Spavin help please

pinklilly

pinklilly

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My horse has just been for a scintigraphy bone scan for a suspected back problem and the results were inconclusive. They picked up low grade pain in his hip and hock on the near hind, and the hock is likely to be a spavin. Hes 1/5 on his near hind and I have been told to bring him back into work now or if I prefer to turn him away for 6 months and then start him.

Just wanting to know more about the spavin, will the lameness go away when its settled or is it likely to stay?

Also what restrictions on what work the horse can do in the future? Will it be hacking and schooling only?

I haven't picked the horse up yet, as he is in quarantine til tomorrow following the radiation, so I will have another chat with the vet then.

Thanks for any advice!
 
My TB was diagnosed with spavin in July last year. He also had major back problems with tears to the suprapinous ligament (big ligament that goes all the way down the back). Vet said his back wouldn't improve until his hocks did so we medicated hocks and turned him away. 7 months later he is fine.

So from personal experience I think turning them away is a good idea - at least it gives them time for the spavin to sort itself out and means you can let them get on with getting better and give them longer to do it.
 
My 12 yr old WB gelding has bone spavin. He has been treated with intra articular injections, adequan, box rest and tildren infusions x 3. I think they have helped although he has good days and bad days. On bad days he swaps his hind legs on a right circle, but on good days he is fine. The vet said he would probably need to be on bute every day but I only ever use a bute substitute when I compete. He is doing elementary level dressage and jumping both at unaffiliated level and most times is fine without bute.
 
Have spoke to my own vet, she recommended 6 months off. He may come sound or he may not. And he'll be able to do light hacking, schooling but no tight circles and not a lot of jumping.
 
Ummm - is your vet on our planet? My horse is currently drug free and winning novice dressage competitions and working at elementary/medium (plenty of tight circles!!) after spavin in both hocks took 2 years to fuse. He was buted and worked for the 2 years. The only reason he doesn't jump is because his current carer doesn't have the nerve!
 
I have no idea!! No first hand experience of spavins myself, thats why I posted on here. We had back problems before the lameness, which is recent, hence the scintigraphy bone scan which hasn't shown anything within his back to cause problems. Theres low grade pain in the hip on that side too, so maybe they are taking that into account?
 
Spavin causes back problems because they try not to appear lame (the lame horse gets eaten!) and twist their backs to do it. It's entirely possible that your horse's back will resolve at the same time as the hocks.

Mine had sacroiliac issues and also carried whichever hip was on the side of the worse hock at the time lower. His hips are level now. You will find examples of hundreds of horses competing very succesfully with fused spavins. My trainer has a livery pony working at advanced dressage with them. Half the hunting field have them. Your vet may be trying not to get your hopes up, but they sound to have been way too pessimistic.

The other problem that I have with what your vet has advised is that spavins fuse much faster if the horse is kept in work. The treatment I was recommended was to medicate the horse so he could keep working until they fused. It took 18 months for each hock, with a 6 month overlap while both were bad at the same time.

It really sounds as if you could do with a second opinion, unless they can already see from xrays that his hocks are sealing with spurs that will cause him issues.
 
Thats interesting, hes not level if you look at him from behind and there is muscle wastage on the side opposite to the bad one. Actually after 3 and a half months off theres no muscle at all on his topline. We had behaviour changes due to pain from the back area, rearing, biting when the saddle was put on, rushing off when mounted, hanging to one side when ridden and tilting his head at an odd angle. These things are all new, he is normally very laid back and sweet natured. I had already had saddler and backman out so got the vet who booked him in for scintigraphy. Hes a 9 year old ex racehorse, only did NH racing, and his previous owners bred him, no history of back problems or lameness and he has never reared before.

Teeth have been done in November. And we did a fun ride in October and hunted once, when he was very excited but didn't attempt to rear.
 
In theory, given the side the muscle wastage is on, your horse actually has more of a problem with the hock on that side, which is causing the inflammation shown on the scintigraph on the other side by making it do too much work. The lack of muscle can only have come about from lack of use, and the lack of use suggests that the real problem is on that side and the rest, back, hip, behaviour is all a knock-on.

My horse was also dreadfully atrophied on one side and is now equally muscled. All the problems you describe are pretty typical for a horse with sore hocks. This is so commonly known that when my friend told her saddle fitter last week that her horse was again sore in the back after the saddle had been adjusted, she said "check her hocks". We did, and they are sore on flexion tests.

If you get his hocks right, for the moment pain-free with bute or similar, he might well lose all the other problems in very short order!
 
I actually thought he was lame on the off side rather than the near side where the pain showed up on the scan, he more often rests that leg too. It is the near side that is higher and the muscle wastage to the off side. Both pin bones very prominent.

When I was still riding him, he was very reluctant to leg yield and canter on the right rein, actually the canter transitions were very bad but I put this down to never having been schooled.

I would say he his generally quite honest and when you ask him to do something new, he'll stop and look and then go, I don't think its in his nature to misbehave purposely.
 
It all depends on the actual site of the spavin. There are several theories regarding treatment if ths spavin is low grade and if i remember correctly higher up then some say working in straight lines will encourage the bones to fuse thus making the horse sound again. The other theory is to turn away for about 9 months to a year and it should have started to fuse if not totally fuse. However, i dont wish to be the bringer of doom but some horses may never come sound as was the case with one of mine and i had to have her destroyed at age 9 as the hock spavin got so bad she could hardly get up. However if the spavin fuses the horse can go on and do just about anything so long as you are midfull of the condition as as far a i am awarethere is no cure as it is arthritic and humans can suffer extreme pain form this debilitating disease, steroid injections and some other potions help. So good luck and remain patient as nature can be a fantastic healer.
 
The specialist at Dick vets said I could start work with him straight away or turn away for 6 months, it was up to me. My own vet recommended the 6 months off, more to do with the behaviour issues when ridden which I would say are definitely pain related. I had someone else ride him and I watched (this is when I got vet to start with) and he was hanging and twisting neck and head as if to evade pain and running backwards and rearing when asked to stand. I know ex-racehorses are know to be figity when asked to stand but he isn't typical and would normally stand for half an hour if you wanted!

I got the attitude at Dick vets that the horse was just misbehaving and I couldn't ride him because he has raced and that I ride in a completely way to what he is used to. He didn't ask what sort of experience I do have so I thought it was a bit wrong to assume that.
 
Pidge has hock spavin, treated with Cortisteroids and then back in work for 3 months just flat work, on 1 bute a day, increasing the work as the time went on. Full return to work 4 months after diagnosis.
Doesn't affect anything we do in fact I am doing my first season with him BE and he cruises over 3' fences no problem
grin.gif

Perhaps go with the option of working on a surface, on bute, no jumping for a couple of months.
 
The Royal Dick are usually pretty good but not infallable. They are probably judging your horse with all ex-racehorses which sometimes can have all sorts of fitness issues as they are backed and ridden hard from such a young age. However, dont give up on your horse give it a chance there are thousnads of cases where DJD has come right and the horse goes on for years with minimal pain management.
 
My horse has spavins in both hocks - the pics in my sig are him about 3 months after having them medicated. He had always seemed stiff behind but because he has shivers, I put it down to that. Vet x-rayed and said he has mild spavin in both hocks so he had cortisone injections, 2 courses of Adequan and a good joint supplement every day. First treatment was in May/June of last year and he started his first course of Adequan then. He had 3 days of box rest, 3 days in the field then I just hacked for a good month or more, all in walk to start with. In Sept (I think) he had another course of Adequan and he will have his hocks medicated again plus more Adequan next month, before the insurance money runs out.

I would get your farrier involved as well as the vet - my vet and farrier work together. Horse has lateral extensions all round which help to support his joints, and he also had a couple of courses of osteo and physio - as someone else says, they get v sore backs from compensating for the hock problems.

I wanted to hunt my horse regularly after he had his hocks done which the vet was fine with. He actually isn't hunting now because he has ringbone in front which won't stand up to it, but vet had no concerns about his galloping and jumping with spavins. He thinks that schooling in circles is much harder work! My boy is the most sound he's ever been now I think so it isn't all doom and gloom.
 
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