Bone Spavin Good or Bad reports.

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paulineh

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My lad has been diagnosed with ? a Bone Spavin in his Left hock. He is a 19 year old Advanced Endurance Horse and up until last week was competing at a high level. Apart from the Ulcers below he has never been ill or injured.

He has been treated for Hindgut Ulcers and we thought his soreness was coming from the SI joints. These have been treated successfully but he came up lame at the Pre Ride vetting at the Golden Horse Shoe, 1 week ago.

My vet came last Thursday and did a flex test and said that was what the problem was. He was very dome and gloom about the future. My boy was due to have some Acupuncture this week and the vet that was going to have done this rang to change the appointment day, so I had a good chat to her. I will be contacting my Insurance and will be going a head with further investigations and treatment.

I would like to hear your good and bad stories about your horses that have a Bone Spavin
 
I think the key with spavin is to keep them mobile.
My 16 yo andalusian x was diagnosed with it in both hocks in January 2014. We noticed uneven wear on his shoes and had him in for x rays. The vet offered tildren however as I prefer to be more holistic in my approach to horse management I went for the steroid injections into his hocks with the option of tildren as a plan B. After a week on box rest to avoid lami (a side effect of steroid injections) he was back out in the field and being walked under saddle. I built up his hacking and introduced very varied terrain - we live on the north yorkshire coast so our hacks comprise of beach, moors, woods and lots of hills! He struggled with steep hills initially but gradually improved. He had another shot of steroids in August when the lami risk was low and by September we were up to galloping, jumping logs etc and he was actually better than he'd even been. Vet checked him again in December as the insurance claim was expiring and was very happy - one hock seems to have fused and the other almost there. No further treatment deemed necessary but he can have a set of injections whenever he needs them. They cost about £140 to be done at our yard so that's pretty affordable.
Feedwise he's had turmeric and rosehips added to his usual Safe and Sound. A nice warm bed and rubber mats with daily turnout up in winter otherwise he lives out.
He can't ever school again (we did prelim dressage) as he's still a little lame on the right leg so can't bend correctly but as a hack he is fine - we hack out 3 times a week and he was coping well on longer rides (though 10km is the most I have time to do!). The vet said he would pass a vetting, so he's not that lame.

Unfortunately he recently sustained what we think is a sprained fetlock which has caused me a whole a heap of problems because he stiffens up with box rest (but that's another story)
 
Thanks Noblesteed

My boy was very fit as he was due to do the 160k (100 miles) over Exmoor at the Golden Horse Shoe.

We have never had a problem doing hills, as in fact he was better this year after having his Ulcers sorted out.

I will continue to hack him out as I'm sure he would get bored just in the field. So far the only way it has been diagnosed is the Flex test.

He can not have Turmeric because of his ulcers but he is on a good joint supplement plus Green Lipped Mussel.

He is out 24/7 all year as that is the way I keep my horses.
 
What was important that I forgot to mention was remedial shoeing. My farrier took the xrays and used them to make my horse's shoes. So I would recommend you get x-rays done asap and sent over to your farrier. I am convinced the shoeing played a massive part in getting him sound again. He was a bit sore initially with his 'special' shoes on as the farrier angled them to put pressure on the dodgy arthritic joint - as my lad's spavin was fairly advanced the aim was to try and fuse the joint. But it wasn't that painful that he didn't want to be ridden - and he's good at letting me know how he is feeling.
 
paulineh said:
My vet came last Thursday and did a flex test and said that was what the problem was. He was very dome and gloom about the future. I would like to hear your good and bad stories about your horses that have a Bone Spavin
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Not sure why doom and gloom. Its a common condition which in a very high percentages of cases can be fixed with either steroid injections, Tildren infusion or fusion with ethanol.

My horse has had all three treatments and the fusion has worked very well with fusion in both hocks having now taken place. Like someone just said, the key is to keep them turned out as much as possible and work them every day for twenty mins rather than once a week for an hour. Put them on a good joint supplement and sometimes they may require lateral extensions on their hinds shoes for additional support. My horse jumps, dressages and does fun rides and has never really looked back. I thought it was the end of my world when he was diagnosed with spavin at around ten years of age but it really wasn't the problem I thought it was and apart from a few blips until we found the right course of treatment he is as good as new.

Its a very simple and easy (on the most part) condition to treat. The horse needs to have xrays of both hocks to see how advanced the problem is first and then be treated accordingly.

I would really worry if my vet was worried about spavin to the extent your vet seems to be. Maybe you should consider getting a second opinion? x
 
If your vet has only done a flexion test I cant see how he knows its bone spavin it could be a number of things and something totally diffferent, the only way to diagnose spavin is by xray I would be asking for a proper lameness work up starting with nerve blocks and take it from there, a positive flexion test is not always that accurate sometimes it can pin point an upper leg problem if it a hock flexion but nerve blocks give you a much better idea where the lameness is.
 
Pinkvboots said:
If your vet has only done a flexion test I cant see how he knows its bone spavin it could be a number of things and something totally diffferent, the only way to diagnose spavin is by xray I would be asking for a proper lameness work up starting with nerve blocks and take it from there, a positive flexion test is not always that accurate sometimes it can pin point an upper leg problem if it a hock flexion but nerve blocks give you a much better idea where the lameness is.
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I agree with the above, although there are more telling symptoms of spavin like dragging a toe (my horse used to cause sparks on concrete with his toe). Also disunited behind on short sides, doing a big hop with a hike of the hip (to alleviate pain in canter) and not tracking up.
 
applecart14 said:
Not sure why doom and gloom. Its a common condition which in a very high percentages of cases can be fixed with either steroid injections, Tildren infusion or fusion with ethanol.

My horse has had all three treatments and the fusion has worked very well with fusion in both hocks having now taken place. Like someone just said, the key is to keep them turned out as much as possible and work them every day for twenty mins rather than once a week for an hour. Put them on a good joint supplement and sometimes they may require lateral extensions on their hinds shoes for additional support. My horse jumps, dressages and does fun rides and has never really looked back. I thought it was the end of my world when he was diagnosed with spavin at around ten years of age but it really wasn't the problem I thought it was and apart from a few blips until we found the right course of treatment he is as good as new.

Its a very simple and easy (on the most part) condition to treat. The horse needs to have xrays of both hocks to see how advanced the problem is first and then be treated accordingly.

I would really worry if my vet was worried about spavin to the extent your vet seems to be. Maybe you should consider getting a second opinion? x
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I suspect the doom and gloom was that the OP will not be able to continue doing high level endurance with the horse even if medicated as it will possibly show up on vet gates.

As OP said she will get further investigation and treatment too to confirm.
 
Applecart14 : If you read all my post you will see that I have had a second opinion. He lives out 24/7 and I will be exercising him 6 out of 7 days a week. I have another horse that is coming back into work so they will go out together.

Ester: Maybe I put it wrong. I am happy to do less high level, it was just a shock. The Golden Horse Shoe was to be his last big competition. He was very fit and in fact still is. This was the first time he has been lame.

I have such a lot going on in my life that is rather upsetting at the moment and my horses are my one escape. Maybe I took what the vet said to heart and did not think. A good nights sleep is what I wanted and needed.

I have the go ahead from my insurance company so my vet is coming on Thursday to investigate and treat. I know that he can still have a happy life and once things are done he will compete again.
 
Deep breath! I thought you would be happy to do a less high level, I just thought that was maybe what the vet was basing their response on. :)
 
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