Arthritis in coffin joints and injections

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Boardwimp

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Hi my 15 yr old boy has been diagnosed with arthritis in coffin joints, he has had x-rays to confirm this,it's been a week now since he has hy50 injections in both feet, but my problem is he still coming up slightly lame, my vet suggested egg bar shoes which are being done tomorrow, if these shoes and injections don't work and he still lame is there any thing else I can do for him, he on supplements,glusammine, please any advise would be very grateful:(
 
Theres a horse on my yard who had injections into her coffin joints and shes been sound for about 3 years ish. Another one had them, had a course of Adequan and was on Synequine, had an MRI and unfortunately he never came right and was pts. I think its one of those things that some horses come right and some dont. Have you had an MRI done atall? I know it was a key factor in the geldings diagnosis and the extent of the damage. Egg bar shoes support the heel, my mare has them on at the moment as she had a tear to her DDFT. Has your horse been to see a lameness expert at Horsepital? Just wondering if your vet is well experienced in lameness issues. Dont lost heart as its only been a week since the injections, he may come sound in a few days.
 
We found natural balance shoes MUCH better than bar shoes..many people swear by barefoot too. Jacob has had Adequan, Cartrophen,Steroids,IRAP,Arthroscopy and MRI. He is sound enough to go for a walk but wont be jumping or hunting anymore. We are hoping that an RDA group might want a weight carrier on loan :(
 
Boardwimp said:
My 5 yr old boy has been diagnosed with arthritis in both coffin joints, it's now been a week since having the hy50 injection, but he still coming up lame, my vet suggested he has egg bars shoes so this is being done tomorrow, but if the shoes and injections don't work and he still lame, is there anything else I can do for him he already on supplements glousammine, please any advise good or bad will be very grateful:(
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Did he have steroid in with the hyonate? That might be helpful too, although it common place to do both. Bear in mind, foot balance is crucial in these cases and it can take 2-3 shoeing before the full benefit is seen....it's a long road :o

Glucosamine supplementation is a good idea, but it might be worth trying the Adequan injections too (a course of 7 into the muscle) at the same time. Something to discuss with your vet. Stick with it though ;)

Good luck,
Imogen
 
Thank you for replies very grateful , feel there bit more hope now, no he not had MRI scan yet but vet has said that's the next step if still lame after egg shoes, yes hy50 did have steroids in it ,the vet i used is specialised in lameness, I do really hope so as he everything to me my baby thank you
 
Hi trouble is he still lame bare foot that's why they said try egg shoes, if they don't work then he suggested MRI, but not sure where to go from here with him if continues lame don't want him to suffer or life on bute rest of his life
 
Ask your vet about IRAP. It's the treatment I had on my horse after being diagnosed with this.

However it later transpired that my lad had actually torn his DDFT (he was getting worse rather than better after 3 injections), so I couldn't tell you whether the IRAP has helped.

What I would say is that the research on IRAP does appear very positive & worth the cost.

I also had egg bars fitted straight away.

I have gone down the route of Blue chip dynamic & the vets own joint supplement.
 
Boardwimp, just a thought, our lad originally was diagnosed with this but infact it was decided in the end that the changes seen on xray were probably not significant and that his main problem was soft tissue damage in the foot itself - seen on MRI. If you have the insurance it may be worth looking into this as the treatment can still be injections, steroids, IRAP, shoeing/barefoot etc but with more rest needed.
 
Cairo had low ringbone at 19, arthritis of coffin joint and pedal bone and it was fairly bad as he did not go lame until it got very painful. He did have joint injections to help replace the joint fluid and this helped somewhat. I also feed him linseed and MSM which I found worked as well if not more than Cortaflex.

For him the main improvement was by putting magnetic straps below his fetlocks - you can get them from www.magnetic.uk.com. They are designed to be worn 24 x 7 and also as Cairo was a clydesdale, they went below the feather and did not create heat. When we took them off, he went lame, put on again and he went back to almost sound. We did have rolled toes etc, but found he was actually better when we removed the shoes as being a Clydesdale, he had to wear large heavy shoes which would put extra weight on his old joints.

He still enjoyed a good gallop, tiny jumps on soft ground on the odd occasion, but no more XC or SJ competitions. No schooling on anything smaller than 20 m circles or sudden changes of direction (however he would barrel race and spin playing with young Stinky and we decided to let him have fun and bugger the consequences).

He stayed in light work until 22 when he died of liver failure.
 
Many thanks yes he insured, we have the magnetic boots for him, just trying everything I can but at moment still coming up lame :( ,eg shoes being done today, vet also said rest for 6 months then bring back and c what happens but I heard a few people say that don't work,had hy50 with steroids injection done about 10 days ago now, vet said one for advance and one chronic, my head in spin on what to do next , I know there no cure for arthritis but something must work to help him back to soundness :(
 
My horse had injections for CJA back in July, he had been getting better with shoeing every 4 weeks to rebalance and the steroids but two weeks ago he went lame again - then seemed better, then lame and so on...

Had vet out again yesterday and farrier today to take the shoe off to poultice to see if there is an abcess brewing.

Poor thing has had his shoes on and off more times since feb than is good and although the new hoof he is growing is good his hooves are still brittle - there is not much to work on as it is!

If we can't find an abcess then he's back in for another examination and lame workup / xrays etc.

:-( gutted
 
Oh u poor thing it's horrible when they can't say what's wrong ! just had egg shoes done so fingers cross don't know next step from here, good luck hope all goes well :(
 
Don't be too pessimistic. My boy has been suffering with a similar problem for 18 months - the right forefoot. Starting with one course of injections he came sound within 3 days. 5 months later he was lame again - was given a second course of injections but unfortunately was still unsound after 3 days so was advised to paddock rest for 3 weeks after which he came sound. 5 months later, here we are again, lame again. Tomorrow he is going to have more injections. I expect him to come sound sooner this time as he is not quite as lame as last time. The most important thing is correct hoof balance (my farrier is not great at this). My boy wears natural balance shoes with pads and fillers. The vet is happy to continue with this treatment but if the treatment becomes ineffective then the last resort is de-nerving.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, give the injections time to work. Feed a good supplement to help his joints (I use Aviform Supplease Gold) - do some research as some supplements contain stuff that merely bulks it out.
Forgot to mention that when he was given the second lot of injections he also had PRP treatment which cost approx. £400 - this appeared to do nothing at all!
Keep your chin up.
 
Oh thank you, he on glousammine supplements,wish there was a cure but I know there not, but thank you for that it has helped me feel better, and good luck with your boy hope it goes well tomorrow
 
Boardwimp said:
Oh thank you, he on glousammine supplements,wish there was a cure but I know there not, but thank you for that it has helped me feel better, and good luck with your boy hope it goes well tomorrow
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I have mine of cortaflex - will do some research though to see if its the best thing he could have...tis expensive enough but sadly not always a sign its good!

He went onto natural balance about 3 shoeings ago so about 12 weeks and came alot sounder almost overnight, that was the most encouraging result we've had - so am now going to ask my farrier to try egg bars and pads to see if that gives him more support.

Good luck with your situation- from reading this and other threads there is lots that can be done...but sadly arthritis can't be cured so all we can do is hope to manage it as well as we can and make sure they are comfortable. I'm trying to keep my lad working (lightly) and out 24/7 also trying to keep weight off him.

I'll look you up in a few weeks and see how you're getting on
 
we had injections in April along with heart bars - now he is pretty much sound as far as normal work goes. Not going to event again, but we have someone to loan him so everyone is happy(ish). He did not improve straight away - was actually lamer when we went back after 5 weeks but started to improve a lot with a bit more work. good luck x
 
Don't want to start a massive arguement about barefoot and shoeing, but, always a but, I have had more success with barefoot remedial work on horses which come up lame when shod, than with egg bars etc and pain killers etc.

I take the view that if you shoe your horse and you have no problems ok, if you do then you should give barefoot a proper chance.

Getting a balanced view is often difficult as people tend to fall into factions and are dead against the alternative view. Obviously farriers are not in favour of barefoot just like turkeys aren't keen on christmas. Vets don't really want to fall outside the accepted treatments as they also have a buisness to run, based on expensive drugs and proceedures.

Its no good taking the shoes off and leaving it a few weeks and saying, well thats no good, when you see little or no improvement.

To be properly barefoot takes months, its not a cheap alternative to shoes, and the key is exercise. If you are not going to exercise by hacking out for at least 5 miles 4 times a week it's not for you.

You will need someone who can trim properly. A good set of boots, equiboots are good, renegades are the best (if you can get a pair that fit, tend to be small sizes). You only really need a front set, unless of course you have a very flat footed TB.

What interested me was looking at things like thermal images of horses feet, shod and unshod.

The shod images showed up as blue, the unshod as red. The red means that there is more heat in the unshod hoof as the blood supply is greater. Obviously a restricted blood flow to the foot has implications on all the bones, tendons, flesh well everything that goes into the structure of the foot.

The fact that the hoof wall of an unshod horse flexes when it walks, and the frog being in contact with the ground, has shown that this works like 4 pumps which pump blood back up the leg. This takes strain off the heart.

Tests on shod horses show that they feel less pain on the sole of the foot that an unshod horse. In other words their feet are numbed by the restricted blood flow. This doesn't mean that when a shod horse stands on a sharp stone, for example, it doesnt mean it hasn't damaged its foot. It just does't feel it. Unshod horses tend to feel the stone, and take their foot off it before they put their whole weight down and bruise the foot.

Over time the sole of the foot thickens and it is normal for proper barefoot horses to do without the boots at all, and may be ridden over any terrain , tarmac roads they love, and they don't slip either.

We have now got to the self maintaining stage of barefoot, which means that with the exercise they get the trimming is almost never done as the foot wears itself. This does not mean that there are limits to the distances our horses can go. In our area, which is heavily populated with horses, we are probably the ones who are out most and definately go further than neighbours.

We have found that intermittent unexplained lameness is non existant, and the general health of our horses has improved no end. Also, a mare that always over reached, and always wore over reach boots now no longer needs them, and has not over reached for years.

I am not on a crusade with this and am not looking to convert anyone, but I have to say that having gone down the road of x rays, drugs, remedial shoeing, second opinions, third opinions the whole lot is now, than goodness a memory, touch wood.
 
My horse had this treatment too in March , been lame ever since. 6/10ths. He in the end had a MRI and navicular nerve block test too, He had pain there too.
His MRI showed no damage, so they put it down to bruised navicular. With changes on the coffin joint and navicular.
He had wedge shoes put on, still lame.
BUT and a BIG BUT...I moved yards 18 months ago so had a new farrier , then I, 2 weeks ago called my old farrier to ask if he could recommend a new farrier,
He said the wedges made him worse and don't have them.
I went against the vets in the end and my old Farrier came and shod him again on friday...
He put the old style shoes that he used on him, said the heels on his feet had been sheered off and he needs to grow them, his feet were out of balance side ways too,
He put wide web shoes on set back to give support....
And today my horse was doing of his own accord with me a sound medium trot!!!!
So it took my about £3000 of vet treatment , which never helped and the shoes were the key...my advise is get a very good farrier.
I may not be over his problem, but I hope more than anything in the world I am.
 
Hi gar thank you very much I just had egg bars fitted Wednesday but form still today Sunday he coming up lame, I will try everything I can for my boy , good luck with urs
 
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