Broken Tibia Fixation

This article is from the December 2020 Horse Deals magazine.

Romeo’s Road to Recovery with Ashley Renee

Queensland trail and pleasure rider, Ashley Renee, has owned six-year-old, 33-inch, Miniature Pony Romeo since he was a yearling. Less than a year after Ashley lost her Standardbred Dennis to bone cancer, Romeo suffered a life-threatening injury and Ashley had to make a distressing decision; should Romeo be humanely euthanized?

Ashley, when and how did Romeo injure himself? On the 14th of October, 2019 at 6.30am, our lives changed. After a weekend away, I didn’t lock Romeo and my Quarter Horse mare Eppy up in their separate stables as I usually do. When I went down to check the horses before leaving for work, I saw Eppy out in the paddock grazing and I found Romeo in his stable. He cried out to me and I instantly knew something was wrong. When I saw his leg was just dangling and with a mark on his leg, it was evident he had been kicked by Eppy, most likely over an argument over food. I took some deep breaths and ran up to the house to grab my phone, yelling to my partner and mum about what had happened.

What was the process of seeking veterinary care? I immediately called my vet Deb and told her what had happened. I said, “I am not putting him down!” I felt I had to be strong for Romeo, I had to be brave for him. Deb was so calm and understanding on the phone and throughout the whole process, I can never thank her enough for how professional and comforting she was. When I told her again that I didn’t want to put Romeo down, she didn’t once tell me I had to. Instead, she said, “let me make a call.”
After the call, she said to me, “there is an option. It’s not cheap and there’s no guarantee as it’s never been done before but that doesn’t make it impossible.” However, before we could go any further, we needed to get him to UQ Vets Equine Specialist at Gatton to get X-rays and assess the situation as quickly as possible.

As it was a 40 minute drive away, we strapped a PVC pipe to his back leg for support so it didn’t move. To help him stay upright and to take the weight off his back legs, we secured a 4WD snatch strap under his belly, across the float. Deb gave him some pain medication to help with the trip.

How did you make the decision to go through with the surgery? When we arrived, there was already a team of nurses along with Dr Steve Zedler waiting. They were impressed with how we had transported and kept Romeo stable during the trip. We reversed the float right into the building. Romeo was exhausted so my partner Myles suggested we carry him in. This was a new idea for the vets but because Romeo was tiny and with the big team available, it was possible. While Dr Steve and a nurse held his front legs, Myles and another nurse grabbed onto each end of the strap under him, and carried him into the X-ray room.

After his X-rays, we were called in to discuss our options, of which, there were only the two, put him down or surgery. There were plenty of reasons why going ahead with the surgery was the choice I wanted to make. He only weighed 137kg and as the injury didn’t pierce the skin, there was little chance of infection. From what we could see on the X-rays, it was a simple break but Dr Steve told us, “while this hasn’t been done, it doesn’t mean it can’t be done.” All going well, Romeo’s size meant he could make a full recovery. However, Steve added, “once we open him up for surgery, if we find the damage is not able to be fixed with plates, I’ll give you a call.”

With the cost of the surgery weighing on our minds, Romeo was like our child and deserved this chance. With that, we said goodbye to our renovation savings and decided to go ahead. Romeo was carried to a stall where he waited while they prepared for surgery as it needed to be done as soon as possible.

That night, after a seven-hour surgery, Dr Steve called us. Everything had gone well, using 2 plates and 20 screws on his right tibia.

What did post-operative care involve? It didn’t take Romeo long to work out how to get up and down without using his broken leg. Before coming home he was able to put his full weight on it while resting his other back leg. Dr Steve sent me a video of Romeo 36 hours after surgery walking up and down the aisle of the hospital. That was all the reassurance I needed that we’d made the right decision. If Romeo was brave enough to walk 36 hours after surgery, he deserved to be given this chance.

We visited Romeo every second day, taking lots of treats. He was well cared for and had clearly stolen the hearts of all the staff.

Were there any complications? Considering the complexity of his surgery, the only complication he had, was that he suffered from an infection on his lungs and pneumonia from the anaesthetic. Thankfully this was treated easily by antibiotics. As it had taken a while to develop after the surgery, it took three rounds of antibiotics to fully clear.

How long was Romeo restricted to a stable and/or yard and how did he cope? After 11 days at UQ, Romeo was able to come home. He was confined to his three-by-three metre stable for eight weeks. He did so well, he coped far better than I thought he would. I set up a camera in his stall so I could watch him while I was at work, which was a great reassurance for me.

After a few weeks confined to his three-by-three stall, he was keen to get out.

He probably thought he was “all fixed,” but unfortunately, he would have to wait until his eight-week X-ray results, before we could progress to the next stage of his recovery plan.

However, Romeo thought otherwise. Three days before his X-ray, I was cleaning out his stable and he managed to pull his door open while my back was turned and escaped.

When I turned around, I saw him run out with no hope of catching him. He was free and he knew it. With his newfound freedom, he was running around as fast as he possibly could, jumping and bucking, as only someone who had been confined could. I, on the other hand, was horrified. While Romeo was having fun, my heart sank, I thought, “there goes his leg.”

It took me an hour to calm him down so I could catch him. I managed to trap him in the laneway between two paddocks, and slowly lead him back to his stable. If a horse could grin, I swear he had a big grin on his face. But in the process, he’d given me a heart attack.
December the 9th, three days after Romeo’s big escape, was his next X-rays. After seeing him running around so easily, I was confident that everything was fine. However, I was also concerned he had done some damage.

At the hospital, everyone laughed when I told them all about his great escape, so I figured, getting him to walk and do a little trot in the car park wasn’t going to be an issue. After seeing the X-rays, it was clear why. The bone was already fused and the plates and screws were still holding strong. Romeo was just ticking all the boxes perfectly just as we had hoped.

What did rehabilitation involve? With everything healing it was time for the next stage. This meant Romeo was able to go out into a small day yard which we built with an area about five-by-eight metres. We just happened to build this yard on the hottest day we’d had in our area. There were helicopters going past water bombing fires, but despite the heat, Romeo needed a yard, as our paddocks were far too big for him at this stage.

When we let Romeo free in his new yard, he ran around in circles, doing his little pigroot kicks which he does often when he’s excited. He clearly enjoyed being out of his stable.

To help with his recovery there were no particular exercises he had to do, the best thing was to limit the amount of running which wasn’t easy for Romeo. On the 19th of January, Romeo was able to go out into the other paddocks, and from there, he has just enjoyed his freedom.

How is Romeo today? October the 12th was his one-year checkup and he passed with flying colours. You can’t see where the break was and the plates and screws are holding perfectly. Throughout the whole year, Romeo never developed any lameness and his surgery scar has just about gone. Keeping him confined to small areas and unable to come out on adventure trail rides with Eppy and I was hard. While Romeo and Eppy are kept in separate paddocks, they still have a bond that gets stronger with time and they don’t like not being able to see each other.

Last month Romeo was finally able to join our annual camping trip with my friends and all our horses. He absolutely enjoyed himself and followed us everywhere. While he would run ahead with the other big horses, he would always come back and check with Eppy and me before going ahead again.

To see him enjoying life and now being cleared to come on weekend trail rides, was the whole reason he deserved this second chance. Romeo is not just a paddock horse, he’s more like our child. Everything fell into place when it needed to, and because of that, Romeo’s now a new case study for Australian vets, where hopefully his successful recovery could help others in the future.

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