Depo Medrol injected into neck for horse with arthritis

[Christmas Crumpet]

Old horse was looked at by vet earlier in the week who confirmed he was lame in 3 legs - not massively at all but enough to warrant doing something about it. He is a hunter who hunts once a fortnight. Instead of doing a full lameness workup with xrays etc and then injecting all three legs, vet suggested an injection of Depo Medrol straight into his neck which he said would help and go to all the joints needing medication. I was surprised as I have never heard of doing that and was expecting him to suggest having his hocks injected.

Anyway he had 2 days off and I rode today and he was so bouncy and happy and felt fantastic. Quite a difference to earlier in the week.

I was talking to another vet earlier on today who said she'd never heard of it going into the neck not straight into joints and was really quite surprised. She'd only heard of it going into the neck joints not the muscle!! So now I am slightly confused about why my horse has had this done when its not normally done. Has anyone else had this done to their horse or have any experience like this?

An internet search comes up with nothing at all!!!

 

[katherine1975]

Depo medrol is a form of steroid which reduces inflammation. We had a mare with arthritis but this was first diagnosed with a full lameness work up and xrays, the vet said that it is the inflammation that causes the pain in arthritic conditions. I am surprised your vet immediately gave a steroid injection without first deciding the cause of the lameness. Steroids work really well on inflammation but can have side effects. Our mare went on to bute which is a non-steroidal anti inflammatory drug. She also had steroids injected into the joints, this didn't work and there is a risk of steroid induced laminitis.
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