Bone spavin - anyone had their horses hocks fused?

i'll be watching this thread too as my horse will be having them fused soon. She had steroids into the joint and that improved her so much. now waiting until steroids wear off before tildren and ethanol injections to fuse joint.
 
My vets given me 3 choices
1. Do nothing
2. Long term bute
3. Injections and radiographs to fuse with 1 month box rest

13 yo, sore back just a happy hack. Insurance runs out soon for hocks so gotta make a decision in next 2 days
 
that's more or less the options I was given on initial diagnosis. 1st step for me was steroid injections- i think that was more to double check that that was the problem. she improved immensely- sound and moving better (stiffness gone).
I presume option 3 is ethanol/alcohol injection- from what I've read the results are very good for this as a method of fusing the joints. My vet is suggesting combining this with tildren as she's insured (tildren ~£700). she should then not require any further treatment for the spavin. I would say speak to your vet again as obviously you want the quickest, permenant solution with insurance time running out. I would say it is moreorless now of never for the injections (with cost and time), the bute option is relatively cheap and could be done at the later time, and do nothing I would have as last resort. My vet has not mentioned box rest with the ethanol injection/tildren, although 1 month box rest wouldn't put me off. 6 months might!
what treatment has your horse had so far?
 
oh, she's already had steroid injections last year - this new thing is injections of some sort of "matter" to fuse all the bones together:confused:
 
not sure what the injection is then. If it is the ethyl alcohol/ ethanol injection, then I would go for that option.

if you're not sure, discuss the success rates and time to success with your vet.
let me know what you decide and how things go!
 
My horse was diagnosed with this condition yesterday, sadly. We are going ahead with joint injections as he showed major improvement in both hocks after nerve blocking, he had also grown a small bony spur off the joint, which is not big but is a cause of pain that will most likely be surgically removed, he will then be checked to ensure he has also not damaged his suspensories and will then received shock wave treatment, possibly even if he has not done a suspensory.

We decided we wouldn't do tildren because his fusion is quite onset so there is no point trying to prevent it at this stage and we will instead continue with fusing them.

I hope it all works and he responds well and can return to competition, fingers crossed.
 
AFAIK tildren doesn't prevent fusing. It stops the resorption of bone, to allow the deposition to "catch up" with the remodelling in the bone. By allowing the bone deposition to catch up pain can be reduced.
Hence why my vet is recommending combining the ethanol injection (chemically degrades cartilage/damages joint) and the tildren to allow the quick fusion of the joint. The aim of my horses treatment is to get the bones to fuse as quick as possible as once fused there will be no pain & lameness.
 
did your vet tell you that they do not fuse all 4 joints in the hock there are only 2 that they fuse and they can only do this after xrays and the xrays need to confirm that there is not connection e.g. holes where the liquid can seep through to the other joints otherwise your horse will be paralysed. It is a case of go to vet hospital, have xrays taken if not good then go home or if okay then get treated and stay over and then go home, good luck. Other option is to work horse a bit harder than you would normally so as to encourage fusing of the joints naturally through wear and tear and then you are away. Not sure which method i would pick, possibly stick to devils claw as i am doing now.
 
No my vet did not tell me there were only 2 bones that could be fused not all of them
What's the success rate of the op?
Does it require an overnight stay?
Can they do both hocks at the same time?

She's had the steroid injections, we are now looking at fusion.
 
Found this:
Fortunately, treatment of this problem is very successful. Treatment involves one of four choices. The first option is simply to warm the horse up on a loose rein for 15-20 minutes, prior to strenuous exercise, and to give bute (an aspirin like drug for horses) as needed. More often these horses are treated with joint injections. One can inject these horses with a drug like hylaronic acid, which is anti-inflammatory as well as helpful in re-establishing normal joint fluid. Other drugs used for joint injections are corticosteroids. Corticosteroids are more powerful anti-inflammatory drugs than hylaronic acid. However, corticosteroids will cause the cartilage that lines the joint surface to become brittle. This will hasten the fusing of the joints (which is good in the lower hock joints), but will require the joints to be injected more often then if hylaronic acid is used.

If a horse becomes unresponsive to joint injections two alternatives remain. Both are attempts to cause complete fusion of the lower two joints in the hock. As stated above, these are the joints are causing the pain. However, these joints only contribute a very small part of to the range of motion in the hock. If the joints are fused, either naturally or through medical intervention, the pain caused by the bone spavin is eliminated.

One method of causing the fusion, called arthrodesis, is surgical. The horse is placed under general anesthesia. Using a surgical drill, the cartilage in the affected joints is literally drilled off. This causes the joint to heal bone to bone resulting in fusion.

Within the past five years an alternative to surgery has been developed. This method uses a chemical agent to erode the joint surface leading to fusion. The hock is injected with the chemical MIA. The horse will be very painful for 4 to 16 hours. This painful period is managed with intravenous medication. For the next two weeks, the horse will be very sound. Over the following month it will regress somewhat. At one practice where 38 cases were treated in this way, 75% (29 patients) responded to treatment to the point where they were back performing their desired activity. Of the remaining 25%, three more cases responded when a surgical arthrodesis (described above) was done following the chemical treatment.
 
Hi, dont usually post in here just browse but my pony currently has bone spavins. Hashad the steroid injections and after a second lot of xrays after he got worse instead of better we have gone down the tildron and bute route. Last option is the operation to fuse them but with 6 months off work and a couple of months box rest I am trying not to get down that route. I was told the tildron was to help to fuse the joints as thats what we were waiting to happen as like milz88 horse mine also have the boney spur. I'm just hoping they fuse soon so he doesnt have to stay on the amount of bute for so long
 
From what I read, contrary to much opinion, fusion is rare. They now no longer "operate" under general by drilling the bones. Instead, there appears to be an 80% success rate of injecting the joint under radiographic imagery with ethanol (spelling?) which causes a chemical reaction, causing the bones to fuse - this is very different to steroids, like tildren, into the joint and has to be done at hospital due to the high tech equipment needed to get the injection 100% accurate. The horse had a sedative and there is quite a bit of pain for the first 24 hours. Box rest for a month is advised.

Mine's response to steroids hasn't been bad - but fundamentally she is still lame with a sore back.
 
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My chiropracture said that most horses with bone spavins have bad backs bone spavins due to them over compensating so you wont sort the back until youve sorted the spavins. Generally bute seems to be the best way to aid all the process in my opinion
 
Go for it! We had Piper's spavin fused as a five year old - almost seven years on he's completely sound (touch wood!). Surgery was done at Rossdales in Newmarket.....cost a fortune but he was worth it!
 
Our little 11.2 pony had spavins in his back hocks. He had the steroid injections (or I think thats what they were)...after about three/four times, they had fused. The injections were spaced out by several months, depending on when he showed signs of hurting.

I hope it works out for your horse
 
Thanks all this is my ginger sausage - just a happy hack.. My insurance runs out on June 24th so we'll be trying this op asap.

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Hi my 13 year old mare has been stiff behind for the last 6 months and on bute for this time, 1 every other day.

The vet came out last friday to look at her and suggested that we get her in for x rays.

Dropped mare off at Ashbrook in Cheshire on Tuesday and picked her up on Friday she has had injections and the tildren..she looks better already.

I was quite upset though last night when i seen her looking a bit tired and sad, with her neck and hocks shaved...but after seeing her canter away in the field much sounder it made me feel a lot happier.

The care and knowledge at Ashbrook was fantastic, the vet called me every day to talk about treatment and options.

She had 24hrs box rest but that was it..then we where back to light work..iv got a work plan and everything written down from the practice.

Its funny though as my friends horse just had injections ...then 2 weeks box rest and he has shown no improvement. The vet came to the yard with portable x ray and injected at the yard.

Where as Ashbrook said they would not do that they needed a sterile enviroment, and would prefere xrays done at the centre.

I could not be happier...and i just wish i would of done it 6 months ago...even if she does not show massive improvement at least i know iv done my best to help her with her old age.

She is still on 1 bute for the next 2 weeks..until treatment starts to work
 
My horse had op it was complete success.Unfortunately he had other lameness issues in his front legs.The op was straight forward after couple of months he was hacking out again.
 
Glad your steroids seem to be working, the effects though can be short lived in my experience. This is why I'm now going for the fusion ethyl alcohol injections instead.
 
My horse was referred to a vet hospital where a full lameness work up, x-rays and joint injections were done. My vet would not inject to joints at my yard (not sterile, as said before- don't want to increase the risk of infection unnecessarily).
The impression I got from the vet hospital was that the tildren and ethanol injections would be done on the same day and she would be home that day (no stay at hospital). Not sure on after care, box rest etc. So far he's been very keen to keep her moving about in the field and when sound ridden.
Please keep us updated on how your ginger one gets on
 
Hi there

My ginger one was diagnoised with spavin in both hocks last October/ November. We took the 'throw everything sensible at it' route, as she was insured, but I didn't want to rush straight to the more radical treatments. She's had steriod jabs into the hocks, tildren and adequan injections, and then a period of time off before we re-xrayed. The joints we wanted to fuse are well on the way, and the very large bone spur which we suspected was causing the problems had signficantly reduced in size.

She's now back in work again, and is headed towards her first event of the season at Sapey in the middle of the month. She seems so much happier in herself, and I suspect that she'd been suffering queitly for some time before it got bad enough to affect her performance.

I've had her back regularly checked too, as (as another poster mentioned), it's really common for spavin horses to try and compensate and hence end up with back problems too. She was still 'protecting' the hocks last treatment, although is much much better than she was.

I'm lucky that I have a super vet who is also completely practical - spavin is a degenerative disorder, but we will reinject the hocks if she starts to become uncomfortable and keep monitoring.

Best of luck for your chap - my girlie doesn't seem to be looking back!
 
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