Horse just diagnosed with Ringbone - please offer me some hope!!

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alcraw

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My fab little 14 year old cob has been slightly lame in her front legs for a few weeks. Rest isn't helping, we had the vet out and he couldn't find anything obvious, so off we trundled to the clinic this morning. After much trotting, nerve blocking, and a fiasco with vet students trying to take her shoes off, x-rays have revealed ringbone. I don't really know what to think. We've been sent home with a load of bute, advice on shoeing and instructions to stick to walk and see how she goes (she's been completely out of work since we noticed the lameness).

I have no huge ambitions above being a happy hacker - maybe a bit of schooling, and I was thinking about trying hunting at some point. I'm hoping that this can be managed so we can carry on as planned, just being a bit more careful.

What's extra frustrating is that I'm pregnant, due in February, and I was hoping to ride as much as I can this summer, before I"m too fat etc!! My plan was either to loan her for 6 months or to turn her away until I can ride again... looks like I"m going to have to turn her away and pray I can bring her back into work after.

Does anyone have a horse with ringbone that they ride, hack out etc? Is she ever going to be able to jump again? Canter even?
 
My cob has just been diagonsed with ringbone which didn't need xrays to find. He is on 2 bute a day and rest to try and settle the inflammation down then will be brought back into work and hoprfully painkillers will be eased off maybe even completely.

article from wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringbone

It all depends on how severe it is and where etc....
:)
 
Hi It does depend on where it is and how bad, but my old horse was diagnosed with articular ringbone when he was 5 and was not meant to come sound again. Was a field ornament for a year and then came back to work slowly. Went on to pre novice event / hunt / showjump and was ridden until he was 26.
 
I have been told that my cob has the start of ringbon in her front leg, it is apparently common in cobs. However, she wasn't lame from that (she's had about a million other problems recently!) but it has not seemed to have caused her any problems and we would never had known if it wasn't for another injury. I would just see how it plays out and alter work load to suit.
 
Mine has just been diagnosed with it in both fronts. Had him re shod after X rays and is now sound off Bute. Mine too is a cob we are hacking and schooling and so far so good.
 
Just to add to what others have said, don't rule out magnetic therapy either, although best to be discussed with your vet fist, it could be benefical.
 
Our 14 year old cob kelsi has just been diagnosed with degenerative joint changes in her coffin joints and pasterns, she also has side bone in both front legs. This was diagnosed by the vets with nerve blocks and xrays. The vet said as she was sound following the first nerve blocks that it was only the coffin joints causing the pain.

She has had steroid injections into the joints and is now back to being a spring chicken! Very lively and happy. She doesn't need bute and can have further steroid injections as required, these help with the inflammation that causes the pain.

She has been shod differently by the farrier and I have been told that we can gradually work her building back up to full work.

I guess all cases are different, the vet said that she has seen xrays of mild cases and horses are really lame and vice versa, so how bad it looks on xrays does not correspond to the amount of lameness. It is like arthritis in people so your horse will always have it.

http://www.steinbeckequine.com/pdf/RingboneTE3-08.pdf
 
My husband's 19 year old, 17hh HW hunter went severely lame 4 years ago with high articular ringbone in a hind leg.

We put him on high dose Danilon (bute) - 6 sachets a day and started him on a GOOD joint supplement (Riaflex Complete - he'd been on another well known one for years!) That made him sound enough to work.

After 5 weeks we started cutting back the Danilon - and he stayed sound. He has hunted 3 days a fortnight since (now aged 23)! He has one Danilon a day - but I'd happily up that to 2 if it became necessary to keep him fit to work! (The problem with arthritic conditions is that rest makes them worse!)
 
I know it's not quite the same (well, sort of is, but not IFKWIM) - but my sisters horse was diagnosed with sidebone in both fronts (and spavin in one hock) aged 5. He's now 17 and has been managed to compete lightly all his life.

He gets bored too easily to be able to be a pet, so we worked with our vet and farrier to get him stabilised and bring him back into work. He was on bute regularly for about 2 years, working down gradually to 1/2 a sachet every second day, then finally nothing. He's jumped up to 1m20 competitively, he's hunted, he's evented at PC Open champs level, he's hacked all over and so long as we keep him well shod, and we are careful about the ground etc he's not been lame (due to the sidebone or spavin) in best part of 10 years.

He was a trifle off last summer with the hard ground, but with a bit of bute and a check-up with the vet he came right again.

He's now starting to show other arthritis'y signs so we're slowing him down a bit. But he is 17 after all!
 
Thank you for the replies. Definitely some hope for us there!! Really interesting that some of you have been able to cut right back on the bute. Also, thanks for the links - some good reading there.
 
from what I understand sidebone and ringbone are most likely to be active when the horse is growing, but often have a resurgance once they are mature - it often coincides with a change in workload, perhaps a step up in competition level?

definitely manageable though - you just need to be patient to allow everything to settle down, and make sure your farrier is the best you can afford, and preferably a remedial farrier. If you can persuade your farrier and vet to work together, better still.
 
My vet asked me to get the farrier to call him so he can explain exactly what's needed, which I thought was good. I was getting all ready to write notes up for him!

He's not a remedial farrier, but has been doing the job a long time and is very good. Failing that, I've found out there's another horse on my yard with ringbone, and the yard's farrier (who I don't use) make his "special" shoes, so I have a few options.
 
My TBx was diagnosed with ringbone at the age of 12 and I was initially devastated. However, Syd is now 26 and still happily hacking a few times per week. The key for Syd has been foot balance. You need your farrier to see the xrays to make sure the hoof-pastern alignment is spot on, because if that axis is allowed to become "broken-back" or concave, then every time the horse lifts his foot off the floor there will be pressure on the ringbone which is what hurts.

This link may help you to understand some of the terminology that your farrier and vet start to use!

http://www.equinefootprotection.co.uk/hoof-mapping-and-trimming.html
 
My loan horse has ringbone in both hind legs (one worse than the other). He is considered to be "semi-retired" but he is still hacked out 4-5 times a week and has been to a show most weekends this season (show jumping, dressage, showing) and placed every time! We did manage to get him almost sound (by this I mean you the lameness was so minimal you'd really have to know what you were looking for) on no meds for a good few months, but he then went lame just from acting like a tit in the field. The vet has now prescribed one bute a day for the rest of his life which is purely to take the edge off and help with any stiffness. During wet/cold spells the stiffness is noticeably more, but I 100% agree that not being worked is actually detrimental to this. Mentally he is by no means ready to be fully retired and would not enjoy being a field ornament. I know that some people do not agree with keeping a horse rideable by buting up, but as the vet said to us, at his age the chances of the potential side affects of bute bringing on his death is very small. We are careful to watch for any signs of pain and wouldn't just keep increasing the amount of bute to mask it.

Don't give up hope - my loan horsey throughly enjoys life even with ringbone, you just have to make sure it is managed in a way that suits your horse!
 
Two years ago my ID x cob went lame infront and x-rays showed bony growths very similar to ringbone, but oddly not at the joint - just on the outside of the bone. The vet was at a loss as he hadn't seen it before. He didn't think that it was causing the lameness but nothing else showed up so he treated him for it anyway (treatment for this and many other foot problems is the same, so we figured we may as well try the treatment!) with steroid injections and he has remedial shoeing - but more because his foot conformation is poor than anything. He had 6 months off, on field rest and then we brought him back to work slowly. Two years on (touch wood!) we haven't had any recurrance of the lameness, not even one day and he hasn't had but since his 3rd week off.

He does mostly hacking with a bit of schooling and the odd dressage test thrown in. We stopped competitive jumping - mainly as he was never the easiest to jump and knowing that he has a problem I couldn't bring myself to carry on forcing him over jumps, and I have another to jump - although the vet said some low level jumping wouldn't hurt him. We still do the odd log out hacking and a little bit of jumping in TREC competitions which I started doing after he stopped jumping for something to do. We look a bit odd with my big 16.2 grey in a waterford gag and martingale with his big wedges in his shoes next to all these barefoot little hairy coloured cobs and arabs in parelli headcollars and bitless bridles but we have a fun!

So there is hope yet and maybe the timing is a good thing - let her have a decent break in the field and then start doing little bits once you're ready.
 
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