Bone scanning

[poiuytrewq]

Tell me about recent experiences.
Costs would be great. How did your horse deal with it? (The being in isolation for a few days)
Why did you have it done and what showed up?

 

[LEC]

Its about £2500 - had two done and its done the job in pin pointing issues that we could not get on X ray. One had bone bruising on a hock and the other had a fractured Trecanter. Both coped absolutely fine with having it done and being at vet hospital.

It can show up false readings but on the whole I have found it useful.

 

[Steerpike]

I had one done on one of mine, just his front legs from knees down, cost around £1500 it showed us what the problem was, bone bruising, when xrays showed us nothing. Horse coped fine being in hospital for three days.

 

[Birker2020]

Out of interest how come humans don't have to isolate for days after a bone scan. Is it that the take up of radio active material is not so big on a human. I mean you can get some 'very big humans' can't you?

 

[greenbean10]

Mine was around £1700 including livery.

Showed pain in hocks and sacroiliac which we treated but sadly primary issue was suspensories which of course it doesn’t show.

 

[xxKatxx]

I had it done for what turned out to be suspensory issues- showed up some minor hot spots on front pedal bones which vets didn't feel worth investigating further, then he had blocks to the hocks which led to diagnosis of the suspensories. So probably should have just had the suspensories scanned! But it did feel worth it to get an overall view of exactly how bad the issues were, as I wanted to know exactly what we were dealing with, as there had been niggling issues for a few years, which were being kept on top of via steroid injections etc.

WRT to the isolation, I was also worried about this and tbh I'm not sure how it affected him in the end - it sort of ended up a bit out of sight out of mind as once they're packed off to horsespital, you aren't the one dealing with any stress!

 

[Tiddlypom]

Bone scanning was the great new wonder diagnostic tool for a while, but it's since proved to show up many complete red herrings and/or miss things entirely. According to my vet.

So I wouldn't bother, tbh, unless the horse is insured and you can't think of anything else more useful to rack up your vet's fees limit on.

 

[asmp]

One of ours was done but it didn’t really show anything up. It was done under insurance. When horse was picked up he‘d shredded the front of his rug - no doubt upset at being kept in and in isolation.

 

[Muddy unicorn]

£2000 for full body scan (excluding the head) last year - as part of an insurance claim. We knew he had mild hock arthritis but our vet felt something else was going on as it didn’t seem severe enough to be causing the problems. The only thing the bone scan showed was …. mild hock arthritis… which was good and bad. Everything else was completely clear so we were none the wiser as to what the problem was. We then had an ultrasound done on his hind legs which showed a lot of scar tissue on his right hind so it looks like he’d had an old suspensory injury and the two things were exacerbating each other. With hindsight I probably wouldn’t go for a bone scan again unless it was more targeted and less of a ‘fishing’ expedition

 

[Muddy unicorn]

Forgot to say - he dealt with it fine, but he’s a very chilled horse in general. He was Very Pleased to see us when we went to pick him up!

 

[Goldenstar]

I think bone scanning is a great investment where you think you might multiple issues going on .
I would particularly use it young horses where I was trying to decide if I needed to get out quick before I wasted time and a fortune and on a horse that was never going to do a job .

 

[scats]

I’ve had two bone scanned. One was back in 2005, when Leahurst didn’t have an MRI and we didn’t want to send him to Newmarket so decided to bone scan and see what showed. It pointed us in the right direction and he went on to have surgery.

Then we had Polly bone scanned a few years ago. Hers pinpointed a few areas and gave us places to look at further.

 

[criso]

I had one done but a few years back and it was about £1200 from memory for front half. We'd nerve blocked and tested up to the knee and vets were scratching their heads. The bone scan showed a hot spot at the shoulder and x rays of the area showed a bone cyst and a nerve block confirmed it was the issue.

It was a very rare condition and i don't know if we'd have got there without.

It wasn't days of isolation and I think he could see other horses and activity, he just wasn't handled, food and water over the door and i couldn't visit for a day. Had scan day 1, isolated day 2, i collected day 3.

 

[Alwaysmoretoknow]

One of mine has had 2. The first explained the absolutely off the scale explosions in canter as he'd somehow ripped his superspineous (?) ligament off his spine damaging the top of several vertebrae. Shockwave therapy seemed to help resolve it and he went on to event successfully. The second showed that he'd suffered a partial neck fracture between (from memory) C6 and C7 after an undramatic slip up between fences XC and explained a reluctance to turn one way and a slight ataxic hind limb lameness as well as some dramatic napping.
If I hadn't had these investigations I fear that his behaviour would have been put down to temperament/training issues. Despite being a bit of a twat (I love him really and keep him as an expensive field ornament - I chose to breed him so I have to suck it up) he coped OK with the proceedures and isolation. It was about £1200 I think each time a few years ago now and from my experience is a really valuable diagnostic tool.
He glows in the dark - lol.

 

[ycbm]

I always thought the point of a bone scan was to do the whole horse to find all the hot spots in unexplained lameness/ performance issues.
.

 

[Goldenstar]

They are always isolated with others horses in the same situation .
I had one that found it very stressful. They did not control his pain well we delivered him unstressed with pain well managed and got him back beside himself .
I just drove the truck and had my vet waiting when we got home I was furious .
My vet raised it with those who did the procedure .
However it did identify the problem a fracture of the third rib nothing else would have

 

[ycbm]

Out of interest how come humans don't have to isolate for days after a bone scan. Is it that the take up of radio active material is not so big on a human. I mean you can get some 'very big humans' can't you?

Do we do scintigraphy scanning on bones in humans? I think we would tend to do MRI or CAT.
.

 

[Bellaboo18]

I paid £1500 last year.

Mare coped absolutely fine in isolation but she's a very easy going lady.

I wanted to medicate her SI, vet wanted to bone scan; we bone scanned and it showed an uptake over her SI ? Medicated SI and had a huge improvement. I saw it as something else we'd ticked off but really I'd rather have just medicated. I think when there's insurance vets are keen to use it up.

The SI turned out to be secondary to suspensories which of course didnt show up and I had to push to have them scanned.

I guess it depends what you've done to this point and what you're looking for.

 

[criso]

I always thought the point of a bone scan was to do the whole horse to find all the hot spots in unexplained lameness/ performance issues.
.

Rvc can do front half or back half, maybe in more obscure cases they do all but if you've narrowed it down to front or back maybe it helps keep costs lower.

 

[iknowmyvalue]

I paid £1500 last year.
Mare coped absolutely fine in isolation but she's a very easy going lady.
I wanted to medicate her SI, vet wanted to bone scan, we bone scanned and it showed an uptake over her SI ? medicated SI, huge improvement.
I see it as something else we've ticked off in getting the whole picture but really I'd rather have just medicated. I guess it depends what you've done to this point and what you're looking for. I think when there's insurance vets think they might as well use it up...

I suppose the problem with insurance is that they tend to try and wriggle out of paying unless all the investigation has been done to prove that thing is the issue before treating.

Re. Bone scanning, it has its place and is very good for certain things and not others. Like most imaging really. It’s good for showing fractures that are either too small to see on xray or somewhere you can’t xray (pelvis, hips, ribs etc.) or when you think the problem high up (SI, pelvis, shoulder etc.). If the problem is lower limb there are better techniques.

 

[Bellaboo18]

I suppose the problem with insurance is that they tend to try and wriggle out of paying unless all the investigation has been done to prove that thing is the issue before treating.

Re. Bone scanning, it has its place and is very good for certain things and not others. Like most imaging really. It’s good for showing fractures that are either too small to see on xray or somewhere you can’t xray (pelvis, hips, ribs etc.) or when you think the problem high up (SI, pelvis, shoulder etc.). If the problem is lower limb there are better techniques.

The vets knew I was happy to self-fund. I wanted the least stressful experience for my horse so was happy to medicate and see but yes it might be something to consider..

 

[scats]

I always thought the point of a bone scan was to do the whole horse to find all the hot spots in unexplained lameness/ performance issues.
.

Essentially yes. Often used if there are performance issues but they aren’t quite sure where the problem is coming from.
In both my cases it pointed us in the direction of places to investigate further. It did, however, show up areas with Polly that further investigation didn’t show anything of significance.

 

[rabatsa]

We were quoted £750 for just the neck or £1,500 for a full body scan on Thursday.

 

[ycbm]

We were quoted £750 for just the neck or £1,500 for a full body scan on Thursday.

I don't understand the point of a scintigraph of the neck when it's accessible to xray and also mostly, I think, to ultrasound?

I'm sorry about whatever is causing you to have been given that quote.
.

 

[Steerpike]

We found it very useful as we couldn't pin point exactly what was causing the slight lameness even after extensive x rays, nerve blocking and trying egg bar shoes (which crippled the horse and needed taking off the next day). I forgot we also had another horse have a full body scan which showed up lots of arthritis in different areas enough we thought to retire him, not that you could tell seeing him gallop around the field!