Arthritis in Hock

[littlebranshill]

For the past 3 years my horses was diagnosed with sore back. Last year she was xrayed & the only thing they could find was two vertebrae quite close together but not so bad as to be kissing spine. They wanted to inject with cortisone but I decided to have acupunture and physiotherapy & wave treatment which did get the back to 100%. Then a couple of months later the back was in spasm again. Anyway to cut a long story short she has now been diagnosed with mild arthitis in both hocks and the back was just referred pain. She has had cortisone injections in the hocks 10 days ago but the back is still slightly rippling. Does anyone have any experience as to how long it takes for these jabs to have effect and will the back stop rippling. At the moment I haven't ridden her.

 

[cellie]

My horse has just been treated for the same thing but I choose surgery instead of injections.
It can take up to 2 years for the spavin to fuse some horses are a lot quicker maybe 6 months .I posted a question under hock spavins in the vetinary section about 6 weeks ago and had a lot of replies from people who choose injections .You could do a search to see the replies.A good supplement like newmarket joint supp will help .
Good luck

 

[aran]

The steriods will have a rapid response - but how well they work and for how long depends on the horse. aran went sound for 4 weeks only - some horses will go sound for months. aran had surgery to fuse the bones. it is very common for spavin to be referred as back pain. there have been loads of posts on hock arthritis (AKA: bone spavin) - every type of senario and therapy is discussed - may be worth a look

 

[emma_lg]

Worth having a look for previous posts on this...it is often discussed on here.
My mare had a course of two lots of injections in her hocks four years ago..after initial rehab - mainly just taking it easy inbetween courses...she had more bounce in her than before!!! She also had remedial shoeing and put on newmarket joint supplement.
Your horse may still have soreness in her back for quite a while - this could be due to habit and also if that is where she reacts to the arthritis it may take awhile for it to settle to its new condition...the steroid injections generally I believe work quite quickly. Every horse can react differently to the injections...they worked brilliantly for my mare but may not suit every horse.

 

[sfward]

My mare had a sore back, which also turned out to be bone spavin. Before the spavin was diagnosed she had a month's box rest with bute and physio, which cured the back pain completely, so we can now concentrate on the hocks (she had steroid injections 6 weeks ago). I would recommend getting a physio to treat her back which in conjunction with the hock injections should help her feel a lot more comfortable.