Chronic Arthritis of the hock

LEC

LEC

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My horse has arthritis of the hocks. He has been injected twice (most recently in March and they have totally failed to help), has joint suppliments etc but is still chronically stiff. There is no insurance money left and I now have LOU for him.

I have given him 1 month to see if he will come sound on danilon but if he does not that is the end for him as he is only 11 and he has barely any flexion in his hocks. Its a real shame but I do not want him to be a field ornament as he is too nice for that and gets bored.

Is there any other thing I can try that I have not done yet? I have a loan home lined up for him if I can just get him looking better than he is now. I am in a slippery circle as well as he keeps getting a sore back because his hocks are so stiff. If anyone has any suggestions it would be much appreciated.
 
How long has this been going on? (as you know it'll take time for the bones to fuse). Depending on the time, you need an up to date xray to see what's going on in those hocks, if they're anywhere near fusing or if he needs an op to encourage fusing to happen.


Has he had his proximal suspensorys nerve blocked - that would be going by the book and should have been done during the first xrays?

I feel for you about the insurance, but this is the only option - at least get the exray done so you know what the next stage might be. Put the loan on the mortgage if you have one?
 
My mare has arthritis in front cioffin joint .Injections did work for her and she is now on 1 danilon per day and a joint supplement .
She took a long time to become sound for light hacking and was on maximum dose supplement and 2/3 danilon a day for some months after 3 weeks weaned to 2 danilon and it took a good 6 months before I went down to 1 danilon.
She is sound for light hacking and is enjoying life .I find keeping her out as much as possible helps as she will stiffen up if left in .
I find giving the medication half danilon 1 scoop joint supplement am and half danilon 1 scoop of joint supplement pm is more effective than giving in one dose.
I also would walk her around in hand in the sand school for about 10 minutes every day while she was recovering .
Could you try turning her out to grass 24 /7 and put her on danilon and a joint supplement walking in hand (probably better in a sand school as it is so hard at the moment) for about 10 minutes as often as you can and see if she improves .
Personally I would give her the rest of the summer on medication to see if she comes field sound.
As my mare was 20 my vet bills cover didn't cover any of it so I wasn't trapped into operating in a time frame.
My big moan is that insurance sets time limits and back in the old days we used to turn horses away more and give them time now everthing has to happen in a year.
 
You may or may not like the barefoot approach - but it works - I have a horse that was much the same but he's fine now and doing everything.

Shoes off.

No lateral extensions - let the horse grow his hooves how HE wants them to grow

Don't trim the feet unless the walls are getting too high - then just reduce wall height and round/safe them off - this is important - making the hoof a "nice" shape as a farrier or trimmer might prevents the horse from growing the hoof the way that he needs it to support his particular movement (mine throws medial extensions - take them away he is lame, leave them he is sound)

No grains - they can exacerbate any arthritic problem

Linseed, and a great mineral supplement - this works well - the linseed is full of Omega 3/6 and other good things. Consider Brewers Yeast too at 1heaped tbsp a day.

No circles - but it sounds like you have him on pasture rest.
 
It has been getting worse over the last 2 years. He had suspensorys blocked but the biggest improvement showed up in the hocks. The first lot of injections worked after about 4 months and he was only 1/10 lame when he first had them. He was fine and completely sound for 6 months before going 1/10 again. Went back to Langford and he was x rayed again there were some disintegration in the hocks condition so he was injected again which have completely failed to work. The type of arthritis he has there has been no talk about fusing ( I also think the whole idea of fusing is sometimes a little white lie as with arthritis there are only two directions that they can go in never getting worse or they carry on getting worse). I have looked at the x rays and you can see where they are getting worse.

Barefoot is not an option. He would be chronically lame in his feet as well.

This is a big competition horse and though he could probably cope with hacking and he is good in traffic I do not want that for him as he would get bored and he can be naughty. If the horse was 20 i could accept leaving him in a field or light hacking but not at 11.
 
Hi
My mare has just been diagnosed with arthritis in her hocks and was injected, which fingers crossed seems to be working. It is expensive ( we didnt go through the insurance route). I have also bought her some magnetic chaps which she wears in the stable at night and she has Kentucky joint supplement in her feed which has Glucosamine and Chroditin in which are supposed to be good for arthritis and I have just started feeding her a handful of dried nettles in her feed ( which she loves) which is also supposed to be good for arthritis. Before all this she was doing so well with her dressage and i was devastated when the vet said she has arthritits. The vet said she would be able to do what she was doing before with help of course.She is 15.

Im keeping my figers crossed for you and your horse.
 
fingers crossed for you.

Ive just finished the course of hyonate is that what yours had? hes now on synequin and today we stopped the bute so will see if the other is working on its own or whether the bute was a prop. He is the same he cannot go barefoot we tried it once even then he was lame just wandering round a soft field without being shod.

My vet still says that it takes time for arthritis to settle, and it does get worse before getting better so to speak even though they might not come sound without bute.
 
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