my horse had xrays today :(

galacasinoking

galacasinoking

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my horse had xrays today ...
not good news :(
his inside toes on both fronts are too long compared to the outsides, so he has been weight bearing to the outsides of his feet (this confsued me abit)
also his pasterns are at the wrong angle
resulting in arthritis in the coffin joints - which i was dreading!
he is now on bute for 2 weeks, if no improvement, steroids injections
vet did not seem confident about him coming sound without bute
i dont want my horse pumped full of drugs, i think it just covers up problems
vet wants to work with my farrier to work on his feet, and maybe put bar shoes on
i cant stop crying. he is the only horse ive had this kind of bond with and he can not be replaced
dont know what to do
 
Don't panic, there's probably loads that can be done.

Do you have a really good farrier, or can you get one? One that does remedial shoeing (often slightly misleading as it's the trim & balancing that's critical) may be able to do a lot to help him now that there are x-rays to work from. IME vets seem to be in love with bar shoes, but a farrier may not feel they are the best option -if they disagree I'd go with the farrier.

I'd be looking at getting the farrier to address the foot balance before I went with steroid injections, & remember that it's going to take a little while for your horse to adjust to his new feet - a fortnight is nothing. Some bute for a while is unlikely to cause problems as long as he isn't one to start hooning round the field as soon as his feet feel fine, & personally I'd rather keep the bute up a bit longer to give the shoeing chance rather than go straight to injections.

Vets can be very good at sounding gloomy - sorry to any vets on here! - because they don't want to give owners false hope, or have them not take problems seriously, or end up getting sued because someone takes "should stand a good chance" as meaning "definitely will". I wouldn't want to be a vet in today's climate!
 
Hi there. We had the same diagnosis on our 14 year old mare about 4 weeks ago. She went to the vets and had nerve blocks and xrays. She has side bone and coffin joint arthritis. We went for the steroid injections and have started giving her a joint supplement. Luckily our farrier is a remedial farrier and her foot balance was really good, he has made her some different shoes and we are slowly bringing her back in to work.
The vets have said that she can go on to bute if she needs to.
When we first had the diagnosis I too spent a lot of time crying, she is my husbands horse and is so lovely. I am not sure what we will do if she can't be ridden. We don't have room or money for 3 horses and my husband would really like to carry on riding.
 
Hi thanks for the replies
Yes my vet did seem very gloomy, but hopefully that IS so as not to give me false hope.
I have text my farrier about the situation & results but no reply. My vet said if I want another farrier he can recommend one so may have to go with that. Not sure if my current farrier does remedial shoeing anyway.
My horse is nowhere near ready to retire, he loves his work & I cant see him being a field ornament.
 
Can I ask who your farrier is please? Pm me if you dont' want to put it on here. Thanks

Also my friends horse has arthritis in his coffin joint and has had a steroid injection - isn't really completely sound on a circle but is still having a fun life as a 21yo hacking and the odd bit of jumping
 
galacasinoking said:
my horse had xrays today ...
not good news :(
his inside toes on both fronts are too long compared to the outsides, so he has been weight bearing to the outsides of his feet (this confsued me abit)
also his pasterns are at the wrong angle
resulting in arthritis in the coffin joints - which i was dreading!
he is now on bute for 2 weeks, if no improvement, steroids injections
vet did not seem confident about him coming sound without bute
i dont want my horse pumped full of drugs, i think it just covers up problems
vet wants to work with my farrier to work on his feet, and maybe put bar shoes on
i cant stop crying. he is the only horse ive had this kind of bond with and he can not be replaced
dont know what to do
Click to expand...


Steroid injections can work wonders, so can Tildren in some cases. If the vet recommends bute then there is no harm in using that. Horses can successfully work for a long time on a daily sachet of bute although it can cause liver problems over a long period of time, but I think we are talking many years there depending on the amount given. And like previous posters have said, remedial shoeing can work wonders.

So don't give up. Do what I do and allow myself 24 hours to dwell on things and feel sorry for myself and then crack on with things. I promise you things will look better once you have got him more comfortable.

I wish you luck hun x
 
My horse was also very lame and was diagnosed with coffin joint arthritis in both fronts. After remedial shoeing he is sound and on no painkillers. He will have injections sometime in the future but it's fine for now.
 
BHW

What type of remedial shoeing has your horse had?

I am in a similar situation to you. It started last year my horse went very lame.

Diagnosed with coffin joint arthritis.

he apeared to have good feet, simply taking his toe back and using quarter clips rather than toe clips also a bit of a holiday brought sound. He stayed as sound as a pound for 8 months

He has gone slightly iffy over the last couple of weeks. I imagine the hard ground has not helped him but I wonder if I could help him a bit more shoing wise.

I will also be discussing this with my vet and farrier but I am very interested in other peoples experiances
 
hi thanks for all the replies
he has not had any rememdial work yet, hopefully starting asap. the vet mentioned bar shoes but not sure at the moment. and he needs the left side of his toes shortened. his pasterns are at the wrong angle
 
It isn't a death sentence. I was also going to say "don't panic" but since I spend most of my time worrying and panicking about my horse, I won't! ;)

Mine was diagnosed with ringbone (pastern) in his left fore earlier this year. I've retired him from jumping now as although he still enjoys it, he can't do what he was this time last year and he doesn't stay sound with regular jumping. However, we did our first Novice (unaffil!!) dressage test 3 weeks ago and it was pretty respectable :) He hacks regularly and will go for hours, schools, enjoys going for a good gallop like any other horses, basically everything bar jumping. He has been treated with Tildren and Adequan this year and I've changed to a remedial farrier who is shoeing with Natural Balance shoes. His movement now is totally different in the NB shoes (in a good way) - he lands correctly slightly heel first instead of slightly toe-first or flat footed. When the ground isn't level he sometimes dishes a bit on the dodgy leg but I think that's his way of dealing with the concussion from hard ground. He's fine in an arena and got an 8 for paces in a recent DR test - judge said he looked totally sound. My vet doesn't think steroid injections will be of much use for my boy though he has had them in his hocks, where they make a big difference.

Currently, while the ground is this hard, he is having 1 sachet of Danilon every day. I know some people are very against this and there are a core of people on here who think a horse that needs bute daily should be PTS however since starting it, I have a happy and comfortable horse again. He's enjoying his work again and schooling is coming on in leaps and bounds - he's a 17hh IDx so 1 Danilon a day really isn't a lot. My new farrier told me to keep working him (obviously not if you have a horse who is hopping lame) while he is happy as arthritic horses benefit from movement and I can say that now he's back in full work, he's happier than he has been for a long time.

It's taken me ages to stop tearing my hair out over things but I'm slowly working out the best way to manage him. I wanted to have him out 24/7 (better for his hocks, which are also arthritic!) but he doesn't stay sound that way so he comes in during the day ATM and will come in at night in winter. He seems to benefit from a period of stabling every day. I work him according to how he looks and feels. If he is a bit stiff then we just hack quietly. When he's really up for it we'll go for longer hacks with cantering - one particular hack has a line of tiny (1ft something) logs along a track so if the ground is good we'll pop those as it keeps him interested. Again, when he feels good then I school.
 
chestnut cob said:
It isn't a death sentence. I was also going to say "don't panic" but since I spend most of my time worrying and panicking about my horse, I won't! ;)

Mine was diagnosed with ringbone (pastern) in his left fore earlier this year. I've retired him from jumping now as although he still enjoys it, he can't do what he was this time last year and he doesn't stay sound with regular jumping. However, we did our first Novice (unaffil!!) dressage test 3 weeks ago and it was pretty respectable :) He hacks regularly and will go for hours, schools, enjoys going for a good gallop like any other horses, basically everything bar jumping. He has been treated with Tildren and Adequan this year and I've changed to a remedial farrier who is shoeing with Natural Balance shoes. His movement now is totally different in the NB shoes (in a good way) - he lands correctly slightly heel first instead of slightly toe-first or flat footed. When the ground isn't level he sometimes dishes a bit on the dodgy leg but I think that's his way of dealing with the concussion from hard ground. He's fine in an arena and got an 8 for paces in a recent DR test - judge said he looked totally sound. My vet doesn't think steroid injections will be of much use for my boy though he has had them in his hocks, where they make a big difference.

Currently, while the ground is this hard, he is having 1 sachet of Danilon every day. I know some people are very against this and there are a core of people on here who think a horse that needs bute daily should be PTS however since starting it, I have a happy and comfortable horse again. He's enjoying his work again and schooling is coming on in leaps and bounds - he's a 17hh IDx so 1 Danilon a day really isn't a lot. My new farrier told me to keep working him (obviously not if you have a horse who is hopping lame) while he is happy as arthritic horses benefit from movement and I can say that now he's back in full work, he's happier than he has been for a long time.

It's taken me ages to stop tearing my hair out over things but I'm slowly working out the best way to manage him. I wanted to have him out 24/7 (better for his hocks, which are also arthritic!) but he doesn't stay sound that way so he comes in during the day ATM and will come in at night in winter. He seems to benefit from a period of stabling every day. I work him according to how he looks and feels. If he is a bit stiff then we just hack quietly. When he's really up for it we'll go for longer hacks with cantering - one particular hack has a line of tiny (1ft something) logs along a track so if the ground is good we'll pop those as it keeps him interested. Again, when he feels good then I school.
Click to expand...

My horse also loves his jumping!! And he loves his work full stop. Hes destroying everything in the field at the moment becuz hes not being ridden. he is miserable and stroppy, chasin the others off wit his ears back and he also managed to loose his fly mask somehwere! i think he ate it lol just want things to get going with the farrier etc
 
galacasinoking said:
My horse also loves his jumping!! And he loves his work full stop. Hes destroying everything in the field at the moment becuz hes not being ridden. he is miserable and stroppy, chasin the others off wit his ears back and he also managed to loose his fly mask somehwere! i think he ate it lol just want things to get going with the farrier etc
Click to expand...

I'm not jumping mine any more - not fair as the concussion from landing, even on a good surface, does him no good.
 
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