kellyb
Active Member
Hi everyone, We could do with some advice preferably by someone who is knowledgeable about this kind of problem which we have been dealing with for a long time.
We bought our Haflinger gelding through a local riding school owner 3 years ago. He is now 10 years old. He was not a riding school horse, just sold by the owner and he came from Ireland. We were told he was always bullied by the other horses no matter who he was put with. He had been kicked a couple times but apparently not in the leg we have had problems with and the school owner made sure he was sound before she allowed us to buy him.
Within the first year we noticed some very occasional limping but it would quickly go away so we assumed he must have hurt it while playing in the field with his companion. We did call the vet out but they could not see any problem as it would seem to go away as quickly as it appeared.
Last year we discovered he had a large spavin on his hock. We had not noticed it before and by the time it was found it was really quite large. The vet took x-rays which showed a large, aggressive spavin.
He explained to us how the particular joint where the spavin was could fuse eventually so that our horse would no longer be in pain and would be able to be used as normal (not anything very demanding) but that it would take time and we should use him as much as we could in order to bring on the fusing action.He gave us Danilon to give for pain. He also had 2 treatments with Tildren over a period of months.
Right after the second dose, he seemed to be doing very well and we had even said to someone that it had worked wonders on him....
However within a few days of that he suddenly went right downhill with the Spavin. He was holding the leg up, not wanting to put weight on it, limping very badly. Oddly, after maybe an hour, we would go back to the field to check on him and he would be fine. Nothing seemed to trigger it and it would come on very severe but then go completely away within hours.
We could only assume that it would get bad when he did not move it for awhile and would improve a bit after he walked around. We waited and did as suggested but we saw no improvement and often times the limping was too severe for us to want to push him even to bring the fusing on.
He eventually went back in for more x-rays which did not really show improvement as the vet had hoped. He said it was a very aggressive osteoarthritis and that without surgery the only other thing he could try was Osphos. He also said that our horse had it in his other hock but that spavin came and went quickly, leaving the area well fused with no pain.
He had his injection of Osphos and we were given more Danilon to give him for pain when needed and advised to use him as much as possible which we have been doing.
It is now just over a year since the first Tildren treatment and the first treatments for this problem. We had hoped that he would be much better but he still limps a lot. We still give him some Danilon when he seems quite sore and my daughter hacks him out. He often wants to take off for gallop (clocked his big self at 24 mph the other day!) but then he really does suffer for it afterwards.
My daughter (whose horse he is) would like to do lots more with him but every day she goes to see how he is doing, if his limp is bad or not, before she knows what she can do.
Does this problem always go away?
Will the joint definitely fuse? (it is the one that can fuse without causing him problem, not the one that's more "important", but I can not remember the name now)
Anyone else had Tildren and found it not to work? What about the Osphos?
What's the prognosis?
Any insight would be much appreciated. Thank you
We bought our Haflinger gelding through a local riding school owner 3 years ago. He is now 10 years old. He was not a riding school horse, just sold by the owner and he came from Ireland. We were told he was always bullied by the other horses no matter who he was put with. He had been kicked a couple times but apparently not in the leg we have had problems with and the school owner made sure he was sound before she allowed us to buy him.
Within the first year we noticed some very occasional limping but it would quickly go away so we assumed he must have hurt it while playing in the field with his companion. We did call the vet out but they could not see any problem as it would seem to go away as quickly as it appeared.
Last year we discovered he had a large spavin on his hock. We had not noticed it before and by the time it was found it was really quite large. The vet took x-rays which showed a large, aggressive spavin.
He explained to us how the particular joint where the spavin was could fuse eventually so that our horse would no longer be in pain and would be able to be used as normal (not anything very demanding) but that it would take time and we should use him as much as we could in order to bring on the fusing action.He gave us Danilon to give for pain. He also had 2 treatments with Tildren over a period of months.
Right after the second dose, he seemed to be doing very well and we had even said to someone that it had worked wonders on him....
However within a few days of that he suddenly went right downhill with the Spavin. He was holding the leg up, not wanting to put weight on it, limping very badly. Oddly, after maybe an hour, we would go back to the field to check on him and he would be fine. Nothing seemed to trigger it and it would come on very severe but then go completely away within hours.
We could only assume that it would get bad when he did not move it for awhile and would improve a bit after he walked around. We waited and did as suggested but we saw no improvement and often times the limping was too severe for us to want to push him even to bring the fusing on.
He eventually went back in for more x-rays which did not really show improvement as the vet had hoped. He said it was a very aggressive osteoarthritis and that without surgery the only other thing he could try was Osphos. He also said that our horse had it in his other hock but that spavin came and went quickly, leaving the area well fused with no pain.
He had his injection of Osphos and we were given more Danilon to give him for pain when needed and advised to use him as much as possible which we have been doing.
It is now just over a year since the first Tildren treatment and the first treatments for this problem. We had hoped that he would be much better but he still limps a lot. We still give him some Danilon when he seems quite sore and my daughter hacks him out. He often wants to take off for gallop (clocked his big self at 24 mph the other day!) but then he really does suffer for it afterwards.
My daughter (whose horse he is) would like to do lots more with him but every day she goes to see how he is doing, if his limp is bad or not, before she knows what she can do.
Does this problem always go away?
Will the joint definitely fuse? (it is the one that can fuse without causing him problem, not the one that's more "important", but I can not remember the name now)
Anyone else had Tildren and found it not to work? What about the Osphos?
What's the prognosis?
Any insight would be much appreciated. Thank you