Bone Spavins in both hocks - anyone had experience?

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Martop

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After being initially diagnosed as having a distended suspensory ligament in one leg, (long story) my horse has now been diagnosed with bone spavins in both hocks (not a ligament problem at all).

2 weeks ago he had Tildren injected into both hocks which should have made him temporarily sound. Unfortunately it hasn't, he is still lame and in my mind, now looking stiff in walk which he didn't before. My vet is coming to reasses him this week but is certain he will have to go back to the vet he was referred to for another dose or possibly surgery.

The specialist vet told me that in his mind, the Tildren had a better prognosis if it was given regularly but surgery only has a 50-60% success rate. Unfortunately Tildren costs almost £1000 for both hocks so once the insurance runs out, we'll no longer be able to afford it.

My question is, has anyone had a horse that has had surgery for bone spavins and if so, how long was recovery and did they come sound?

I appreciate there are a few different methods of surgery available and will obviously be speaking to the vet in depth about them, but we do have serious questions over the operation. Our horse is ony 11 but is a very big boy at 17.2hh and is only used as a light hack anyway.

Thanks in advance for any replies.
 
My mare was 6 when she had bi-lateral hock arthrodesis - basically drilling out the lower part of the hock to make it fuse together.

She was on box rest after the surgery for 6 weeks, and then I turned her away for about 9 months, and then slowly back into work. She is now totally sound, and in my opinion, surgery was the best option. I tried the injections, but it was the same - they would be expensive, but with the surgery it went over my insurance by about 1k (5k for legs, which are now uninsurable, it will be the bullet if anything else goes wrong)

There are a few people on here who have had surgery, and I think all of them have had success. There are also those who advocate the injections, but if those are already not an option, I would opt for surgery. I am sure that you are aware that with this condition, the hock joint will eventually fuse itself - however, I don't know how long this takes, and inevitably, it is a very slow and painful process, that may naturally never fully heal.

Ponio is stiff on a hard flexion test, and can be 1-2/10ths lame lungeing on concrete, and therefore won't pass a vetting, but as your horse is a hack, then this won't really affect him. Mine is still sound enough for general RC activities, and you really never notice it.

Also, Natural Balance shoes are very good - my mare has been wearing them since she came back into work, and has only just gone barefoot (which I am not thrilled about, but I have a pushy farrier, who did it while I was on holdiay, don't go there)

Anyway, anymore questions, feel free to ask, I have quite a comprehensive knowledge of it!
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I have a 28yr old mare liveried at my yard, she has spavins in both hocks, diagnosed about 3 or 4yrs ago, when she came to us we gave her 24/7 turnout and very very light work in hand/ground work to keep her moving, time is a great healer and she was semi retired unlike your horse who clearly still has more of a career, but after 1-2yrs everything seems to have fused,she is doing very well and started being ridden again lightly 18mths ago. She has ringbone in her front legs and when she 1st came to me was on 3 bute a day, synequin and extra glucosamine, now she is on nothing but turnout and decent grass but with care taken over her weight and it has worked wonders for her. She is moving really well now and is thoroughly enjoying life. I can't speak for surgery but I can speak for lifestyle and time. Just wanted you to hear a positive story, she looks better than my 8yr old!!!!!
 
Hi, ive got a ex race horse whos 17.1hh, ringbone in both front legs and arthritus in both back hocks-hes 8!
hes had all joints injected but with little improvement, hes on synequin and devils claw. hes turned out now at the moment 24/7 as ive broken my leg. ive found that hes quite good on the walker when in during the winter and i only ride twice a week and before hand i give him x2 bite. when i give the bute he has a cup full of corn oil as i read somewhere that this counter acts the side effects of the bute. Feel free anyone to reply if they have a horse with similar problems for TIPS
 
my YOs mare has spavins
she had rested her for 3months after an op, then she started to work her, only hacking at first.horse couldnt canter properly(she slammed both hind legs down at the same time) at first.
she is now sound and back to doing half pass,flying changes and canter pirouttes.
 
Thanks for all your replies, they've been quite helpful and i feel a little more positive about an op now. The only thing i need to find out is the cost as i only have about £3k left on the insurance!
 
My surgery was over that - the vet said that it was gong to be 3k and it ended up being over that with sedation/hospitalisation etc and therefore went over insurance - didn't know that however until after the surgery, so had to pay it, but they did do a very acceptable payment plan. See that you are in the South - where? My mare went to Liphook - very very good place.

PM me if you want nuts and bolts of price breakdown etc etc or to ask anymore questions, as I think that you are looking now on the lines of surgery. I remember that amandaco had mentioned her hoss's quick recovery, and couldn't figure out why mine took so much longer - but it really depends on the rate at which the bone fuses. Mine actually had some strange horny growth around it, which the surgeon had never seen before
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but it hasn't seemed to cause any problems as yet.

As with any surgery, it is risky, but if you are backed into a wall (as you seem to be) and you have basically enough insurance money to do it, then its not going to hurt, and as I figured, at least then you have done everything that you possibly could if it does go belly up.
 
My gorgeous horse was diagnosed with bone spavin in the RH when he was just 5 yrs old (I had only had him a few months). He passed a 5 stage vetting BTW!
The vets pretty much wrote him off. He had one infusion of tildren, which did not work. The vets felt that his type of spavin would probably not react well to tildren anyway.
Surgery was an option. For me I really felt that I could not put my horse through the recovery (lots of pain and many months of box rest). The vet and I both agreed that his character would struggle to cope with that. The success rates were not that high IMO either.
So, no surgery for him. Over the yrs it has settled really well, he gets better and better with time so far (touch wood). He benefits from a controlled, regular exercise regime and is able to jump, hack and do dressage and showing. Extraflex HA (and HA in particular) have helped him so much. In the winter or if I think he is esp bad and he is not competing I have no qualms about giving him a sachet of bute. Better for him to be comfortable.
I would investigate surgery, there are success stories, but if you decide not to there are other more conservative options. Good luck I know how devestating it is to discover this.......It is no consolation but spavin is very common.
 
Was the Tildren actually injected into the hocks..... merlin has had this twice now and each time it goes into the vein in the neck......... could it have been a steroid into the hock???

Merlin has stayed sound since the first infusion and the second was a top up as it can be beneficial to do tildren every 8/10 months.

Not heard of it going into joint though.
 
Well, i had just assumed the Tildren went into the hocks! But now you've said it i've had another look at the report and it say's 'both tarso-metatarsal joints were medicated with methylprednisole acetate and the horse was treated with an infusion of 500mg tiludronate(Tildren).' So perhaps it was in his neck!

I've just spoken to my vet again and he says my horse now has to go for bone scans. The vet we have to take him to is in Newbury - some 2 1/2hrs drive away!
 
Are you going to O'Gormans....??? Merlin had his bone scan there... they are very nice
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And yes the tildren would have gone in a big bag of saline and dripped human style into his neck vein.
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Its good stuff, merlin is still sound after a year and we only had the top up done as the insurance is nearly out ..... 16 days to go
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My horse had surgery for spavins in jan this year and my friend has just had her horse done in both hocks .If you want to chat or pm me feel free I will give you my number.Both horses are tbs mine is just 7 .He is back in work has some good days and some days were he is still slightly sore but its only been a few months and he is improving.I had my first schooling lesson this week so we have made progress.Good luck I can only tell you Im glad I had it done.
 
Apalacia01 - Tildren slows down bone growth i think - i did look it up on the internet but now i've looked at so many things i can't remember exactly!

Thanks ever so much for all the replies guys. Yes, it is O'Gormans that he went to. I've spoken to them again and they'd like me to give him a couple more weeks just to see if the Tildren does anything, but if he's still lame then he will probably have to have the joint drilled to facilitate fusion.

Will keep you posted on the situation.
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