Arthritic Hocks diagnosis

[AshryOTTB]

Over the last few months I've noticed my boy was getting much stiffer behind and struggling with tight turns in canter, after 2 meetings with the vet he has now been diagnosed with arthritic hocks. He's only 9 but did race a lot from age 2-5 so I'm not super surprised by the diagnosis, the vet has recommended i get him injected which i will do, we spoke briefly about his workload but her attitude seemed to be to see how it goes.

I had been competing him at BE80 and unaffiliated sj up to 90, I'm presuming he will no longer be able to do this, what sort of work should i expect him to do in the future?
The vet didn't recommend a specific supplement but did advise to put him on a joint supplement, he's currently on NAF superflex although i know there are better supplements out there, any recommendations?

 

[Michen]

I wouldn’t presume that at all. With management and medication my horse happily evented for many years.

 

[Timelyattraction]

Plenty of horses carry on successfully competing with their hocks medicated. Ive seen many showjumpers/eventers advertised for sale who have had their hocks medicated.

I had my boy on an equine America supplement for his coffin joint arthritis but I couldn’t tell you if it made a difference or not

 

[Goldenstar]

I would arthimid is what you need to asking the vet about .
Steroid to settle initial inflammation then arthimid to help the smooth the running of the joint .
Much can be done with hock arthritis now .

 

[Zoeypxo]

Ask your vet about arthramid mine had hers done 20 months ago and still no reoccurrence of symptoms, well worth the money.
No reason why you cant event/jump in future, you may just have to be a bit fussy what ground you run him on.

 

[HopOnTrot]

Mine has just been treated with Arthrimed, too soon to tell (physio here Friday to assess) but steroids weren’t an option for us.

 

[ihatework]

I’d very much hope, provided nothing else going on, that hock arthritis could be managed well enough with correct work, and supported by steroid & arthrimed, to happily and ethically still be able to do your BE80/90 stuff

 

[sbloom]

Search rehab on here, to me the crucial thing is to make sure any compromise in his way of going (and so many horses are at least mildly compromised) is removed in rehab, building on the pain free window you get from medication.