spavin spavin spavin

[ducktails]

Lots to read on the h and h website search about hock spavin but am returning to the vets tomorrow to pick up horse and want to know what to ask etc..

Horse has gone in to vets and they have decided she is 3/10th lame on left hind (opposite leg to what we first thought) it hasn't been straight forward with a good 8 months of is there something wrong, no its behavoural blah blah blah.. trusting my gut instinct and my horse, they nerve blocked hock today and she has was sound, they have however decided to keep her another day to nerve block suspensory tomorrow to check they have got it right.. anyway. What i really wanted to ask about was hock spavin and our options, not talked in detail with vet yet who is great and well respected but does not have the best bed side manner. He mentioned if it is hock spavin we have 3 choices steroid injections? Tildren and an operation, what should i be asking tomorrow (apart from what is actually wrong with my horse).

I thought the best thing with spavin was getting the bones to fuse but Tildren prevents this? Horse is fully insured so would it just be best to go straight for the operation? We had hock xrays 2 months ago and no spavin was picked up at that point when questioned today my vet said because it could be ligament or not seen on the x ray angles... anyway as you can probably tell from my jumbled plee for info I still don't really know whats going on but tomorrow is my chance to quiz the vet so please can I have some experiences, views and just some advice on what I should be asking.

Thank you in advance, be warned if its PSD ill be pleeing again tomorrow

 

[abbieandfiona]

Hi mine has bone spavins and i have tried all the options first had cathrophen injections x4 and will have for rest of her life. This worked for around 6 months then she went lame again so vets re-did x-rays which showed left hock all had fused togther but one of the changes on the right hock hadnt fully fused so went for a bone scan to make sure nothing else going on.

Hospital said treat with hock injections the steroids worked short term great she had to lots one in Oct and then again in Dec however stopped working in Jan. In march she had tildren and this has worked really well out of everything improved straight away and a much happier mare. But like you say it works very differently to the steriod injections however less risks i.e steriods and damage they cause long term to liver.


If insured you could get away with trying tildren first. The op has huge risks with it you can end up with a horse lamer than before so its worth trying everything else first. You may find you need to change shoes as well to wedges or latural extentions depending on what vet and farrier agree with as this helps some horses. Also may be worth looking at Irap therpy as well as another option to say to vets it costs same as one lot of tildren and shows good results so far.

Good luck with the vet. Ask all pros and cons of each treatment and if they cant decided if spavins or not see if its worth having a bone scan.

 

[chestnut cob]

My 15yo IDxTB has spavins in both hocks, was bilaterally lame (so he just looked stiff) behind. He had cortisone (steroid) injections in to both hocks in June last year and a course of Adequan. He then had 2 osteopath sessions and a couple of physio sessions to deal with all muscular issues caused by compensating for the spavins. In October he had a second course of Adequan and will have a third before the insurance runs out.

I wasn't offered Tildren, which my physio was really surprised about as she says it's the "fashionable" way to treat spavins ATM. My vet is insistent that Adequan is the best treatment so it's worth having that conversation with your vet.

 

[brucea]

I have a TBxID with bilateral spavin

He was offrered injections but I was unhappy with the risks.

These horses never fully recover the range of movement they had before spavin - so one needs to be realistic - however:

Went barefoot to reduce concussion, but also to allow his hoof to grow the way he needed it to, rather than imposing a pattern on it
Switched to a low sugar, cereal free diet - introduced lots of linseed, BY, seaweed
Stopped schooling every day

I have a happy, sound horse that rides out for 6-8 hours at a time - we do long distances - has a nice trot and canter. He jumps and cavorts like a lunatic - so a good result.

But it took time and patience.