Arthritic Coffin Joint - Cartrophen or steroids?

C

Christmas Crumpet

Well-Known Member
Joined
30 August 2007
Messages
4,035
Visit site
My vet has suggested we inject my horse's coffin joint due to his arthritis. Not sure whether he was intending to use Cartrophen (thought that was intramuscular) or a steroid.

Does anyone have experience of this, how successful, how much it costs, can you go back to full work etc?

Would be very grateful for any info.

Thanks.
 
Havent heard anything about Cartrophen, but we have used Steroids, cost a bit , i think about £90 each not sure,however they do work and we went back to full work
laugh.gif
Lasted a year or roundabouts
grin.gif
Good Luck
 
My mare was diagnosed with arthritis in her fetlock and coffin joint in July. Our vet suggested we injected steriods into the joint although she said there was no guarantee it would work and if it did, it might last one month, three months, a year or forever. I think a lot depends on the individual horse. I think £60 was mentioned.

I decided not to inject but put my mare on bute for 2 weeks until she came sound again and fingers crossed she's been sound since. If she does go lame again, I might consider injecting steroids but I'm not very keen.
 
My horse had Cartrophen, cost about £60 a go. She had a course of four injections a week apart, so £400 overall for injections plus call-out. I have no idea how successful it has been as I haven't worked Maiden yet, but she's field sound so I hope my money did some good!
smirk.gif

I know an old ex-racer who has yearly steroid injections in his hocks, it keeps him sound and able to be ridden lightly by his young loaner, and he would otherwise probably have been shot because he's pretty buggered without the injections!
 
Molly had a course of 4 cartrophen injections too. The vet did the first one, and we did the other 3 ourselves. She was injected on alternate bum cheeks once a week!
She'd gone lame and we didnt know way - xrays showed VERY VERY mild arthritic changes in the coffin joint, but that wouldnt have caused the lameness, so the vet reckoned soft tissue damage within the foot. It's an insurance claim so we went for the cartrophen anyway. We're getting there, slowly but surely!
Apparently it's not licenced for use in horses (we used a dog one), so if your horse reacts to it, you cant sue the drug company! The vet said they have a lot of clients who compete at high level and just give cartrophen injections to keep their horses supple. They swear by it. She descibed it as a very high dose of something like cortaflex. 'tis quite expensive though.

I cant comment on steroids as i've no experience with them.

Good luck though.

Lou.
smile.gif
 
Here in the States we inject alot of steriods. Generally jumpers/eventers will do the hocks 2x a year. All horses start changing in the joints and it works as a good preventative. I had my exracehorse done who is six and it worked wonders on him, and will properly have my eventer done a month before the season opens.
 
I'm sure I read on the main Horse and Hound site, that steroid treatment can be very effective in the short term, but can make things worse in the long term.

Having owned a horse with coffin joint arthritis, I do know that steady gentle exercise helps in these cases, but full work (on medication) would, more than likely, accelerate the degeneration of the joint.
 
My boy was diagnosed in May, He had 3 HA injections & was sound most of the summer hacking out as normal (didnt have much hard ground) However he is only 13 & a very forward going, tb x wb who has always worked & was fitter than he had ever been whene he was diagnosed, my new black smith has fitted NB shoes he has corrective shoeing every 5 weeks, I took him home so he could be turned out 24/7 all winter however, I work full time so can only hack out on weekends now its dark, He is just being a prat in the field bucking & galloping about because he is not doing enough work, after every episode in the field he comes up lame, although not for long, I just don't know what to do with him I am considering taking him back to livery with a school, just so I can work him a bit in the week, but then I cant do to much with him, & my blacksmith has said not to do to much schooling with him & that it is un level ground that will cause problems rather than hard, which considering what he dose in the field I think he is right! When I take him for a controlled canter in a straight line on a hack he comes back sound ( some times a bit stiff the following day ) I just don't know what to do for the best also if we go back to livery he will have to be stabled overnight 5pm round till 8am. which I think will make him stiff, I just cant win!
 
My friend's boy has athritis/spurs on his coffin joint and navicular changes - he had all the usual treatment. Steroid injections which worked for a short time, he had two or three different lots and remedial shoeing - again worked for short time, but he was never really comfortable and my friend decided to give him a year off with the bleak future of retiring him and then ....? who knows.
frown.gif


Others things happened in the meantime (too long to go into) and she made the decision against vet/farrier to take his shoes off. That was about 18 months ago now and he has now been back in work for about 6 months. She has taken it really slowly, but he is up to walk/trot/canter work in the school and down the field (even when the ground was harder in the summer) and she has just started gently hacking him out (we have tough flinty tracks around us) and you know what the horse is doing amazingly!! She'll never bring him back into hard work I don't think as he has other issues, but is hoping that maybe he will come back to doing some unaff prelim/novice dressage and gentle hacking.

I'm am not advocating barefoot for every situation, but this horse really was a vet right off and just time and no shoes and letting nature compensate for the problems he has, really seems to have helped him. He isn't on any bute or other painkillers, even herbal stuff, only joint supplement.

My understanding of steroid injections is as someone else said - they offer relief for the short term, but long term accelerate bony changes.
 
My horse had sterroid/ha joint injections and cartrohen but star is right cartrophen is IM. My horse has been on it for 6 months and i did her last shot on tuesday and is due to come back into work 6 months post op which is jan.
 
It might be worth asking your vet about IRAP therapy. My horse had this recently as my vet said it was more successful in the long term than the steroid injections when dealing with coffin joint problems. My horse had soft tissue damage, but it is more commonly used for arthtitis. It involves taking a blood sample and putting it through a number of processes to make a serum that is injected back into the joint.
My horse had four batches of serum produced and one injection which cost about £650. We still have 3 treatments frozen which can be used at a later date but touch wood he's ok at the moment.
Might be worth asking your vet about it if you're looking at different treatment options.
 
My horse had injection of steroids into his Pastern joint yesterday. Diagnosed with DJD and has spurs growing on front of joint. Athroscopy not an option as Pastern too tight for space to get access. Only other option is surgery which I dont want, so opted for the injections.

6 weeks box rest and exercise plan starting from Monday. Fingers crossed, taking one day at a time, although have one very upset horsey in his stable!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top