Polyacrylamide gel injections for hocks

[Julia0803]

Has anyone else’s horse had this suggested for hock arthritis?

Been suggested by our vet today.

I’d never heard of it before. A bit of a google throws a few articles on it but not much.

Supposedly it doesn’t have side effects (aside from small risk of infection due to injecting the joint). Vet gave it a 75/80% chance of working and should last 2/3 years.

If anyone else has used it I’d be grateful to hear your experiences.

Thanks

 

[ohmissbrittany]

I've not done it personally but know of two. One was a retired horse as a last ditch attempt to get him pasture sound - 3 doses in the stifle. It worked, they got almost 3 yrs out of it. The second was a "pre arthritic" ankle with 15 mos of good results. It sounds like it boils down to economics- in Canada, it would be 4 HA/steroid injections that would be the same cost as the Noltrex - so if you do 6mo injections, then you need to get 2 yrs to make the finances work differently (but there's also 25% the number of times you stick a needle into the joint, so less chance of reaction etc.... hard to quantify the cost of that because it's not a problem until something DOES happen...)

Very specifically the Noltrex product for both of these, I'm not sure what others are out there. Both people were happy with the results, no side effects, slightly longer rehab times (steroid injections often they're back to work within days depending on site/pathology).

 

[Julia0803]

Thank you. A bit more googling and i think the brand name of the product is artrithmid but the vet just called it polycrylamide gel, and that is what's written down on our cost estimate.

Vet didn't think he was a good candidate for steroids due to laminitis risk.

He said Tilden was an option but a lot more expensive than the gel and he said he thought the gel was a better option but i can't remember exactly why aside from cost, but I'm sure there was another reason too, possibly length it worked for?

Do you know what the rehab was like? He didn't mention anything specific, except that it can take 3 months to see full results, so not be be disheartened if no change immediately, which is a shame as we've qualified for Quest regionals which are at the end of september. He said to treat him normally in the mean time, riding wise. Although I've personally decided to just hack to keep him moving and try and stop him piling on quite as much weight as he has since his workload dropped a few weeks ago when we felt there was an issue. The physio thought was the best idea rather than lots of turning in the school which, whilst it wouldn't make the hocks any worse, could cause knock on tightness elsewhere if he's not carrying himself properly. The vet said they normally say 48hrs box rest post jabs but if thats not possible he's fine to go out (he lives out 24/7 normally).

He's booked in for tuesday so fingers crossed.

 

[Slightlyconfused]

Friend had her ponies hocks injected with Arthrimed.
I think about two years ago now, pony is fine. In full work.

She does have a little weakness in that leg in the fact if you let her she will not bring it under her properly but that's just habit.

There are not enough years of it being out for there to be enough long term studies done on different types of uses.

 

[willowblack]

My vet was about to use Arthrimid on my horse but we decided it was very much last chance saloon (he was 12 months post op for bilateral stifle surgery to remove bone chips) so we delayed it. I carried on hacking slowly and tried pharmaquinn. He’s now back in work 2 and a bit years on and it really didn’t look like that was even possible. He’s had no steroid injections since he was about 3 months post surgery.

If you haven’t tried pharmaquinn yet, I really would try it. Or 4cyte, I tried that too but that was a bit messy so switched.

 

[ohmissbrittany]

Do folks not do polyglycan/Legend/Adequan here? Those are brilliant with quick results, and honestly great when you're dealing with frequent injections in multiple joints because its IM/IV and goes where it's needed even if you don't know you need it yet.

 

[ohmissbrittany]

Thank you. A bit more googling and i think the brand name of the product is artrithmid but the vet just called it polycrylamide gel, and that is what's written down on our cost estimate.

Vet didn't think he was a good candidate for steroids due to laminitis risk.

He said Tilden was an option but a lot more expensive than the gel and he said he thought the gel was a better option but i can't remember exactly why aside from cost, but I'm sure there was another reason too, possibly length it worked for?

Do you know what the rehab was like? He didn't mention anything specific, except that it can take 3 months to see full results, so not be be disheartened if no change immediately, which is a shame as we've qualified for Quest regionals which are at the end of september. He said to treat him normally in the mean time, riding wise. Although I've personally decided to just hack to keep him moving and try and stop him piling on quite as much weight as he has since his workload dropped a few weeks ago when we felt there was an issue. The physio thought was the best idea rather than lots of turning in the school which, whilst it wouldn't make the hocks any worse, could cause knock on tightness elsewhere if he's not carrying himself properly. The vet said they normally say 48hrs box rest post jabs but if thats not possible he's fine to go out (he lives out 24/7 normally).

He's booked in for tuesday so fingers crossed.

All I've heard was slow and careful, not sure how much of that has to do with the horse vs being unsure of the chemistry/application being so new.

 

[Julia0803]

Just thought I’d do an update on this for anyone else in the future doing a forum search.

He finally had his post injections follow up last week.

Declared completely sound and vet felt more forward and happy too.

Absolutely delighted!

I was pretty sure it had gone well but it is always nice to have it confirmed.

We just hacked for the first 6 weeks or so, then started going in the school once a week. We’ve now had 3 or 4 lessons and he feels great, and hoping to get back out and competing at the beginning of December.

Going forward he’s hacking 3 times per week, schooling twice and lives out 24/7 to keep him moving.

 

[Steerpike]

Great to hear as we are considering using arthrimed on one of ours.

 

[Julia0803]

Typically, after never really seeing the vet in 7 years of horse ownership aside from injections, in September we noticed our new loan horse who we’d only had since April wasn’t quite right and he’s now had the same injections in coffin bones and hocks in October so keeping our fingers crossed he has similarly positive results.

 

[Goldenstar]

I had Fatties stifle done .
he had been having issues with it for three years so it was a chronic problem .
he came much sounder but was sadly never sound enough to Stand up to hard work
however I think would use it again it certainly helped and its was a last throw of the dice that it would help .

 

[dominobrown]

Mine had it done and got an infection. 😔