can you have bone spavin with clear x rays

[debsflo]

horse is lame and had positive spavin test but x rays are clear . she is now on rest and bute and will go to rossdales if no improvement . can you have bone spavin that will only be evident on more detailed scans.

 

[foraday]

Depends upon the xrays themselves!

If they are the new digital ones then showing no spavins on the xray means it isn't spavins.

On the old system which many vets still have it doesn't show the detail so can be missed.

Not sure why your vet has said that box rest is the route as spavins need the horse to be moving about???????

Hope your horse gets better soon.

 

[debsflo]

i think they are the old type and horse is on paddock rest.

 

[cptrayes]

Spavins start with degeneration of the cartilage. Cartilage is not solid enough to show on normal radiographs (xrays) So of course you can have the start of spavins with no change on the xrays, as my horse did. Once the bony changes are evident, you are often well on the way to fusion, which very often limits lameness or removes it altogether, as my horse shows after three years.

 

[debsflo]

so how do they diagnose with certainty that its spavin .is there another check they need to do