Significant hock arthritis in young horse

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Comet1

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My 5yo went into hospital for a kick injury, and a totally unexpected incidental finding was significant/severe hock arthritis. One is worse than the other. Some of the changes are not recent, there is very little/no space between some areas however the joint is not fused. He also has some new/active remodelling going on.

He was backed last autumn and has not been in hard work and has had regular breaks. He passed a five stage vetting not long after backing, but no X-rays.

I think I know what the outcome will be, but just wondered for others who have experienced this if there is anything else I need to ask the vet.

Because it wasn’t expected, we haven’t yet flexion tested or blocked the hocks. This was because by this point it was the end of the day and he’d had several lots of sedation so it just wasn’t feasible. We will do this on the next visit.

He was bought for me to compete (dressage) at M/AM level. At the moment, the best prognosis is light hacking. My primary concern is his comfort.
 
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I’m very sorry, such a shame for you with a young horse you had hopes for. It’s interesting if he hadn’t appeared lame at all (and makes me wonder how many other young horses would show arthritis on x-Rays but of course they aren’t done if there isn’t a problem). It’s an interesting question if he isn’t presenting with lameness. I have experienced it in relatively young horses (aged about 8) and in all cases they have gone on to be ridden and jumped after injections, although obviously might not have been as severe.
 
I've had a relatively young horse pts due to severe arthritis. He too had not been worked hard. I questioned my vet & he told me about a 3yr old he had euthanized as it was riddled with arthritis. He had no explanation, just said its one of those things 🤷‍♀️
 
We had one similar about 15 years ago, diagnosed as a six year old with significant changes showing on xray in both hocks after nerve blocks and flexion tests. Like yours had passed 5 stage vetting a year earlier. Had whatever the drug was at the time injected to treat bone spavins (someone else may remember what it was likely to be but my memory is failing me!) along with steroids into the joint. Was brought back into work very slowly and sympathetically, pretty much spent that year hacking which was no bad thing given his age, but was sound for a year.

Came unsound again a year on, barely 1/10th but at this point we had also stepped up his workload to include more schooling and figured that had brought on the lameness. Had steroids in hocks once again, decided he’d be a hack. After months of him feeling rather well, we increased his schooling very gently and he ended up competing up to affiliated elementary incredibly consistently and was a fabulous hack. Not had a lame day since until he was retried after a freak accident.

Never rescanned joints to see if they had fused, but this was the assumption. We were careful about his workload and the ground, he was also never schooled more than twice a week, but hacked most other days. He never jumped and never progressed to medium as I think he would have struggled with the collection and I don’t think he would have ever passed a flexion test, but was an absolutely fabulous schoolmaster for many years who was thoroughly happy in his work!

Best of luck op, not much you can do other than wait and see, but I thought you may appreciate a positive story.
 
Have you spoken to the vet about medication? We had our 14yr old mare injected in her hocks with Arthramid and she is absolutely flying now, I know she’s older but the difference in her is amazing. Management can be very successful x
 
Bobthecob15 said:
Have you spoken to the vet about medication? We had our 14yr old mare injected in her hocks with Arthramid and she is absolutely flying now, I know she’s older but the difference in her is amazing. Management can be very successful x
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But not for Advanced Medium dressage, presumably?

OP, it must be a tough time right now. So sorry, what a shock.
 
teacups said:
OP, it must be a tough time right now. So sorry, what a shock.
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Thank you. Yes, I spent months and months looking for him and he’s perfect for me.

My thought is the new remodelling is probably a response to being backed and worked, but I will ask the vet. I was pleased to find one that hadn’t been backed young. Now I’m thinking perhaps one backed and worked for 6-12 months would make more sense. Just a nightmare, and I feel so sad for him.
 
I've heard that the propensity for arthritis in some warmbloods is genetic as is a suceptibility to navicular. A vet told me that x rays don't always tell the story, with both navicular and hock arthritis some horses are very lame with minor changes and others with horrid x-rays can be quite sound. Hopefully correlating evidence will lead to these problems for young horses being bred out in future not bred in as they appear to have been over time . Sorry about your young horse op hope things improve for both you and the horse.
 
Arthritis , especially in the hocks , is no longer an old horse's disease. My vet diagnoses them on average around age 6.
My now 11 year old was diagnosed around 6-7. One hock was really bad and he had performance issues. He's had two lots of Arthmid plus Osphos once and is fully sound. We don't do dressage quite at that level, but there's no reason why he couldn't. He does have an additional SI issue which does limit things like jumping though.

Don't lose hope. I was told at hospital his prognosis for any ridden work was guarded. But Arthmid is fantastic stuff. And once fused , it won't be painful any more.
 
Comet1 said:
Thank you.

I expect he will be bilaterally lame, so the blocks should help show that. To look at him, he has a big over-track in walk and easily tracks up in trot.
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I think we are learning more and more (and remembering what we used to know, more and more) about healthy movement. Tracking up can be, and often is, achieved through some level of compromise in the body - the hind leg swings through without much join flexion, the front foot gets left behind slightly because of hoof balance and/or thoracic sling dysfunction. I'm so sorry you've had this happen with a youngster, but I agree it's fairly common, or more common than it was. We're breeding horses for more and more spectacular movement and this means more laxness in the joints etc, even if they horse isn't technically hypermobile.

I would take injections as a window of opportunity to have the horse pain free and to see what you can do to change the way he moves. Here's a post that talks about tracking up
https://www.facebook.com/diana.waters.7301/posts/pfbid02jUoTNmr7RdgZbZ2k4f7KrpiqwMthF3nUHBPTbjtc6NffHKXak7JCPxg9JisdqoxUl
, the same lady set up the Slow Walk Work group on FB and I think she has more in depth posts in there about tracking up, and all sorts of posts related to healthy movement. The featured posts section of the group contains the actual free work she offers. It's a good starting point.

Even over 20 year ago some research in German (I think) showed that the average life span of a sport horse in the country was 7 years old. Now that might be a lot of losses of youngstock or it may be more of a balance across all age groups, I don't know, but young horses do show problems, you're not alone but we DO know more, and we have more options than a simple return to work and carry on as before (even if at a lower level)....and we SHOULD choose other options.
 
Gutting for the OP. I have heard of this even in a homebred youngster. Utterly heartbreaking. Although there may be treatment the vet can offer. They will always give a guarded answer to the possible outcome.
 
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