I just thought I would throw this out there and see if anyone has had a
similar situation, or who might know what the healing time would be for
fractured ribs. 6 weeks ago my husband and I got home from a conference
and decided to let the horses out to play and get some exercise. He
put out our two gelding who are 5 and 11 years old. They have been turned
out together before so he thought it would not be a big deal, plus he
decided to hang out to watch them run and mess around. Well to make a long
story short they ticked each other off somehow and turned their back ends
towards each other and went to town kicking. My husband could not run in
there fast enough to prevent injury. Both had a small cut on the lower
hind legs and my guy had a patch over the ribs on the left side where one
could see the hair missing. This was in the evening so we made sure
both parties were eating and drinking well. On the trot out my horse was
off and I could not tell due to the darkness exactly where the pain was coming
from. The next morning at the vet he said legs looked good and there was no way
to really diagnose fractured ribs and so only time will tell. Laid him off
for 2 weeks with self exercise time he looked good. Had a little
pendulous swelling under the shaved patch where he was kicked, no swelling
in legs. Rode him and was thrilled for the first 3 miles and then he
started favoring left side. Took him home trotted out and appears to be
left side lameness but not a trace of anything in tendons, knees, etc.
Question is then if ribs have been fractured would they favor that side, and
what would the healing time be. I have not even attempted to ride him
again. When he is out messing around in arena he does not appear
lame. I just do not want to miss something. Any help would be
appreciated.
