Anyones horse have bone spavin

[TequilaMist]

and still ok to compete.Mare who we thought was suffering from sore back actually may have bone spavin.She going to vet on Wed for leg work up to be sure.
Does your horse still compete at RC level(or above)and what discipline do you compete at?
Wasn't initially worried about bonespavin til read somewhere horse may just be a light hack.
Daughter likes to jump(thats horse and daughter in photo)
Thanks

 

[Mancha]

Many horses with bone spavin can continue to be worked to a normal level, there are however alot that can't, including mine sadly. Depends on the degree/stage of the spavin. I think in most cases the horse needs to step down a level, but again it totally depends.

 

[Luci07]

You need to get proper vet advice and the only way to see what is happening is to have x rays done.

 

[clip_clop]

My horse has bone spavin and has been treated with tildren, the only thing we aren't allowed to do anymore is jumping

 

[foxy]

I think it depends on your horse and how bad it is. My horse was diagnosed about 6 wks ago and has been treated with Tildren. He is still lame and struggles to have his back feet lifted some days.

 

[Luci07]

Havin gone into this in depth recently.... You can't tell what the situation is unless you x ray and there are huge variances. A friends pony has this (advanced) and has been through the entire shoeing physiology and injections route. Now her pony has fused so she is still eventing him albeit unto intro but she is the first to say that when he backs off she wont push him as not sure if it's hurting him .

 

[saddlesore]

OP - can I ask how you learned that it was spavin rather than back pain? I ask as my horse is being treated for back/sacroiliac pain atm......

 

[Bert&Maud]

My horse was found to have bi-lateral bone spavin during a vetting during the summer, when I was trying to sell him. He wasn't lame, but the vet was worried about discomfort behind the saddle and recommended physio before the purchasers decided whether they wanted to go ahead. After a weeks intensive physio he was lame! The purchasers pulled out. Once the tension in his back was relieved it revealed the lameness - horses with spavin often compensate in other areas. He had steroid injections into each hock, and spent a month building back up to full work. He was then re-advertised (with full disclosure), passed the vet and has been at his new home for 3 months where he is leading an extremely full and active life with his very keen 12 year old owner who is doing hunter trials, sj, xc schooling, treasure hunts, lessons and all manner of other things and he has never gone better. I'm not suggesting that he will never have another problem because nobody knows, but for now he's great. So it's not necessarily the end of an active life. It would be very interesting to know how many horses who are competing regularly have the same condition.

 

[porkpie]

My bog old mare has spavin in both hocks. She was injected but it made little difference. She is still fine to actively hack - in fact she is raring to go. However whats stopped us beging able to go back to RC competeing is she then developed arthritis in a front pastern.

Her hocks were taking a long, long time to fuse after which it was expected there would be significant improvement. I can say that now, 18 months later she is really quite good in her hocks, and may even pop the odd jump (front pastern permitting), but will only ever be hack.

As the rest have said, its all very individual to the horse - but there is a good chance they will fuse nicely, in which case you are good to go, or injections might do the job sooner.

Good luck and I hope its good news.

 

[MiCsarah]

My boy has bone spavins (now fused after surgery this year) and now seems fine, only jumped small and he felt good. Id say he'd easily do RC stuff

 

[foxy]

OP - can I ask how you learned that it was spavin rather than back pain? I ask as my horse is being treated for back/sacroiliac pain atm......

My horse was treated for back/sacroiliac pain after 6 months of rehab he was going really well and then went lame this is when he was found to have DJD/bone spavins. According to the vet his xrays were some of the worst he has seen. I am going to have one last tildren treatment and see what happens but mine is a stressy 7yr old who does not light hacking!

 

[Madam Min]

Our gelding had them in both hocks and had Tildren 2 years ago and touch wood, fingers crossed, he's fine. He'll never be a world beater but we do a bit of dressage with him.

 

[china]

my tb has spavins in both hocks. he originally had them both injected with cortisone which soon wore off and he was lame again! He then had his shoes off and is now sound with no injections ect! he is only a light hack due to navicular and KS but he is now sound behind, just not infront ;-) i give him glucosomine to help with his hocks.

 

[jojo5]

My boy had a bone spavin when he was 12. It was injected and fused, and he has never looked back - we've done all sorts of things over the years (our only restriction was not to jump more than 3'), and he is now 22..........

 

[summer03]

Had many dealings with it when working with eventers and they quite often got back to affiliated intermediate eventing in a couple of cases but they got diagnosed pretty early on so think that helped treatment chances. My personal experinces are:
1 - sisters horse diagnosed but then as she wasn't really doing much with the horse decided not to inject and retire him instead, we then sold him as a light hack 2 years later and the folk who bought him acctually gradually got him back up to doing low level riding club stuff without discomfort as his hock had fused by themselves over the period of time he had off.
2 - my mare diagnosed at 6 years old!! tho she was a very big mover so you could see how her hock give out on her at such a young age. She was injected but never came sould so we put her in foal then re checked her when foal weaned in hope they would have fused in same way as sisters horse did but no such luck.
3 - My tb low level BE eventer injected then seemed to get a lot worse (tho think the corrective shoeing didn't suit him) then got reinjected and got different type of corrective shoe and he got steadily better. 1 year after 1st diagnosed he seemed back on form - vet says he not quite 100% but the 'average person' can't see or feel anything wrong. He's on Cosiquin supplement but no Danilon anymore and happily competing at riding club activities - not quite tried pushing back to where he was yet but hopefully work him back up to in in long run if he feels happy.

My mane advise is the corrective shoing - lateral extensions seem to be the most common ones chosen but my horse preffered raised heeled shoes then we put him on to tailed shoe which he feels really good on now. Good luck

 

[TequilaMist]

Thanks for all replies
Saddle sore we were thinking it was the back it was the vet that said may be bone spavin because of flexion tests(did discuss how accurate they were but it was more done as a comparison)and on lunge esp canter to trot transition.AS has been said for definitite diagnosis need xrays which she is getting tomorrow.I had got saddler out even bought new saddle and back person to look at her.
Just hoping she's not totally broken and up to a bit of RC stuff if can do BS as well then great but I would settle for RC level(daughter does the BS stuff) She was getting so much better in her co-operation prior to the bucking which is why we thought it was the back