bone spavin. stupid question alert

diggerbez

diggerbez

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what actually is a bone spavin? a horse on my yard has one and i realised i have no idea what they are/ what the prognosis is...very ignorant i realise but interested now....
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Arthritis of the lower bones in the hock. Starts with a subtle loss of performance usually and goes on to varying degrees of stiffness and /or lameness. Prognosis varies, as does treatment but advice is usually to work the horse to cause the affected bones to fuse, at which point the lameness goes away.

My horse has/had it and is OK now. He moved a bit like a camel before he got it so it's difficult to tell how badly affected his gait is. His jumping ability has not changed, nor his tendency to hoon madly round the field, so it hasn't been a death sentence by any means for us.

Google it or search on here. Lots of HHO horses have it!
 
ooh cool - so i guess its one of those 'how long is a piece of string questions' then with regard to prognosis...my friend's horse is only 6- seems very young to have any form of arthritic condition?
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There are several bones in the hock, kind of layered. When the cartilege wears down between these (arthritic changes) and the bones begin to fuse together (if you're lucky) or new bone grows, this is bone spavin. The best you can hope for is all the bones in the hocks to fuse, which usually leaves the horse stiff but not in pain.
 
My mare was diagnised at 6 as well. Although she was never obviously lame, just had problems in canter and some bucking. But we then found out she has arthrtitis in nearly every joint on both hind legs.

The vet can't believe she is as sound as she is concidering the state of the x rays. I don't know if thats good or bad!!

She had a year of tests, treatment and rehab. Now she has been back in proper work for 3 months or so. We are just going to play it by ear this what she can cope with. Definately varies from horse to horse.
 
thanks, interesting article...sorry to hear about your horse M- hope she is one of the ones who pull through. i think my friend is thinking worst case scaenario with her horse (it also has something wrong with its back
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Spavin is Arthritis of the hocks, which can causes a narrowing of the joint space, depends how bad is is as to the severity of lameness- It can be managed though and perfectly possible for horses to be kept in full work/competing. Sometimes the bones can fuse making the horse sound- but it is a degenerative condition, so not always.
My horse got this at 8 years old and apparently there is not always a reason as to why they can get it so young ( we did everything slowly with my boy, has good conformation etc etc)

Hope that helps
 
Mine has it in both hocks, diagnosed about 2 months ago. Vet looked at him (for something else) and said he "just doesn't move quite right for such a big horse behind". X-rays show mild spavin in both hocks so medicated both with Cortisone, currently on his second course of Adequan, and has had 2 x osteo and 1 x physio treatment.

Gone from feeling a bit stiff, not wanting to work correctly (but would try for you), and refusing to jump altogether to getting placed each time he does dressage and now having to hold him back jumping cos he's so keen
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My vet told me that once M's spavins fuse, he shouldn't really ever be bothered by them again though I do have to be careful about the sort of work he does. Have to pick my surfaces (ie, don't compete anywhere with bad surfaces or on rutted ground if it's on grass), hunting but limited jumping on good or soft ground. Avoid hard ground and not too much trotting on ground.

He's 14 and feels like a 5 yo!
 
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