21 Jun 2021
A rare two-week-old Suffolk punch foal has bounced back to full heath after bolts and screws were fitted during a three-hour surgery to fix its broken cannon bone.
Joshua Silverwood
Job Title
Suffolk punch foal Donhead Hall Rancher with his mother Donhead Hall Montana.
A rare Suffolk punch foal that fractured its foreleg while out in its paddock has had its life saved by a Hampshire specialist.
The Suffolk punch is listed as “critical” by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, so when two-week-old Donhead Hall Rancher fractured his cannon bone, his owners travelled 80 miles to Liphook Equine Hospital.
RCVS and European specialist Russell Parker carried out the nearly three-hour surgery, which saw Rancher fitted with 2 metal plates and 20 screws.
Mr Parker said: “Rancher’s fracture wasn’t straightforward because the leg was broken in more than two places and the bones were displaced, but foals are relatively light and their bones heal more quickly than adult horses, making fracture repair an option. It also helped that there was no wound associated with the injury.”
The operation took two-and-a-half hours, and involved using metal plates and screws to realign and fix the broken bones.
Mr Parker added: “The modern implants we use today help us create a more stable repair because the screws lock into the plates as well as the bone.
“Our first challenge was to make sure that Rancher got safely to his feet as he came around from the anaesthetic, and we gave him a helping hand to avoid him accidentally damaging the repair.
“Also, there is a risk of the incision getting infected or the implants breaking, but Rancher made excellent progress over the next few days.”
Rancher was forced to stay at the clinic for three weeks before he was allowed to go home and spend another six weeks on box rest.
At the start of June Rancher was finally released back into his paddock to the delight of owners Eugenie and Randy Hiscock.
Ms Hiscock said: “We can’t thank Russell and the team at Liphook enough for saving Rancher and giving him the best care possible.
“As well as the Suffolk punch being an extremely rare breed of horse that needs its numbers boosting, Rancher was the first foal we had bred in four years, so he is very special to us. He is such a lovely, bonny foal and it would have been devastating to lose him.”
