Bone Spavin - Bone Fusion.

[Rockchick_uk]

Does anyone here have or have had a horse with bone spavin?

Reason i ask is that my lad has the 3rd joints in both his hocks fused and although he has been sound now for the last 15 months im wondering what others have done with their horses who had this horrible ailment.

At the moment me and indi are only hacking with light schooling and he seems to be doing so well on this, obviously jumping is out of the question as i dont want to put too much pressure on his joints etc.

So what did you do with your horse ?

 

[charlie76]

My horse has had it in both hocks. He had cotisone injections and is on synequin. He is back in full work and out on loan toi a young lady that will compete him this year.

 

[lizzie_liz]

my mare has bone spavin in her right hock, it was foubd when she was 6 and is 11 this year. i compete her dressage and SJ, without any problems.

 

[Worried1]

I have retired my youngster for the foreseable future who developed a bone spavin.
I simply had the most awful run of luck and decided I had taken as much as I could bare.
As a yearling she jumped a stile and got a septic knee.
As a two-year-old she suffered a septic tendon sheath, had two lots of surgeries to flush it out followed by intensive physio. Began walking in hand and the electric fence exploded next to us and she double barrelled me chipping my hip and leaving me with a permanently dentred hip and thigh!
She was then turned out and managed to tweak the other tendon and so went back onto box-rest and we had to repeat the process all over again!
As a three-year-old she dislocated her pastern (left hind) and although intially it looked like she had made a complete recovery but... after being broken and going lame in front we discovered she had tweaked her pectoral muscle. Did lots of stretching exercises and she went sound. Hurrah

Worked her over the winter and began competing in BD, BSJA and then some BYEH classes which is when we hit a problem. On a surface she was fine but on grass she was clearly uncomfortable and we were experiencing some training issues with her reluctant to step under with her left hind.
Then out of the blue and five days before our wedding her left hock blew and was huge. Vets kept saying it was lymphangitis but despite being turned out 24/7 and gently being worked it did not go down. Several very expensive courses of antibiotics later it was still no better. The strange thing was that she was sound and even passed flexion tests! The next logical step after our honeymoon was to x-ray which is when I devastated to discover that she had a bone spavin in her left hock which was probably as a result of her dislocated pastern.
So I decided that rather than continue to mess around she could have babies and let nature run its course. I spoke to her breeder and the vets who were all of the opinion that this bone spavin was caused by trauma as opposed to confirmation or genetic issues.
So she has gone to stud for a couple of years and then we may look again at re-introducing her back to ridden work. She had a fantastic jump and a great attitude so it was really heartbreaking especially as I had bought her as foal.
I haven't totally written her off I have just put her on hold for the forseable future.
The problem with Maddie was that she was bred to compete and do a job and so the chances of her finding a home as a 4-year-old with someone who only wanted to hack and cope with a young TBxSelle Francais was nil. If I had turned her out in the field she would have got into mischeif (she was that sort of mare!)
Sorry if I sound negative but she was not comfortable and I didn't want to force the issue as she was such a sweetie and I didn't want to make her crabby.
Her spavin was still forming and so in several years time we may be able to pick up where we left off.
I hope you have better luck with yours.

 

[lindahaydock]

My mare was diagnosed with bone spavin in both hocks in January. Her left hock has fused, but the right that she is lame on has just started with changes. She had cortisone injections that have unfortunately not worked. I have been advised just to hack her out for now. Fingers crossed I will be as lucky as some of you and be able to do more with her in the future.

 

[kerrylou123]

My mare has a bone spavin in her right hock. We've spent that last 12 months doing not much other than hacking and extrememly light schooling.... she's now completely sound and has started her new career as a dressage horse. We plan to start introducing some fences soon too.... although she has never jumped being an ex flat racer.... should be fun

 

[aran]

once the bones have fused then you are fine to continue doing what ever as the damaged joint simply no longer exists. it is when they havent fused that you have the problem (and some just dont). aran has spavin in both hocks - the right has fused and is fine the left though has nearly fused and so is giving us some trouble. even so he hacks out and does some schooling.
enjoy your horse and dont worry about the spavin

 

[debbielinder]

my horse also has bone spavin she was diagnosed about 18months ago and after treatment returned to full work including jumping. to be honest dont think about it to much any more try to forget about it and worry about her other problems!!! vets very happy with it, so, so am i.

 

[GoJo]

my boys got spavin in his right hock- being x-rayed next week but he's not lame unless lunged on a tight circle.
judging by what vet says if it fuses can do full work- jumping etc if not then just a happy hacker!! good luck with Indi.