Can spavins recur?

[Butterbean]

OH's horse Marco was very lame in 2006 with what was eventually diagnosed with a hock spavin in his left hind. Treatment was to keep him walking (on bute) so the joint would fuse. After several months he came sound (we also had pads in his hind shoes to lift his heels) and was fine throughout most of last year. However near the end of the year he got thrush in his hind feet so the heel pads were taken out for a few weeks until the thrush healed. While they were out he became lame again in very similar manner to when he first went lame with the spavin, left hind again too.

Anyway, all that was just a long way of saying ... has anyone else had a spavin recurring in the same joint? We thought it had fused so would not cause any problems in the future ... looks like we were wrong.

 

[RachelB]

I know splints can become active again after they are thought to have hardened and settled, so maybe that's what has happened to the spavin? Unless another set of bones has started fusing in the same hock (there are loads of little cuboidal bones in the hock, like our wrist)?

 

[barneyandem]

Perhaps the hock hadn't fully fused and the spavin was still active? My vet said that raised heel shoes are more of a way to 'manage' a spavin that was unlikely to fuse, as once the hock has fused it will be stable. They were suggested to me when my vet didn't think my horses spavin would fuse and so would minimise the movement needed it the hock and make him more comfortable, but following a second set of xrays on the joint it showed that the joint was 4/5th fused and so they were never needed(he only had a very low grade spavin and never went down the bute route).
Unfortunately, a year later in 2007, my horse went slightly lame again and following xrays it was found he had a spavin in his other hock. I have since been told that once a horse gets a spavin in 1 hock, he may get it in the other hock as this has had to compensate but the vet did not want to tell me this in the 1st instance of the spavin. However that was in the summer of this year and both hocks have fused completely without using raised heel shoes.
Could his lameness be related to the thrush?Having his shoes taken off?

 

[Butterbean]

Thanks for your replies.
Barneyandem - thanks , interesting about the raised heels, maybe his spavin hadn't fused as we thought. Lameness wasn't to do with the thrush, he's got more lame since that cleared up, we had the heel pads put back on and thought he might take some time to get used to them again but he hasn't improved at all. Vet saw him but tbh was no help at all, in her opinion he wasn't lame

, since then he has got worse so we'll be getting another vet out in the new year.
So far though it is all on the left hind, vet had originally said it may well happen in the right as well, got that to look forward to in the future I guess.

 

[seabiscuit]

It can take up to 2 years for a spavin to fuse properly and you can often see on/off lameness until it settles down properly. I'd keep trying to work him through it. If he has time off, or has had time off, that can make them even lamer as the hock becomes stiffer. So movement is vital.

 

[Butterbean]

Thanks 2008, we have kept him in walking work with as many hills as possible (not that many near us unfortunately) as he has never responded well to time off.
It might be that we have to go back on the bute for a short time to help him work through it.