Rowreach
Adjusting my sails
Further to the bone spavin posts, I thought I would tell you about my boy who has started shock wave therapy to his hock.
Just to give you some background, I have a 13yo 16.2hh ISH gelding of middleweight show hunter stamp, who has been fantastic in all disciplines and has a great temperament - a horse who would try his heart out for you
About 18 months ago he was diagnosed with bone spavin in his near hind, and had cortisone injections into 2 joint spaces several times. He has never really come sound, and although really only in light work, has been increasingly grumpy of late, so I had him re-xrayed last week, and the joint is still far from being fused and the whole surface looks very rough
My vet sent the xrays off to the equine hospital he refers people to, and the vet there agreed that the spavin was bad and that arthritis had set in. He said that he could operate to fuse the joint, but that because of the arthritis this would not result in a sound horse.
He recommended shock wave therapy to the hock joint - something which hasn't been written up in this country, but has been tried with some success in the US (obviously shock wave therapy is used with good results on other parts of the horse, but not hocks).
Today I took my horse for his first treatment. The vet told me that usually the horse has to be fully anaesthetised in order to treat the hock
, as the therapy is very painful, especially when the area is already inflamed. However, he merely sedated my horse, who stood like a rock throughout. Another vet took over half way through, and she said that when she heard they would be treating a hock she said "No way", because she thought the horse would never stand for it
(and presumably thought she would get kicked!)
So, my boy has become a bit of a case study, and I am keeping everything crossed that over the next 6 weeks (and two more treatments) we see a big improvement.
I'll keep you updated in case there is anyone out there with a similar problem who would be interested in the outcome and maybe try it for their own horse
Just to give you some background, I have a 13yo 16.2hh ISH gelding of middleweight show hunter stamp, who has been fantastic in all disciplines and has a great temperament - a horse who would try his heart out for you
About 18 months ago he was diagnosed with bone spavin in his near hind, and had cortisone injections into 2 joint spaces several times. He has never really come sound, and although really only in light work, has been increasingly grumpy of late, so I had him re-xrayed last week, and the joint is still far from being fused and the whole surface looks very rough
My vet sent the xrays off to the equine hospital he refers people to, and the vet there agreed that the spavin was bad and that arthritis had set in. He said that he could operate to fuse the joint, but that because of the arthritis this would not result in a sound horse.
He recommended shock wave therapy to the hock joint - something which hasn't been written up in this country, but has been tried with some success in the US (obviously shock wave therapy is used with good results on other parts of the horse, but not hocks).
Today I took my horse for his first treatment. The vet told me that usually the horse has to be fully anaesthetised in order to treat the hock
So, my boy has become a bit of a case study, and I am keeping everything crossed that over the next 6 weeks (and two more treatments) we see a big improvement.
I'll keep you updated in case there is anyone out there with a similar problem who would be interested in the outcome and maybe try it for their own horse
