coffin joints ????? advise please

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dane07

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does anyone have any experience with them ? my boy went to ashbrook yesterday as he kept going lame and they nerve blocked his feet and they think its something to do with his coffin joints, they have said he may need corrective shoeing as hes sitting on his heels which is causing the problems...

has anyone been through this with their horse and did they come back into work ok afterwards and did they have to be retricted to what they do ?
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Yes this happened to my boy. Although they also said he chipped some bone in the same area and the chip was floating about (although not causing any probs). As for the heels, his were very low obviously causing discomfort. He had remedial farriery (sp?) for 3 months to raise the heel. He is now shod with round shoes to support the heels and is completely sound and in full time work. I have him shod religiously every six weeks whether its needed or not (you know sometimes you can push it out a bit longer, but i don't)

I do have him on Riaflex Complete and have seen a massive difference with his movement.
He is a 16hh ISH (age 14).

Hope this helps.
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Mine had the same problem. He started to go lame on the lunge. He had injections into the joints (on both feet) Had a set of constructive shoes (or whatever you call them).

The vet said that he won't be of any use and that he would have to be on bute for the rest of his life. I thought i'd igore them and took my dads advise. I started off slowly hacking out, trying to build up the strength in his legs, then weened him off the bute, got him fit, then started jumping again.

This was 2 years ago and now he's jumping 1.05m and has won over £200 since this had happened.

My farrier now just lenghtens the shoe so it goes further around the hoof to help his heel.

I had to take things a bit slow and i'm very careful on hard ground, but please don't just take the advice of the vet, ask for at least a second opinion.
 
My friends horse is at leahurst at the minute, and they have said that his hing lameness was due to the coffin joint, they gave him anti inflammatories and he is now sound?
Is he lame on the front so waiting on hearing what is wrong there.
If friends horse is sound now behind will there be any problems as in he cant be rode etc? Obv we need to wait for the front lameness to be diagnosed but if we get the all clear?
I did forget to ask this, they didnt say anything about him not being rode they was happy with his back leg and doing work on his front?
 
This happened to Ella (she is a big heavy Clydesdale x). She went lame in March of last year, after bute and rest, she was still lame so she was nerveblocked and xrayed. The xrays showed arthritis of the coffin joint. The joint was injected twice (approx 5 weeks between injections). She needed remedial shoeing to give her heels as much support as possible and has quarter clips on her front feet. My farrier deserves a medal as he has been fantastic. She has also been on a really good joint supplement (Feedmark's Extraflex HA) and has had magnetic fetlock wraps on at night. At one time my vet thought the best we could hope for was that she would be "field sound", but after 7 months rest, I started walking her out in hand and then riding her out in walk, now we are hacking out - very steadily - and boxing out to the forest again.
 
It depends what exactly is wrong with the coffin joint...
The coffin joint is one of the more difficult joints to deal with as it is completely hidden within the hoof capsule. If it's ringbone then you want to hope it's non-articular (outside the joint) low (on the pedal bone/lower half of the short pastern) ringbone. Articular (inside the coffin joint) low ringbone is less of a good sign, but it can still be helped in most cases. Something as simple as remedial shoeing can work wonders on some horses
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my vet has just called and they have confirmed it is the coffin joint, he has to go back in 2 weeks to have medication straight into the joint and then a set of corrective shoes, said that he will probably need 2/3 sets with them and then carry on with normal blacksmith after hes been told what he needs to do ! but has said he will be able to come back into full work after hes settled into his new shoes and they figure out how much medication he is going to need, wether its a one of treatment, or a regaulr thing or just once a year !
 
Mine is being correctivley shod at the moment, coffin joints are clean but most likely there is some tissue damage in surrounding areas. My horse is already dramatically better & already back in light work.
 
yes the xray showed a bit of new bone growth which means it will become athritic later down the line but vet said nothing to worry about at the moment, he said even after the nerve block he was dramatically better so fingers crossed he can be up and about soon, hes booked in for his 1st set of corrective shoes on 27th june so bring him home tonight and rest in field for 2 weeks and then just see how he gets on, can i ask when your horse had his first set done ? i know each horse is different by may give me an idea ?
 
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