Scintigraphy

[quirky]

Anybody had this done?
How long is horse likely to have to stay at the vets for?
Will I definately get a diagnosis, or does it sometimes not turn anything up?

I know I could ring Leahusrt and ask them but I don't want to come over as a neurotic mother!!!

 

[RobinHood]

3 of my horses have had bone scans and they've all been at the vet (liphook) monday to friday for follow up xrays, remedial shoeing etc after the scan. There's no guarantee that you'll get a firm diagnosis. What you will get is a list of hot-spots that the vet may or may not decide to investigate further with nerve blocks, xrays etc. For example my mum's pony had hotspots in his front feet and hocks so he had xrays to confirm spavins and remedial shoeing to address the balance of his front feet.

Hope that helps.

 

[RachelB]

I agree with what RobinHood has said. The horse will be radioactive for (I think) 24 hours so will not be able to even be visited during that time. It's not a method to diagnose as such, it just helps the vet decide where to X-ray/ultrasound/MRI as scintigraphy is a whole-body technique whereas the others can only image a small section of the body (if the wrong bit gets imaged you are then no further on to diagnosing, but if you know where to X-ray etc then it's more accurate, and cheaper!)
Good luck with it!

 

[quirky]

Thanks RH, that does help.
The vet suspects pain is in the area behind saddle and between hips, hence the scintigraphy. His initial thoughts are that nerve blocks would be a waste of time as not lame, just holding himself wrong.
TBH, I'm expecting the wosre but I may be surprised yet.

 

[Marchtime]

Mine had it many years ago at Newmarket. The results were pretty inconclusive from what I remember. He had an MRI as well so was up there for a few days anyway. The scintigraphy showed nothing as it was a ligament injury. I think the scan shows bony injuries only.

 

[shadowboy]

one of my horses had this done when no one could work out where his mild lameness was stemming from. He arrived a day before the scan was injected- and lunged with bandages to keep the legs warm in order to make the blood pump round the body adequately. He also had an xray. Because there were both horses in foal and a pregnant owner on the yard he was not allowed to return for seven days- as the radioactiveness exudes from the body for 5-7 days. The scan was incredibly useful for us and gave us the exact problem. He returned for a second scan 8 months later but was allowed to return this time after 3 days (no one pregnant). The scans totalled approx £2000 (was insured thanksfully) and they were incredibly good- or perhaps the vets was just very good at reading them- although he was the best lamness vet in the UK at that time (he ONLY looked at lameness). The scan scows bone, dense ligament and cartilage issues. the only negative was where he was injected the hair took months to grom and came back a shade paler than normal hair- but I was told this is very unusual reaction. If you have any other questions do ask.

 

[merlinsquest]

Merlin had this done as I wanted to make sure that there were no other areas of pain other than his fetlock (arthritis) and his spavins.

His fetlock was glowing like a beacon
Hocks showed changes

It also showed that he had,

Pedal bone inflamation in all four feet
Area of inflamation in the withers
Area of inflamation in one side of his sacro illiac (cant rem which side)
Stifles were a bit of a hot spot, but they are difficult apparently

But none of the other areas needed to be looked at...... so showed a lot but didnt mean a lot really.

He was at O Gormans in Newbury for three days..... they need excrete all the radioactive stuff before you can have them back!!!

Also i believe that they can do soft tissue reactions but they are read at a different time after the injection than the bone scan itself.

 

[Bounty]

Rage had it done last week, had his spine and both hinds scanned. He stayed 2 days, it showed various hotspots which have been followed up today with x-rays, which more than confirmed the hotspots that were picked up on the scintigraphy scan.
Was well worth in in Rage's case