Bone Spavin in both hocks - tildren & turn out

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Riverboy

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Hi - I'm looking for advice and support. My 10 yr gelding has just been diagnosed with - according to the vet - very severe bone spavin in both his hocks. We've tried steriod injections, glucosomine suppliments and an anti - arthritus injection. We are now trying Tildren as the vet said the trials have shown this to be effective with bone spavins - and that he should have limited turn out.

Does anyone have any suggestions on the best way to ensure he is able to come back into work in the future. The vet has said that he may have to have an operation - has anyone had this? Is it effective. I've been told that he'll need at least a year off and may return to light work - but he seems so uncomfortable and the x rays showed very large spurs coming out the side of his hocks - has anyone been in this situation? Is their light at the end of the tunnel for him?

Any advice greatly recieved - very concerned about his future..
 
I feel for you. My horse has bone spavin too. He had injections which made him comfortable for about 4-6 weeks. The vet advised to gently exercise him to encourage the joints to fuse. If you can get the joints to fuse without surgery, it would be better for him (I think) I believe any surgery would involve drilling holes into the bone to encourage fusion.

The last x-rays showed that the tarso-metatarsal joint had collapsed meaning it was starting to fuse.

I dont have experience of Tildren or fusion surgery and cannot help further. Have you tried google?

A horse can still lead a full and interesting life once the joints of fused.

Sorry I cant be of much help.
 
My vet has said if we can avoid surgery we should as that would require an even longer rest period.

Its nice to know that he can lead a full life once this is over - I have heard so many different versions and my vet has been hazy about how much use he will regain in his left leg as even with nerve blocks and bute he remains lame.

Google only has a little information on Tildren as its relatively new, and a lot of the information realtes to it treating navicular - it seems however that 60% of the horses in the trial improved on Tildren which is a good sign!!

Thanks for your help!
 
You are welcome. Finding out your horse has arthritis can be a shock. I would def avoid surgery also there is the anaesthetic risk.

Vets tend to be hazy about prognosis due to increased litigation in this day and age.

I stopped jumping my horse once I found out he had spavin and I stopped trotting him on roads/hard ground. But I tend to err on the side of caution. Its gonna be a long journey, but its worth it and the horse will still be ridable. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

My horse was about 11 when I first noticed his stiffness and called out the vet. He is 15 now.

Good luck
 
My horse had surgery 2005. He had a year off but the joints have now fused so he is now competing - team chasing, hunting etc.

Steroids only worked for ~4 weeks and HA/glucosamine doesn't repair the joint or encourage fusion so I didn't want to waste my insurance money or time.

Tildren is pretty new. The reason why there is limited info on it and its effects on spavin is because it is a drug that reduces bone turnover and so wasnt used in spavin. However, in some horses bone turnover drives the arthritis or is causing the pain. Therefore tildren was tried and was shown to have some effects. The problem is that you can't tell where your horse has spavin driven by bone or cartilage changes, therefore you have to try the drug to know if it will work.

Just a word of caution. It is expensive and if it doesnt work you are left with surgery. I used up my entire £5k insurance money in the year with surgery and aftercare. Surgery is though only effective in ~70% of horses.

Good luck!
 
My horse had surgery like arans .He was operated on in jan one month box rest one month restricted turnout then month walking month trotting etc.He is nearly sound and vet is very pleased with results.Hes just thrown a splint but will have another vetting in two weeks but can now work in a good outline which he was unable to do before.Hes 7 and a tb.The results are good I was told 80 to 90 % success rate .To fuse the hock the surgeon recommends excercise not schooling but lots of walks and hacking out in all he only had 2 months off its a slow process but I would recommend this option .Mine had the large bony spurs so surgery was best for us.pm me if you want any more info.
Google anthreodesis (spelling )
 
thanks for your advice - my vet thinks that we can afford to do the Tildren and then the operation, and he wanted to try something less invasive. I am worried about it affecting both his hocks as the movement in the more advanced hock is quite limited - do your horses have full movement in their hind legs?

I think its just a waiting game - we're keeping him on limited turn out as when he went into the larger feild his hocks would come in very hot.
 
Merlin has bone spurs in his hocks and has had the Tildren twice in the last 12 months.... he is sound and in full work now
smile.gif
 
The only difference I noticed in Jake's hocks was that he could not flex the lower hock joint as well as other horses because it has fused. He is able to track up and do dressage very well.

He now has arthritis elsewhere, but the hocks once autofused (self-fusion) have not caused a problem.

See what your vet says, but mine said t/o as usual as the movement will encourage the fusion. The heat will be the degenerative process. Hosing can help with this as well as Danilon. Have a word with your vet about this.

My horse was luckily not in a lot of pain, but he is a very stoic horse and not all horses are the same (obviously) and it will be trial and error to find out what suits your horse.

It can take 12 months for the hocks to autofuse.
 
My horse had spavin a few years ago before I bought her, I don't know how severe it was but she was treated by injections into her hocks. Sorry thats no help at all, all I really wanted to say was that she had about 6 months off (living out to keep her moving) , but a year on she was back in full work, fully fit and sound, even passing flexion tests. I've had her for a year and had no problems so hopefully the prognosis should be fairly good for your horse.
 
my lad had bone spavins in both hocks in addition to navicular in both front feet (poor bugger!!) had two lots of steroids in his hocks which had little effect and at the worst point was lame on all 4 legs. nearly 2 years ago now he was treated with tildren to combat both the bone spavins and the navicular although the dose was not more because of this. 2 years on I have an admittedly stiff horse who takes occasional 'dodgey' strides and has had to retire from showjumping but to be honest he currently feels better than he has felt in years. Out hacking he is powering up hills as if they are not there and schooling wise he is still doing all the lateral work he did before he was diagnosed which is basically working to medium level (I haven't asked him for changes since treatment which he was learning before he went lame!).

In terms of maintenance now he has as much turnout as possible (currently 24/7) and is given cider vinegar daily, no expensive additives (£10 of cider vinegar lasted 2 horses with generous servings 2 and a half months!) and most importantly he is not on bute.

I am under the impression that he may well need a further treatment of Tildren at some point in the near future (they say 2 years onwards from initial treatment) but for now I have a sound happy horse (just a bit stiff until he warms up properly!).

Tildren will not work for all horses but it certainly seems to have worked for mine
grin.gif
 
Thanks it gives me hope that he may come back into work - as long as he can cope with going for a good old gallop at some point I'll be happy as he really loves to go out and let off steam (he'd never been hacked out when i bought him and he was 7!!)

The vet said to keep him on limited turn out for the moment to give the treatment the best chance to work as he doesn't do himself any favours - but I'd like to avoid long term bute if possible as he's only 10. He's had the tildren now and will have to wait and see how he goes on that but the vet said as its pretty advance its likely we'll have to operate and then turn him away for quite a while (he doesn't understand about 'going quietly' so trying to keep him calm and ridden could be difficult)!

Thanks for the support though - feeling much better - the yard i just left lots of people were telling me he would never work again and i should think about putting him down... very upsetting...

x
 
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