Bone Spavin/DJD/hock arthritis

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spotty_pony

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My boy was diagnosed with mild arthritis in the hocks at the beginning of 2013. He was 1/10 lame (on a circle and after flexion tests). He had steroid injections in both hock joints containing Hyolourinic Acid and Adequan to lubricate the joints.

I had a top-up done last January incase the Insurance excluded it, but they haven't. Anyway, it is now 11 months since his last top-up and he has been in full work and atm is at full fitness, Hunting approx. a couple of times per month.

He is 15 now, and very active and full of life - so much so that I got asked if he was young the other day! :o :P However, he is a little stiff when being shod behind these days, and also the day after Hunting. He gets a day off after Hunting and is turned out to loosen up, etc which seems to help. I also gave him some Bute this evening, just in case he was still feeling a bit stiff.

I am very careful with him out Hunting and we pick our fences, etc. I am obviously aware that he will not be able to carry on Hunting forever, but as long as I can keep him sound and comfortable we will carry on even if we have to slow down a bit as it is what he loves to do best! :)

He is fed Cortaflex everyday too, but I am considering changing to a higher strength supplement to see if this helps with any stiffness. Any suggestions on which one?

I realise he will have to have steroid injections again at some point but I am hoping to wait until after the Hunting Season if possible (if not then obviously it will be done sooner) when he is living out again and can have an easy spring/summer of light hacking. Also, I can't remember the Instructions for after the steroid injections, again can anyone help? I *think* it is usually a days box rest followed by walk work but can't remember the rest!

Sorry to ramble, just looking for a bit of advice really! Any Vets on here?
 
Hi I'm not a vet but have extensive experience of spavin with my horse. Basically my eight year old was diagnosed with it and had the usual steroid/HA injections. Then he had three lots of tildren (he had three to get as much into him during the twelve months of the insurance claim like you did with the steroid injection). All was well and then in about June of 2011 (I think it was 2011) the horse got a suspensory injury on his near fore. It was only a mild sprain but he didn't respond to shockwave, or LW ultrasound or pulsed magnotherapy and I never thought he would ever come right and was desperately worried and dreadfully upset about it all. Eventually he had PRP that my fantastic vet suggested and he eventually came back into work and was doing very well competing show jumping/dressage. All was well for a good 18 months or so and then one day I had a call from physio friend at yard to say staff member tied him up next to wheelbarrow to change rug prior to turn out and that he'd got his suspensory injured leg caught in the frame by the wheel and pulled it along the yard banging into everything whilst said staff member screamed her head off in alarm!

Thank God my friend was there for my horse. Sadly we've since fallen out but her kindness that day will never be forgotten. She took care of my boy and iced his leg and bandaged it. It really made all the difference. Eventually he came back into work again but was overloading the injured leg from his off hind which was the worse of the spavin legs. The vet suggested fusing the hocks with ethanol (pure alcohol) which is what my physio friend had done with her horse. This would stop my horse overloading his injured foreleg - the diagnol opposite.

He had both hocks done under a very simple and quick procedure lasting less than an hour and costing £300. Basically the horse has the alcohol injected (providing the contrast dye injected prior to the alcohol shows the horse is suitable for the procedure). Then the horse is rested for the day and can be turned out the next day with a gradual return to ridden work.

Bailey went back into work as jumps and dressages on No Bute and does very well. Sadly as a result of the wheelbarrow accident he has some calcifcation either on or around the supsensory branch which causes a mechanical lameness but this can be minimised by riding correctly and slowing him down and is barely noticeable now.He was on bute for a long while on vets advice and did very well on half a sachet a day prior to me moving him onto the no bute. the last xrays I had showed fusion had taken place on both hocks the right one being more complete than the left. This procedure was very sucessful in my horses case although there was a time before fusion had taken place when I was worried that it hadn't worked.

There are a great many horses who have had this procedure carried out and I believe the response for most of them has been favourable. Here is more info about it http://www.horseandrideruk.com/article.php?id=2414 and a paper about it http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.2042-3306.2011.00512.x/full

Of course it may not be suitable for your horse but if I didn't mention it to you I would feel sad that you hadn't had the chance like I did to know more about this remarkable treatment that has really helped my horse no end.

I hope this has helped xx
 
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Hi I'm not a vet but have extensive experience of spavin with my horse. Basically my eight year old was diagnosed with it and had the usual steroid/HA injections. Then he had three lots of tildren (he had three to get as much into him during the twelve months of the insurance claim like you did with the steroid injection). All was well and then in about June of 2011 (I think it was 2011) the horse got a suspensory injury on his near fore. It was only a mild sprain but he didn't respond to shockwave, or LW ultrasound or pulsed magnotherapy. Eventually he had PRP and he eventually came back into wor and was doing very well competing show jumping/dressage. All was well for a good 18 months or so and then one day I had a call from physio friend at yard to say staff member tied him up next to wheelbarrow to change rug prior to turn out and that he'd got his suspensory injured leg caught in the frame by the wheel and pulled it along the yard banging into everything whilst said staff member screamed her head off in alarm!

Thank God my friend was there for my horse. Sadly we've since fallen out but her kindness that day will never be forgotten. She took care of my boy and iced his leg and bandaged it. It really made all the difference. Eventually he came back into work again but was overloading the injured leg from his off hind which was the worse of the spavin legs. The vet suggested fusing the hocks with ethanol (pure alcohol) which is what my physio friend had done with her horse. This would stop my horse overloading his injured foreleg - the diagnol opposite.

He had both hocks done under a very simple and quick procedure lasting less than an hour and costing £300. Basically the horse has the alcohol injected (providing the contrast dye injected prior to the alcohol shows the horse is suitable for the procedure). Then the horse is rested for the day and can be turned out the next day with a gradual return to ridden work.

Bailey went back into work as jumps and dressages on No Bute and does very well. Sadly as a result of the wheelbarrow accident he has some calcifcation either on or around the supsensory branch which causes a mechanical lameness but this can be minimised by riding correctly and slowing him down and is barely noticeable now.He was on bute for a long while and did very well on half a sachet a day prior to me moving him onto the no bute. the last xrays I had showed fusion had taken place on both hocks the right one being more complete than the left. This was very sucessful in my horses case although there was a time before fusion had taken place when I was worried that it hadn't worked.

There are a great many horses who have had this procedure carried out and the response for most of them I believe has been favourable. Here is more info about it http://www.horseandrideruk.com/article.php?id=2414 and a paper about it http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.2042-3306.2011.00512.x/full

It may not be suitable for your horse but if I didn't mention it to you I would feel sad that you hadn't had the chance like I did to know more about this remarkable treatment that has really helped my horse no end.

I hope this has helped xx
 
I don't know why my reply has repeated twice but my computer has gremlins in it again. I think I have a virus. Apologies. Keeps asking me if I want to stay on the page or leave it. Don't know why. If I stay on nothing happens. If I go off my reply stays on but, it appears repeats itself. However this doesn't always work. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes I type words only for them to reappear higher up the paragraph. Makes me feel like I am going barmy! Arghh I wanna scream :(
 
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