Medicating joints?

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Does anyone else have to medicate some of their horse's joints and still compete?

My lovely 10 year old has been through the wars when she was younger and is now the fittest and soundest she has ever been (touch wood!). However, this time last year she had her stifle joint medicated (we believe it was because of the suspensory injury and how she held herself for that period of time) and I believe looking at her walk over track that she is due this again.

She was xrayed last year and it was all fine, there was just some slight swelling when she was scanned. But the joint itself was healthy!
 
Lots of people. There are literally tons of competition horses out there in this position. As long as you leave at least 7 days there is no illegal substances issue. Mine has had coffin jnts medicated several times. Think there is one variety of cortisone less likely to cause longer term joint degradation , also its a matter of balance in terms of how often you do it. UK vets are sometimes very conservative about this though so it depends who you see.
 
Thanks for this...

I have a vet who my orange lady has been under for 2007 and he has all the xrays etc to confirm that there is no joint damage etc. So I think he is quite happy to re-medicate without new xrays (which I cannot really afford to do).

My 16 year old is also getting a bit stiff in her hocks but it is no surprise as she has been worked all her life, never had time off for lameness and due to her build she has to really work those hind legs hard to get them right underneath her. So I think I will get him to have a quick look at her too.

I just didn't know whether it was frowned upon if you were still competing the horse.
 
Agree with imr, you'd be surprised at the number of competition horses that have something medicated on a regular basis!!
 
Thank you Saratoga... It is a bit of a relief to know this as I have often questioned whether I am being fair on her medicating the joints so I can continue competing her.
 
To reassure you further, it is incredibly common, just not very talked about over here! They are way more open about it in the USA, where it is also done pretty routinely.
 
It is quite common for higher level eventing horses. Sarnie has had her Sacreiliac (sp?) joint medicated twice and her hocks done twice, I expect certainly with the hocks to be repeating this process once or twice a year.
 
When I worked in the USA a while ago I was really quite shocked that they injected hocks as a matter of course, more like a preventative than for clinical need. There is some research that shows that overuse of steroid injections can have a detrimental effect on cartilage over time. However, HA injections can definitely help where there is a known problem. There is a risk of infection of course as you are going straight into the joint cavity. I'd only do it where it was needed. But it can help a lot to keep a horse comfortable in its work, and yes, it is very very common (especially in showjumping horses, I've noticed).
 
My boy had his fetlock joint medicated a few months ago. I was really suprised when the vet said he medicates loads of horses joints, especially comp horses and riding school horses. I had never really thought about it until my boy was medicated.
 
ours are done routinely now (showjumpers). my trainer suggested my grade a got done a few years ago and had her stifles treated, the difference was unbelievable. she always struggled down combinations and ALWAYS had a pole even though shes uber-careful, now she plays with them.
So now we get everything on the yard checked just in case. we are lucky enough to have an amazing vet, who just identifies the weak spots in a flash and tells you everything you know is wrong with it, plus a bit more!!
 
I was considering getting my 15yr old mare done but to be honest I felt that I didn't want to go down the road of medicating so that I could compete. However (and this is very important) at the time she did not feel to me like she was enjoying her work any more. After a few sessions with an amazing physio she is a different horse, loving her work, as I posted last nite has had a jump and is seriously back on track for resuming her competition career. After much discussion with vet and physio we didn't treat her as quite simply she does not need it and when the time comes that we feel she does need it I will decide based on how she feels and whether I'm getting the feeling that she wants to go have another baby rather than stay working. There are alot of horses routinely done and I feel that so long as you feel the horse still wants to work then go for it!
 
As said, many, many horses get done routinely. They've been commonly done for 20 odd years now and many comp vets are very good at them, both in terms of figuring out what option will work for the horse and in the actual practical application. There is no doubt they alleviate a great deal of discomfort.

Whether or not you "should" do them for a competition horse is a matter of individual choice. If there are other options that keep the horse up and running, they should be weighed, and equally, so should the possibility of the horse being more comfortable if it does less (not always the case, and, in fact, sometimes the opposite case). But if you're going to keep asking the questions I think it's silly (and possibly even cruel) to deny the horse the support it needs to answer them pain free.
 
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