Arthritic changes in neck - experiences

[Menolly]

I’d be grateful for some experiences or diagnoses and long term management following prognosis of arthritic changes in the neck. 🙏.

My horses developed a hop in trot - only when asked to work on the contact and only on the right rein. Sound on long rein and Left rein contact or not, he’s right as rain.

Tension in the neck has been an issue but the hop came overnight.

Had the physio out straight away who identified hypertonic muscles to hind and shoulder and advised inline with experience would query the state of c5 to t1 and likely suffering low grade arthritic changes.

Following treatment he was instantly more comfortable and my plan upon advice is to see how the next 14 days go. If symptoms come back, vet X-ray etc.

Not advocating physio over vet - just has been my route to date.

He’s an all rounder who generally has an easy life and may do the odd 80 - hoping this can continue?

Has anyone been able to manage long term with regular physio and additional supppements or is injecting the joint the best way to go?

Any thoughts and experiences grateful , has been hard to find any info on cases that aren’t advanced and don’t involve nuro problems

Big Thanks!

 

[Red-1]

I know of 3 horses, one broke his neck swinging from a rope as a baby. He lived a long and happy life, dropped of a heart attack in the end, totally unrelated. He went very well despite changes on X ray, never lame or hopping.

Second stopped being able to turn to the right. Kind of got stuck. Was sound in a straight line or turning left. This one rapidly progressed despite injections, in the end he could not even lower his head to eat grass.

Third one was neuro, X rayed and had small changes. Oral steroids brought another 18 months in light work, retired 6 months and then PTS as neuro impacting on quality of life.

Sadly I don't think there is a way to predict how neck arthritis progresses. I believe such a small change can have a huge effect on some, whereas others can have a lot of changes yet are apparently OK.

 

[Annagain]

Front leg issues can produce similar symptoms. My share horse had on and off lameness for most of 2016. Long story short he was bone scanned which revealed 2 hotspots - on right elbow and lower neck. Further investigations also showed he didn't want to turn his head to the right more than about 45 degrees. Both areas x-rayed. Neck showed minor changes (no more than would be expected for his age - 20 at the time) and the elbow mild-moderate changes. Nerve blocked elbow and came sound. They also repeated the turning exerciss and now he could turn his head to touch his front leg. They medicated his elbow and he's been great and not shown any signs of lameness since. The thought is the way he was protecting the elbow was leading to stiffness in the neck and the minor changes were fairly standard and not causing any trouble in themselves. Might be worth a full work up to rule out the neck being a symptom rather than the main cause?

 

[Lola43]

It must vary from horse to horse, but sadly my personal experience has been negative. I had one with 'wobblers' that two months after being injected into the vertebraeas had a massive relapse overnight and had to be pts on the spot, as he just couldn't control his legs. Rather unbelievably the horse I bought to replace that one also turned out to have the same problem, although it manifested as bucking rather than wobbling. I didn't even bother to treat that one, just pts as I felt he would always be a 'timebomb' waiting to go off.

I was told by the consultant that diagnosed both my horses that the condition progresses in 'steps', so a horse could go along quite happily for an indeterminate length of time with minimal outward signs (or maybe signs so subtle that you wouldn't notice), but then for no apparent reason, there could be a sudden change. Because of the nature of what it is - arthritis affecting the vertebrae and by association the spinal cord, somewhere along the line you will be looking at neurological problems and they come in a variety of shapes and forms.

I would also say the only way to definitively diagnose is to x-ray the neck.

Sorry!

 

[flying_high]

I think neck arthritis can be career ending or manageable and is hard to say which will be.

 

[Menolly]

Thank you all, really appreciate your replies. Your right, got to get it xrayed to understand if and what.

I’m collecting retirees at the moment so would love another 10 years of riding him ! X