Can anyone help please?

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SCG

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My mare is going to have her hocks injected for arthritis. The vet said she is locked through her lumbar area presumably from compensating so once the hocks have been done I’ll need to address this. My question is, who would be best to sort this, an osteo, chiro or physio?
 
You might need both a physio and a chiro but start with the soft tissue therapist - the physio - because chiro adjustments often hold better after muscle & fascia work
 
Thank you, I didn’t know that but I have read that physios soften the muscle and soft tissue which would be good before a chiro makes structural adjustments anyway
 
I’m also trying to decide between steroid or Arthramid injections, that’s another thing that’s taxing my brain!
 
Steroids reduce the inflammation and have pain releaving properties.
Arthramid replaces lost joint cartilage, smoothing the joint's action and reducing/removing bone-on-bone grinding.
So both can be good.
 
Thanks so I guess would depend on the x-rays which route to go, I’ve heard some practices inject a mix of both
 
The risk of steroid induced laminitis concerns me, I’m trying to find out how big the risk is but there seem to be plenty of conflicting opinions online and indeed amongst vets, not to mention horror stories of horses going down with laminitis despite following strict after care instructions, I’m not sure I’m prepared to risk it
 
It was my understanding that you can't put steroid in once arthrimid is in there so steroid tends to be done first.

Risk of lami via joint injections is actually pretty low, especially if you aren't doing a whole series of joints, the aim is the steroid isn't joining the bloodstream too much. Keep in afterwards to keep off grass and minimise joint movement. Even with a metabolic native I was told not to worry too much about it and it wouldn't stop me getting treatment. Systemic steroids are a different ball game.
 
Gold standard, which is what I am able to do and works very well, would be steroid + Arthramid injections on same day followed 2 - 3 weeks later by a treatment by a chiropractor vet (qualified vet who is a chiro).

www.drangelaholland.co.uk

Dr Angela Holland

Dr Angela Holland, experienced Equine Veterinary Surgeon specialising in equine performance and rehabilitation. An advanced veterinary practitioner who is an internationally certified veterinary chiropractor, equine acupuncture and rehabilitation. Additional services include Class IV Laser, myofasci
www.drangelaholland.co.uk www.drangelaholland.co.uk
 
My friend lost her horse due to steroid induced laminitis. She gave him 9 or 10 days box rest after the steroids instead of the 7 the vet recommended and he still went down with laminitis once turned out.

He may have already been insulin resistant or something, he was a big lad and heavy so may have been more predisposed.
 
SCG said:
The risk of steroid induced laminitis concerns me, I’m trying to find out how big the risk is but there seem to be plenty of conflicting opinions online and indeed amongst vets, not to mention horror stories of horses going down with laminitis despite following strict after care instructions, I’m not sure I’m prepared to risk it
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I was also concerned about steroid induced laminitis and from reading some articles online done by US vets it seems that in most cases the horses were high risk/positive EMS.
I asked my vet to run bloods for EMS before I committed to steroids and her results were on the high side, although not positive for EMS so we’re trying to get more weight off and we will run bloods again early spring and do the steroids then if things look better. She’s not currently being ridden so I don’t have to worry about her workload.

Mine wasn’t a candidate for arthrimid so we did a course of cartrophen injections instead.
 
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