Medication of hocks? Repeating treatment?

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nicnag

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Hi

I was just wondering if anyone had a horse which had received multiple treatments via steroid injection into the hock, what the improvement was like, how often can it realistically be done?

My mare was given bilateral steroid medication 3 years ago for Bone spavin, a couple of months later she received Tildren and since then has stayed sound using shoes with rolled toes and lateral extensions. Over the last 6 weeks I have noticed she has been wearing her shoes down again towards the inside of the toe and has been showing signs of stiffness so I'm guessing she is less comfortable again. Speaking to other people with spavin horses they seem to be remedicated fairly regularly, I don't think she is in much pain as this mare is very quick to let you know she isn't happy and obviously the vet is coming out next week anyway so I'll get her double checked but I was interested to hear other peoples experiences.

Thanks
 
I know there are people that medicate hocks repeatedly on three month intervals, but we would try not to remedicate in les than 6 month intervals.

Initially I would recommend that you have the vets reasses him - he may not be quite ready to be remedicated and your vets may suggest other options.

Repeat medication carries the same risks as the first injection but will be done in a sterile manner to minimise the risk of infections.

Your vets may even discuss the option of surgical treatment to fuse the small hock joints which is possible also.

Hope that helps,
Imogen
 
My horse gets his hocks remedicated once per year for v mild Spavin- thats all he seems to need to keep sound and comfortable, I can feel when they need redoing.

It is degenerative so won't get better, but there are things that can be done from a management point of view i.e like you've done with the shoeing, that may help.

See what your Vet advises- if he's not had his hocks medicated for 3 years, you may feel a big difference when you get them re done.

Sometimes they need more than one go with Tildren apparently- one of mine had it once but wore off fairly quickly so we got his hocks injected instead which for him seemed to work much better.
 
Well, I have a horse with bilateral spavin and I decided not to use the intraarticular steriod injections mainly beuase I had understood there was a relative risk with them and that they gave only temporary relief. My vet was happy to take a conservative approach.

Agree x-ray on a regular basis to see any change - anually in my case for a few years

My spavined horse will never be a dressage horse again, and I think it is really important for owners of horses like this to set themselves realistic expectations. However he is completely sound at all paces on all surfaces, and you'd never know he was hardly able to move at one time 4 years ago.

We found the "secret sauce" for him was:

Barefoot - Remove concussion, and allow the hooves to get asymetrical if they need to be - you can always put a lateral extension on the shoe, but when you let these guys grow the way they want to then you often get a medial deviaiton - and that's not something you can do with shoes. If I leave it, he is sound, if I take it away he struggles until he grows it back - so I leave it. Yes, the hooves look slightly odd to someone who is used to seeing shod hooves, but they woprk very well indeed for the horse.

Diet - he seemed to heva a problem wiht cereals and sugars - and I know that soem humans with arthritis find that dietary issues can cause a flare up of thir conditions (I actually play Jazz guitar, and have slight arthritis of my hands, and find that if I have dairy produce or too much glutten, then this gets worse)

Movement - he is out 24 x 7, suitably rugged and trugged becuase cold is not good for these horses - but he is moving all the time.

Exercise - plenty of hacking - lots and lots of hacking - no schooling for 40 minutes at a time. Now he can school for about 30 minutes a couple of times a week and can do laterals, yields, passes and even changs! But I have to be completely realistic.

This was my dream horse - and was goign to take me to advanced medium....he is still my dream horse, but we do many other things now.
 
There are also, of course, other medication options for hocks, although if you've already gone with a steroid you'll most likely have to go that way again.

I've seen quite a few horses that could go a year to 18 months with good management. I used to look after a barn full of older ex-high level competition horses, all still sound and being ridden/jumping daily, many of whom had "retired" with spavins. I found the trick was, once we'd gone down the medication route, to recognise the earliest signs of trouble and get the horse done then - the longer I left it, it seemed, the shorter the gap between treatments. After awhile I could recognise very subtle signs, like a change in stance or mild change in movement and get them done before they actually had to object. Obviously, they also got what they needed in terms of shoeing (or not) and supplements. (All got MSM, some got other supplements depending on what seemed to work for the individual.)

I'm not super comfortable with the current trend to medicate hocks willy nilly BUT if the damage is done/ongoing then I think it's best to do what's needed to keep the horse comfortable. I know this will horrify people but the vet once made me feel the needle (he obviously inserted and positioned it properly) in a horse's hock - it was like pushing it through gravel! :eek: It gave me (which was his point) a new understanding of what we were dealing with and why it was important to keep the horses as comfortable as possible.

One option would be to x-ray the horse again (that said, it doesn't seem to be as standard a practice here) and compare with 3 years ago. But knowing there is already a problem, you'd probably be best served by getting her done again before it progresses.
 
K27 said:
My horse gets his hocks remedicated once per year for v mild Spavin- thats all he seems to need to keep sound and comfortable, I can feel when they need redoing.

It is degenerative so won't get better, but there are things that can be done from a management point of view i.e like you've done with the shoeing, that may help.

See what your Vet advises- if he's not had his hocks medicated for 3 years, you may feel a big difference when you get them re done.

Sometimes they need more than one go with Tildren apparently- one of mine had it once but wore off fairly quickly so we got his hocks injected instead which for him seemed to work much better.
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HYA k27 how old is your horse with these changes, a friend of mine has an 8 yearold with this and it seems a little young to get changes ect???
 
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