Horses needing steroid injection into stifle joint.

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JJones

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Hi
My 8 year old horse has been low level competing. after going lame and getting worse on box rest she was referred to equine hospital.
X-rays showed damage to stifle joint that has new bone formation and arthritis.
She was given a steroid injection into the joint.
Anyone has similar and been able to continue on at same level? We are now 4 weeks post injection and I’m so paranoid it’s not worked as she rests her leg often if standing about.
 
Mine just had her stifles injected for similar reasons, she did her first competition since jabs/vet reassessment last week and flew round. I'm still umming and aahing about what level compete her at now we know about the problem (she was doing quite a lot and i'd planned to take her up to a high level) but at least for moderate stuff/up to her previous level I think she'll be fine, just dubious about going too much further just in case!
 
FitzyFitz said:
Mine just had her stifles injected for similar reasons, she did her first competition since jabs/vet reassessment last week and flew round. I'm still umming and aahing about what level compete her at now we know about the problem (she was doing quite a lot and i'd planned to take her up to a high level) but at least for moderate stuff/up to her previous level I think she'll be fine, just dubious about going too much further just in case!
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How long after the injection did you go back to competing and into more work?
 
IMO stifles are more tricky than hocks to manage but provided you are conscientious about how and when they are worked it can be done. It doesn’t automatically mean the end of a ridden/competitive career (but equally for some horses it is!). If responsive to steroids it might be worth loading the joints with arthramid too. Regular good physio and hind foot balance critical.
 
Have a search on "posture"/"postural" on here, if you can help her move as correctly as possible (ie in correct balance and dynamic posture) then you can strengthen the area. A good physio may be able to give you good rehab exercises but you'll see that many experiences are that it's simply stretching and/or strengthening, and not changing the movement pattern and balance first, which usually perpetuates any compensations in the body. Those compensations are what may well have led to the issue, this is generally the case even with apparent "sudden" injuries. I recommend newcomers to this sort of work to have a look at the Slow Walk Work group on FB (there's even a post on here about it), look at the featured posts to see what the actual work is :)
 
JJones said:
How long after the injection did you go back to competing and into more work?
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she had a week off, then 4 weeks walking in straight lines. Did about 50km total. Then I took her back for a reassessment, was told to crack on. I added in trot and canter (still only hacking) and a bit of polework at home, fun ride 3 weeks later as a test then short competitive ride the week after that (32km)
 
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