FACET JOINT TROUBLE

[SuperFran]

Hello ... I brought my horse in April 2011 and she was very thin, out of work and owned by someone who i thought was very genuine, turns out that i shouldnt have been so soft and now i am discovering the true troubles with Diva.

She got very healthy over the summer, but occasionaly bucked into canter or went disunited, she is a jumping pony and is very hot headed, but a few months ago, about the start of December, she changed and from the minute i get on she is very unhappy, bucking if i use my leg, backing off, little rears, and is just not herself to say the least. She refuses to move and so after various vet inspections, she went of to Newmarket Equine Hospital and after a bone scan, and Xrays on dark areas, it emerged she has abnormalities with her Facet joints. they are not certain this is the problem but with other things eliminated she is now on a work plan with bute and an antispasm drug thing ( im not a vet) before this she obviously had some time off ridden work, a few weeks in a passoa, and before this her back was already very strong with good muscle. After a months rest she can be brought back into light work with regards to her progress.

Sorry for the lifestory but i really need some help. I dont know whether it is worth going through this treatment, or if it will just be a re-occuring problem and i should consider putting her into foal. She loves her work but i just dont know if she will be same, or what has caused it to flare up. After reading other posts i feel that this could well be causing her behaviour ... so any replies would help

 

[loopylucifer]

hiya
I have one horse with facet joint arthiritis and i also look after another that has facet joint arthritis. Both show very simmilar symtpoms to what you discribed. Mine took a long time to diagnose due to the other problems she has the other one was diagnoised quicker as she came to us and was clearly in discomfort. both had x rays and ultra sound to diaignose.
Ill start with mine- she had the worse affceted joints medicated with ultarsound guidence some improvement shown but not massivly so then we medicated the gaps between the spinal processes (like for kissing spines) to reduce the inflamation that was there. again some further improvment but still clearly not right - (right canter was very wrong). i then gave her three months off last winter and brought her back into work in april after getting all clear from vet felt quite good but after a few months went lame behind and has now been diagnosied with proximal suspensory desmitis and has now had 7 months off!

The one i look after though is more positive. She original had the worst affectied joints medicated and shown an imediate and quite dramatic impovement, few months later was starting to shown dicomfort again so they medicated the other joints. impovment seen but vet thought we could get her better. she started intensive physio had several sessions under sedation too. after 6 months was then sore in sacroiliac region probably refrerd pain from original back issue so had that medicated. and she has gone from stength to stength since. initaly we did lots of long reaining and lunging. she still lunges/or long reins 2 or 3 times a week. she is back jumping now and just has physio every 6 months to keep her going. The vet has said working her will be the key to keep her going as it is the muscle that supports the back that is important and that she cant have any longer than 3 weeks off at any one time if possiable.

It does seem that it is a problem little is known about as vets have only just in last few years been able to diagnosie it but in the case of the horse at work she can now do a job and enjoy her life when she first came to us she could not. my horse is just a pet now. Having been there and done it is a long road and you have got to be prepared to do lots of work but it is possiable to get a horse that is happy in some work. This horse works 2 hrs 5 days a week and an hour each day at weekends so is in quite hard work too.
Good look any question just ask!

 

[Birker2020]

I dont know whether it is worth going through this treatment, or if it will just be a re-occuring problem and i should consider putting her into foal.

I'm so sorry for the problem with your mare it must be very distressing for you. Please don't take this the wrong way but I really can't understand that as soon as a mare can't be a ridden horse anymore people automatically think "I know I can breed from her". There are that many unwanted horses in the country from horses that have been bred indiscriminately and they end up with terrible confirmation or have nasty vicious tempers so unless your mare has very good bloodlines and is well bred why do you feel this is the ideal solution?

Surely if she can't be ridden again then you have a choice. Either keep her in retirement or be responsible and have her pts. Not breed from her just because she has 'no other job'.

And presumably if she has problems with her facet joints (which is incredibly painful as I know myself) then do you know that she be able to bear the weight of a foal and be able to carry it to full term? And have you any idea the cost not just in monetary but also in physical and emotional (if it all goes wrong)value this could cause you?

I really do hope that you get the answer you are looking for and I hope that there will be a happy ending for you and your mare xx

 

[loopylucifer]

Applecart14, i can understand what you are saying but feel you are being rather too hash in your comments.
As i have said my mare has facet joint problems and I have consided putting her in foal. Now i have always said i would like to put her in foal as she is well breed has very good confomtion and is rather talented. This was before her problem was diagnosed. Since her diagnosis I have been thinking long and hard as to weather that is the right decision. I have been assured that the pain in her back comes from turning as the joints cant flex as normally and the problems are on sides but the prussre from a foal is downwards so in theroy should have very little impact on the problem, i have also been told it is very likley that the problem is as result of injury form over stressing the joints early in life and is not herditary. However the decision as to weather or not i should put my horse in foal is mine alone. Many people breed from substandard horses with crap conformation and talentless but they maybe sound but what use are they? At least if the horse is talented and hasn't got a herditary problem why should it be a problem?
If superfran wants to put her horse in foal that is her desion for any reasons she may have I dont think she was asking for your opion as to weather or not she should.

 

[Birker2020]

Many people breed from substandard horses with crap conformation and talentless but they maybe sound but what use are they? At least if the horse is talented and hasn't got a herditary problem why should it be a problem?
If superfran wants to put her horse in foal that is her desion for any reasons she may have I dont think she was asking for your opion as to weather or not she should.

No she wasn't asking my opinion but it is a forum for people to put their points of view and it was a valid point which I tried to put across. For the reasons I outlined for the majority of mares bred from it is a problem, but if the horse is well bred and talented and hasn't got a hereditary problem then obviously it is not a problem, but as I was trying to say the vast majority of horses that are bred from do not have these things taken into account and that is where the problem lies. Superfan has obviously gone into this in great detail, spoken to her vet and been assured that there is no problem in that way which is the sensible (but sadly not common) way of going about the job.

Loopy Lucifer - If you have ever been to a market and seen all the horses in pens, and the meat man watching the auction intently trying to buy the horses and ponies to send to slaughter then you would see where i was coming from.

Like I said in my reply previously I wish Superfran all the luck in the world. No maliciousness was meant by my reply in the slightest. x

 

[SuperFran]

I have no idea how to work this website so i hope this is my reply.

Sorry i didnt go into detail.. Diva is only 12 and is very spirited. She can not be a pet etc as i think she would go crazy, and not to mention wasted. She is talented, beautiful, sweet natured and has good conformation. I may be bias but she will not breed a crap foal in that respect. My vet who certainly knows his stuff, said that breeding from this condition is perfectly acceptable plan if the treatment does not work. They do not know much about her condition but it is most likely caused my overworking and poor treatment in her younger years etc, or some malfunction which is not hereditary. I have contacted her stud and they have not heard of her problem in any of their horses. The joints are abnormal but they cant be sure if it arthiritic, knowing her and the way she weaves and jumps, personally it makes me confident that her problems are self caused by behaviour, which in turn was caused by selfish people using her like a machine and well.. i'm pretty sure she is a bit disturbed.

I was an idiot to buy this horse in the given circumstances but in the time i was riding her she gave me everything she could. I want to help her and if she can be worked again it would be ideal, but if i end up going to Uni next year then there is no way i can expect another me to come along and accept these problems with the knowledge that they are there. To add to these problems Diva was kicked on her first day home, now on box rest with a possible fracture it means her 'field rest' will have to wait. Things are not going my way and life is vey difficult at the moment so please dont judge me. I would even most likely be keeping her foal, and so would do everything to ensure i am not about to end up with two crippled horses. Sometimes i wish i never rode a horse!