MiniThoroughbred
New User
My horse has arthritis in her left hock and knee. Her left hock can be managed with steroids but her knee is in a worse state. Some of the arthritic material has chipped off and she now has bone chips in her knee. She had steroids in her knee last year and that worked for approx 5 months and then I noticed she had stopped laying down in the stable overnight.
I took her to the vets for a lameness work up in February and we decided to try arthrimed as the steroids had worked in the knee previously. I took her home for a few days box rest, 2 weeks turn out and then 4 weeks of walk work before taking her back to the vets for another work up to see if the arthrimed had done it's thing. She was lame on a circle in the arena but sound enough in a straight line that the vet was happy for me to keep her ticking over as a happy hack. I've hacked her 3-4 times a week for between half an hour to an hour since, probably broken out of a walk a handful of times. I should mention that the day she had arthrimed in her knee she lay down that night for the first time in a couple of weeks.
The yard has since moved onto overnight turnout and obviously it's been so dry I didn't think anything of her coming in clean but we've had quite a bit of rain over the last couple of weeks and she's still coming in clean while all the others are coming in looking like bog ponies. She doesn't even have any scuffs on her knees or hocks where she has been down.
I'm worried now that she isn't laying down and it might be time to make a call but she's so happy in herself on the yard and in the field, I've since noticed that she is getting slow to ride and she would rather avoid going down hill. I'm pretty sure I know what the answer is but I just wanted to vent to horsey people as I seem to find myself lacking in those at the moment who don't just see her day to day and think that she's fine because she looks bright and alert.
The fact that I haven't seen any evidence of her laying down is what worries me the most, I've booked her in to go back to the vet next week for another work up to see where we are but if the arthrimed hasn't worked for more than a few months I fear there isn't another route.
I took her to the vets for a lameness work up in February and we decided to try arthrimed as the steroids had worked in the knee previously. I took her home for a few days box rest, 2 weeks turn out and then 4 weeks of walk work before taking her back to the vets for another work up to see if the arthrimed had done it's thing. She was lame on a circle in the arena but sound enough in a straight line that the vet was happy for me to keep her ticking over as a happy hack. I've hacked her 3-4 times a week for between half an hour to an hour since, probably broken out of a walk a handful of times. I should mention that the day she had arthrimed in her knee she lay down that night for the first time in a couple of weeks.
The yard has since moved onto overnight turnout and obviously it's been so dry I didn't think anything of her coming in clean but we've had quite a bit of rain over the last couple of weeks and she's still coming in clean while all the others are coming in looking like bog ponies. She doesn't even have any scuffs on her knees or hocks where she has been down.
I'm worried now that she isn't laying down and it might be time to make a call but she's so happy in herself on the yard and in the field, I've since noticed that she is getting slow to ride and she would rather avoid going down hill. I'm pretty sure I know what the answer is but I just wanted to vent to horsey people as I seem to find myself lacking in those at the moment who don't just see her day to day and think that she's fine because she looks bright and alert.
The fact that I haven't seen any evidence of her laying down is what worries me the most, I've booked her in to go back to the vet next week for another work up to see where we are but if the arthrimed hasn't worked for more than a few months I fear there isn't another route.
