her weight on that foot alone while her other leg healed. With the amount of injuries she has, I wonder if maybe she fell down a steep hill or maybe got hit by a car. That poor girl, Bless you guys for taking her in and giving her a much better quality life.

Do you know how she got all beat up? Looks like an amazing story, like she was attacked by an animal or something. I think you are right on with the fracture. Such a sweet looking girl.

@ShutUpJoe: She is a sweet horse even if she bites and kicks. We didn't even try to fix those issues because of her health condition. I guess that she will remain with those behavioral issues all her life. We can handle her this way with a little caution and we don't want to stress her even more than she may be.
I really don't know nothing of the first picture, I took it from the internet for exemplification. But yes, that horse looked like he had been even rode in that condition.

@Indyhorse: yes, this diagnostic is the only one I found that it seems to be more accurate. But I thought that she must have the same condition at her both front legs. But I guess that it can be only in one leg.

@Honeysuga and smrobs: Well I know where the signs are from and I can imagine how she suffered the injury. She was a carriage horse, she pulled heavy weights all her life. Even if she was so thin and starved the former owners put her at work in this condition. So I guess that because of her wick condition she couldn't pull the carriage full with steel (the gipsies from here sell steel, this is their only income). If she couldn't do her job they beat her up in order to keep her moving so her feet couldn't take it more. So basically she was forced to pull the carriage until she couldn't move it any more even with the beatings.

I saw a mare that was put to work and because she couldn't do it more was forced until her ligaments on the front feet just broke. I don't think that this is the proper term but I don't know how to say it. The fetlocks of that poor horse were reaching the ground because of the suspensory ligaments that failed to sustain it. So the mare couldn't stand up more than a minute and when she could stand up she would stand only on her fetlocks. We put her down.

So it's not an isolated case. The wounds from her back here actually from her harness and the scratches were probably from beating her up with a chain or a piece of thick steel.



And thank you all for the information. I really want to learn a lot more about horses related with health, nutrition, medicine etc. So because of that I ask things like this one. I have a lot of cases and I want to find out answers. So thank you.

I would agree that it is most likely a broken sesamoid. It seems almost as if it has calcified to remain that large. Sesamoid injuries are fairly common in racehorses, but it is usually diagnosed, treated(sometimes surgically) and the horse receives rest. The sesamoid injuries I have seen are mostly "lines" or small stress fractures. I have seen a few fully broken/shattered sesamoids, and those horses were treated and retired. I guess the horses in those pictures are examples of what happens when it goes untreated. How terrible. Her poor knees, too! I feel so sad for her, and I'm happy she is being cared for now - you are a very kind-hearted person!

Unfortunately for us is very hard to treat such injuries. The shelter has no founds for this kind of injuries. Besides of that she was very thin and the prognostic wasn't to good. So investing a lot of money in a horse like this was not an option. In that period the shelter was barely able to feed all the horses. So the injury was left untreated to heal for itself. It wasn't the best solution but it was the only solution available.
Being a pasture ornament she doesn't put a lot of stress on fer feet.

We have another horse like her at the shelter right now with the exact same problem. But his feet are in a better shape than those of this mare. I don't have pictures available of him. He has the both front fetlocks like that but without the swelling appearance. So I guess that isn't a rare injury in carriage horses too.

Oh, I didn't mean that YOU should have treated it - from the video it seems as though it was already pretty far gone.
You are doing a great thing for this poor mare...

I'd put the horse down. That is just down right pathetic.
Honestly: the shelter money could be better spend 100 different ways then 'saving' this horse. She has to be in some pain...

People don't even want the sane, healthy, ridable ones....but if you want a pasture pet; you can find a million free 'healthier' pasture pets any day around here.