Coffin Joint Woes

[hollylouise]

Hi Everybody,

I hope someone can advise me on this. I have owned my horse for 5 months now and everything has been fine (well he's a bit strong and he has gone for schooling at my yard for a month to try and reschool him a little more as I have been travelling with work). Anyway he is a 16.2hh irish hunter and is 13years old. I have been jumping him and riding him since I bought him in November last year and hes been doing quite well, that horse can jump!! However, he is strong, but never silly and he doesn't really buck or rear, more just being strong and taking off, or sometimes naps.

Anyway, I havn't ridden him in over a month now as he has been in a month reschooling programme. Anyway, the livery yard sent me a message yesterday saying they after lunging him, he has suddenly gone lame and so I got the vet out and she scored only a 3/10 on the leg when she came to visit him yesterday saying its something in the coffin joint. He will have full lameness testing on Wednesday where they will carry out a comprehesive assessment, but the vet said it could either be something that is acute and has happened while in the yard or something that is chronic and could be pre-exisiting, where he was sold to me with it (although he was sold to me sound with a vet check) and because he could have had injections before the sale, it could have made him sound for 6 months and now he's lame because its worn off.

However, I have all the documents of his sale including his original advert saying 100% sound, so I am sure I can make a claim against that if they were fully aware of the issue and were injecting him at the time of purchase? I bought him from a yard, so fully tracible.

I would also like to say, he has been vetted November with flexion tests/lung test/heart tests, the full shibang (except x-ray) and he passed 10/10 on everything.

Has anyone had any experience with this type of injury? What causes it? Any help will be much appreciated.

 

[be positive]

You will need to wait for the diagnosis before deciding what needs to be done, the vet has just suggested a possibility that the horse may or may not have had previous treatment. It may not even be a coffin joint problem.

As he passed a 5 stage vetting your insurance company should pay for treatment unless there is evidence that it is a pre-existing condition, hard for a vet to say this is the case at this stage, I would think.

 

[Kal]

If it ends up being coffin joints problems, it may not be too bad. My boy had this in both front feet aged 8. Had all the injections etc, the vet said he would be on bute forever but after a couple of months i bought him back slowly, building him up and he is now 13. Hasn't been on bute for the same problem since and hasn't had any more injections either (although i think he could do with some more soon).

He has been competing since upto 1.10m and now doing XC. I just have to be careful of hard ground and don't do to much schooling as tight circles are not good.

Hope you find out what it is quickly and sorry, can't help on the pre-existing side of things.

 

[smellsofhorse]

My warmblood has osteoarthritsis in.his coffin joints and ring bone, basically degenerative joint disease.
he is older though but as you discribed started rushing jumps and refusing, also going down hill he was very sluggish.
3/10 lame is still lame.
I hope its nothing serious.

Can you ask previous owners for permissions to see vet records from when they owned him?
If they decline I'd worry they knew and he's has had treatment in the past.

 

[Wundahorse]

My WB also has had steroid and hyaluronic injections in his coffin joints x2 since december.Was ok for a while but not quite 100% now.Have not tried danilon yet as i worry about exacerbating pain.He is 13 this summer and was a super SJ.I am praying for a more sustained recovery.