Any experiences of scintigraphy?

[Holly Hocks]

After months of low grade lameness which in the past few weeks has turned into nappy, rearing behaviour when hacking, which is totally out of character for my lovely mare, and which I am sure is pain related, the vet is at a loss and has decided to refer her to Liverpool for a scintigraphy body scan. She does have bone spavin in one hock, but the front end lameness varies from leg to leg, and she is uncomfortable on the right rein. Yesterday she had her first ever behaviour issue in the school when I was catapulted into mid air (although ever so professionally landed back in the saddle!) for no apparent reason apart from pain. Navicular and arthritis of the knee have been ruled out by tests and x-rays, so in order to try and get some sort of diagnosis, she will go for a scintigraphy scan. I am aware of how the scan works, but just wondered if any of your horses had had one and did you get the answers you wanted? Thank you

 

[Ilovefoals]

My 4yr old had one a few years ago. She went really sweetly the first 6 weeks after breaking but then began to nap, rear, buck and bolt to the point I could come off her 2 or 3 times in a session. After various vets diagnosed various things over a 6 month period, she was eventually booked in for scintigraphy which showed extensive arthritic damage in both stifles. The joints were so bad that there was nothing they could do and she was put down. So yes, it gave me answers but not the ones I wanted Hope yours shows better news.

 

[Olivio]

Really sorry to say that my experience is similar to above. My horse wouldn't stop bucking or bolting and had developed a hyperactive gait with his back legs. He had the scan and he was found to have 'hot spots' behind his withers, in both hocks and his sacreallic joint. There was no way he was safe enough to be ridden by anyone but an experienced rider but the vet school said he was still suitable to be a happy hacker with injections into his joints so the insurance company refused to pay out loss of use and I was left with £800 of vets fees even with full cover. I wouldn't consider passing him on so I had to pay for his livery for a year as a field ornament as although he wasn't right, if he wasn't ridden he still had some quality of life. He ended up sliding in the field on a very wet day and doing a front tendon. It was scary how quickly his hocks broke down and I ended up having to put him down two days later.

I truely hope that I am an extreme case and that your prognosis is more positive.

 

[Captainmouse]

My horse went for scintigraphy with hind limb lameness. they found a subchrondrial bone cyst in the stifle. he had one injection into the joint and never had a re-occurrance of the problem

 

[Booboos]

My horse was failing to track up, spinning and pissing off. Scintigraphy ruled out all sorts of other issues and we eventually pinned it down to a neurological problem caused by the saddle (obviously this was not found by the scintigraphy, but stillworth doing as it eliminated other possibilities).

 

[MrsMozart]

Two of mine have had scintigraphy. One has bony irregularities on her pelvis; two and a half years down the line she is starting to muscle and there is light at the end of our particular tunnel. The other one came back from the AHT with the diagnosis of something in the sacroilliac joint area and 'something neurological', but could not state what. He's been mooching about in a field quite happily for the last year or so; we're just about to start long reining to see what he can/can't remember or do. We found a Bowen Therapist to be of great help to his movement (a one-off treatment, which will be repeated soon).

Hope you get to the bottom of your girl's problem and that it can be fixed.

 

[horsedreams]

pm'd you rather than take up forum space

 

[shadowboy]

One of mine had it for jock lameness. Well worth the cost in my opinion and after 8 months field rest he came sound. If you.want full details pm me and ill happily explain all.