Equine Elbow Osteoarthritis?!

Hormonal Filly

Hormonal Filly

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Not sure if anyone remembers my gelding, hes only just turned 10 and been retired due to severe arthritis in the neck. It took a lot of investigation to find, funded by the savings I had (wasn’t insured) Steriods only worked for 4 months. He then went back to how he felt before the steroids. Struggling to canter, feeling choppy and just unhappy to ride in general and in himself. After speaking to the specialist they believe he shouldn’t be in pain with his neck, as a field pet and this was the best option unless I wanted to steroid every 3-4 months and it would eventually get more and more frequent. This was 2 months ago now. Boswellia, bute, Turmeric, joint supplements made no difference.
Since being a field ornament, I’ve noticed his elbows are increasingly clunking/clicking especially walking downhill. Almost like something isn’t right in the joint.

I’ve sent the videos of him walking to the specialist and my vet, awaiting their reply.

Since doing some online research about this, it seems there’s a few minor studies regarding horse elbows and osteoarthritis but nothing exactly from a vets mouth. It isn’t usually seen on CT scan or x-ray and it’s the hardest place to steroid inject, apparently. I've also found a few studies on younger horses who showed the same in the elbow joint after dissection.

My geldings movement is the same, if anything much worse, than those in the link.
https://thehorsesback.com/equine-arthritis/ - Link regarding studies

Horse with movement the same as mine

https://thehorsesback.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/1-Humerus-e1388803409769.jpg
The above horses elbow following dissection

Does anyone know any more about elbow arthritis or seen movement like it before?

Some days he seems happy, others hes quiet and slow in his movement which could be heat or pain related. I just don’t want him to have another underlying issue and be in pain, which is why I am concerned. He was owned by people (gypsies) who treated him terribly before I owned him, so I do know he was hammered on roads from a young age.
 
I wouldn't say I 'know' about it but can share my experience. My share horse (now 23) had intermittent lameness over a period of 12 months at the age of 19-20. Never quite enough lame enough for long enough to nerve block. We eventaully managed it. First set (foot) inconclusive, he reacted badly to the nerve blocks and we nearly lost him. The 4 months it took him to recover meant he was sound again. Started work, back came the lameness. Rather than risk nerve blocks again, we sent him for a bone scan. This revealed two hotspots - his lower neck and his right elbow. Both x-rayed. Changes in neck minimal and likely just age related; the elbow showed mild-moderate osteoarthritis. We had two options at this point - either treat both or attempt to nerve block elbow. They could use a different (far more expensive :rolleyes:) drug from the normal one. We went for this option as medicating the neck is quite high risk and had to wait 4 days until they could work him enough to be lame again as the box rest from the bone scan meant he was sound again. He was 100% sound with the elbow blocked. They medicated the elbow (ultrasound guided). He came home, had a week of box rest and hasn't once looked back since.

At 23 he's enjoying a second life as a giant pony club pony (he's 17hh) with his owner's 12 yr old and still doing some riding club with me, although I'm looking for a new horse as we don't want to ask him to do too much. He's hacking, jumping, doing dressage, going to the beach, doing some verteran showing and generally having a ball. That sounds a hell of a lot but it's mostly hacking, one day an week in the school and a day out once or twice a month. It's taken a long time but he's finally building all the muscle he lost during that year. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I wouldn't have believed he could come back from where he was at his age.

I don't want to give you false hope as your boy is obviously much younger and has other issues, but M responded brilliantly to treatment for his elbow and hasn't had any other problems for 3 years now. We really thought he would have to retire. From what I understand, it's quite rare - especially when there's been no trauma in the area - and therefore quite difficult to diagnose (or rather gets overlooked) but does tend to respond well to treatment. The vet hospital injected the joint with ultrasound guidance so I assumed he'd have to go back there for more injections, but my vet said he can do them if/when he needs to.

M was never as lame as that, but the video above does look familiar.
 
Mums TB Barty looked like that when he was approaching his 20’s. We didn’t investigate we just had him pts because of his age and mum couldn’t bear to watch him. He started to struggle to get up after a roll so we called it a day. Shame really as he was otherwise healthy and would have still had a few years left in him.
 
One of my knees does this when I walk downhill, it makes a god awful clunking noise and I can feel my kneecap jolt. It doesn't cause me any pain day-to-day but it does cause me issues when I exercise so I have to have physio and strap it up to support it. I know I'm not a horse so this is probably not at all helpful but hopefully it's similar in some way and your horse isn't in pain day-to-day either?
 
Sasanaskyex said:
One of my knees does this when I walk downhill, it makes a god awful clunking noise and I can feel my kneecap jolt. It doesn't cause me any pain day-to-day but it does cause me issues when I exercise so I have to have physio and strap it up to support it. I know I'm not a horse so this is probably not at all helpful but hopefully it's similar in some way and your horse isn't in pain day-to-day either?
Click to expand...

Interesting. My shoulder does similar which is due to a old injury to the ligament and its agony when I exercise. I did read the shoulder is supported by muscle, so wondered if since hes been out of work and muscle tone has reduced thats why its so much more noticeable.

ester said:
I saw your vid on fb and it was really interesting does he move it straight observed from front on?

an old thread that a researcher posted on
https://forums.horseandhound.co.uk/...ers-ping-flick-when-walking-down-hill.629470/
Click to expand...

Haven't looked from the front, will do later. I noticed yesterday after posting the video his right shoulder is if anything worse than the left, which is the side I videoed. When walking back to the field its a slight incline, he walks up onto the grass bank and it looks even worse. Almost made me feel a bit uneasy. I felt the joint and it almost did feel like bone grinding, no other way of explaining it.
Someone has messaged me with a mare with neck arthritis and she also moves the same way. I wonder if its secondary/primary to the neck arthritis, thats the 3rd now I've red about it being related to neck arthritis. Most are older horses though.

I'll have a look at that thread - thank you!
 
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