6 yr old with bone spurs

[pixiebee]

My lovely new ex racer injured herself in the field on sunday, she had a wound on her hock which had swelled up. I got the vet out as a precaution and the vet gace anti inflamm etc and suggested it might be an idea to x ray to insure there is no bone chips etc. So the vet came the next day and did the x ray. No bone chips BUT she has 2 bone spurs in her hock that the vet could see on x ray and said she has early arthritis. She has only just turned 6 and was a flat racer, only raced 3 times but was in training for longer.

The vet said put her on a glucosemine supplement which we have just started. She said it may never cause her a problem or it may. She said about steroid inj etc etc and that she wont be able to event or compete every weekend or do much trotting on roads etc.

She was purchased for general riding club/showing type stuff which the vet said to carry on and do.

Can anyone advise on this? i dont want her to deteriorate quickly and I want her to be comfortabl in whatever she is doing, she is definately more setteled in work. She is showing no signs of lameness but now im paranoid.

i will keep her no matter, i couldnt bare to pass a horse on with this condition incase she gets buted up and sold on to some unsusspecting person, who competes her causinf more issues. Sceptical I know

 

[pixiebee]

anybody? I dont mind if you are blunt with me, id rather know! Also whats the best supplement, ive just got her on plain glucosemine powder, is there any better?

 

[foxy]

I presume when the vet said arthritis in the hock the xrays showed changes. My experience with hock problems was DJD, my horse also had bone spurs but these were at the top of the canon bone. My horse was 7, he was injected with steroids and was treated with Tildren but unfortunetly it did not help.

You need to get your vet to explain all the various treatment options and then decide.
Is she insured?

Good luck

 

[Slightlyconfused]

My mare has djd in her hocks so am not able to comment on the spurs but she is lame for the first 15ish minutes warm up then sound. If vet said carry on if she is sound then i would. Keep her active as that should help with any arthritic pain.

Just keep an eye out and adjust to it, i.e not trotting on roads (unless absolutely needed for emergency like getting out the way of horrid drivers)

 

[pixiebee]

the vet just said early arthritis and showed me the 2 spurs on the 2 small joints. I am trying to get a copy of the xray from the vets to look in better detail as I was too shocked at the time to take much in. The vet said basically put her on glucosemine and ignore it until it causes a problem and that she should be fine to jump and low level dressage just not heavy competing (which i didnt plan anyway) She said be careful doing work on hard ground etc so thats fine, its just I dont want to do anything that might make her worse. Is excercise good for her then? I dont want to start injections etc until I really have to but if she needs them she needs them. I have read about alchohol infusions etc?

ps... yes she is insured thank god, but only for 12 months per condition so I am aware she is going to cost me money after this!

 

[Meowy Catkin]

I'm so sorry to read this - golly, only 6 years old too.

I hope that she stays sound for many years.

 

[TJP]

One of my boys had a bone spur in his fetlock joint. We gave him a steroid inj which he reacted too. I decided on no invasive treatment after that and turned him out on a flat field to give the spur a chance to harden and then we would assess again after 6 months. It hardened and never gave him another problem. He has since retired but from a different problem (he is now 20). If these are old bone spurs which have hardened and are not causing lameness I would not be too concerned about them. The arthritis would concern me more and I would start to treat that.
Hope all works out.

 

[pixiebee]

has yours also been diagnosed?

 

[pixiebee]

One of my boys had a bone spur in his fetlock joint. We gave him a steroid inj which he reacted too. I decided on no invasive treatment after that and turned him out on a flat field to give the spur a chance to harden and then we would assess again after 6 months. It hardened and never gave him another problem. He has since retired but from a different problem (he is now 20). If these are old bone spurs which have hardened and are not causing lameness I would not be too concerned about them. The arthritis would concern me more and I would start to treat that.
Hope all works out.

whats the difference between arthritis and bone spurs? sorry bit thick, not dealt with this before. The vet said her joints themselves looked good and they looked like they had quite clean eges (apart from the spurs)

 

[pixiebee]

this xray is borrowed from google, its not hers, but this is what hers looked like, except she didnt have the 3rd one at the bottom, just the upper 2. Hers werent as cloudy they were almost the same density as the rest of her bones if that makes sense.

 

[TJP]

I would attempt to show his xrays but I have no idea where they are. I will however have a look for them. I am not an expert but my understanding is that a bone spur is when he puts excess bone around a joint, this initially is soft and then hardens. Arthritis is when the cartilage in the joint becomes worn. Often a horse with arthritis will develop bone spurs as an attempt at stabilising the joint. My vet diagnosed the spur when it was soft and said that if it hardened in a way that did not cause nipping etc he should have no further problems. Fortunately it caused no further problems. This horse had however injured his knee eventing as a 4 year old and in later years had problems with his other leg (the one that the bone spur initially showed in) and we believe this may have had an effect on him. He did however compete EI & SJAI until his late teens.

If memory serves me correctly his were cloudy when diagnosed which meant the bone had not fully calcified (hardened)

 

[Madam Min]

Our boy was diagnosed with arthritis in his hocks at age 6 in 2006. Vet thought it a possibly stemmed from him having a fall as a foal. He had steroids ad we put him on cortaflex. Year later he had Tildren which helped him improve, we had him PTS earlier this year, this was due to us and vets thinking there was more issues with his back.

 

[pixiebee]

ive heard about Tildren, what is it, a supplement?

 

[Madam Min]

Its a drug usually given over a hour via drip. It causes the spurs to fuse together. For it to work you usually have to work the horse quite hard afterwards for the bones to fuse. Its expensive and it doesn't work for all horses.

See what your vet advises.

 

[pixiebee]

ahh right ok, thanks. Its this horrible waiting game :-( i cant really assess anything until the swelling from the wound has gone completely and she is back in work.

what should i look for? stiffness? will she be obviously lame on it if its causing her problems? id hate to miss the signs and work her if she is in pain.