I am so worried..

[eventergirl22]

My cob had his hocks x-rayed about a month ago then which showed slight arthritis so he was injected into the joint was very lame after then seemed to get better,the vet came out yesterday and had a look at him again and said he lameness had deteriated again so she has sugested a bone scan or box rest and ultrasound of his hock,i am so worried as what it could be she did say she supects it could soft tissue damage in the hock area

anybody had any experience of this ?

 

[cjdjivanovic]

Several years ago, our horse went lame with a tweaked hind suspensory. The reason why he tweaked it was that he wasn't using the hind leg properly because the hock was fusing and hurt. It was injected, has fused, and 2 years on we have had no trouble - touch wood. To be diagnosed our horse was at the vet for 2 days being nerve blocked to be sure they had identified precisely where the pain was so we knew exactly what was causing him to be unlevel. Sounds as if yours hasn't had such a detailed / thorough lameness work-up?

On this forum there is a lot of discussion about connections between different hind leg / back injuries where arthritic hocks are a factor so it may be worth searching the archive. However it also sounds (and you may have omitted details for the sake of brevity) as if your horse needs to have a detailed lameness workup as maybe there could be another cause of lameness too. - Good luck.

 

[angie1]

I agree with Tryingmum - if he hasn't had a full lameness workup by a proper equine vet that would be a very wise next step. It is really important to pinpoint exactly where the problem is & then what it is. Many things are treatable. Randomly Xraying etc can mean that you miss the real cause of the problem (and costs a fortune!). There is poor correlation between Xray changes on hocks & effect on soundness. Box resting without reaching a diagnosis seems to be ignoring the problem......Is he insured?

 

[eventergirl22]

He has had a full lameness workup by a very good equine vet from lambourne,he has had nerve blocks.x-rays and injection into the joint,he came sound for a while and is sound on bute but once off he goes lame again the vet suspects a soft tissue injury within the hock.