Bone Spavins!

[tigger01]

Having posted earlier this week about horse with a splint. Vet came out and now thinks he might have the beginnings of bone spavins. Oh great - I'm defo getting gold fish next. It hasnt been confirmed yet as need to take the horse for lameness work up and xrays first. But being eternally pessimistic I thought you lot might be able to enlighten me with treatments, experiences etc. I think vet was muttering about Tilldrun which seems to be the answer to all bone spavin cases as far as I can see. But its fine while the insurance covers it but what happens when that runs out as I've heard its extremely pricey. Oh blimey.

 

[FleabittenT]

Hi, first thing I would say is don't panic! My 9yo mare was diagnosed with spavin in her near hock last year, is now sound & back in full work

She'd started bucking, v. out of character for her so had full work-up with vet to rule out anything physical. Work-up showed slight lameness on a circle, nerve blocked hock & she trotted up sound, so x-rayed hock & showed spavin.

She had 4 cortisoid injections into the joint, over 4 consecutive weeks. She had this time off, and then returned slowly to work.

She's now back in full work, jumping again, no bucking. We do avoid excessive work on hard ground, trotting too much on roads etc, but she's stayed 100% sound.

If the injections hadn't worked, the next step would've been Tildren, and may still be if lameness re-occurs (which we're praying it won't). She's also on a high-quality joint supplement. Remedial farriery may also be an option to discuss with your vet & farrier.

Bill to date is £710. Are you insured? If so, you have 12 months from the date of the claim for the condition, so you at least have time to try a few options, with Tildren as a last resort. NFU did want proof that she's not been treated for spavin before, as it's obviously degenerative, but have paid out so far.

Wish you all the best with it

 

[abbieandfiona]

Tildren is expensive its around £800 a time and most horses have 3 lots of it within the year.

My mare has spavins we first tried cartophen injections x4 which cost just under £200 for them which i injected myself so no call out fee. She now has this for the rest of her life as vet believes it helps other areas for her.

Then she went lame again so had a bone scan at local hospital who recommended the steriod type injections which go directly into the hocks. So she had these soon as she came home which didnt cost that much think with call out and everything was only under £100 she had one in Sept and the vet repeated it again in Nov. Alongside this she has wedge type shoes which were claimed on insurance that helped for the first 3 lots.

Then in Jan time went lame again so injections only helped short term. So i did some research and had only 2 options left which was tildren or IRAP. Went for tildren which causes colic so ended up seeing vet around 3 times the day of treatment. We also changed her shoes again to extreme latural extensions to get her walking straight. The tildren has worked well we have only had one lot of it on vets advice. She is now back in normal shoes and sounder than she has ever been.

Hope that helps a bit.