Spavins, your experiences please.

lindsayH

lindsayH

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My 7yo became 3/10 lame behind about a month ago, although other problems such as problems picking up one back foot and struggling with right canter lead make me suspect that the problem has been going on longer. Since then he's been getting steadily worse until a couple of days ago when he was 5/10 lame and quite miserable. The vet came out to nerve block today and wouldn't you know it, the b****y horse was sound! The worst we could get was barely 1/10 lame on the lunge on his good rein. Flexion tests made no difference but the vet thought he could feel spavin-like changes in both hocks and he also has a very painful sacroiliac joint. Am I right in thinking this is often secondary to hind limb lameness? I have little first hand experience with spavins and would be grateful to hear of other people's experiences. I would be especially interested in the course the disease has taken when left untreated and how people have managed the horse's workload etc. Many thanks!
 
My mare had bone spavins in both back legs. We were going through a court case with the people we brought her from and the vet that vetted her in relation to the spavins so we were not allowed to treat her. She had 2years turned away in the field to allow the spavins to fuse. She then went into light work on bute and eventually returned to full work and was sound. I evented her for a season but she is a very difficult mare and now she is used for breeding.

When she initially went lame and I called my vet, he x-rayed and said it was the worst case he had seen, if only the vet that had supposedly done a 5 stage vetting only 4weeks before had picked it up!! :mad:

Hope things work out with your horse.
 
Thank you Pidgeon for that link. Some very helpful info there and it's good to read some positive stories after all the bad ones I've been hearing. I'm very surprised and reassured to hear that your boy has had spavins as I read your comp reports with great enjoyment.

Thanks Illy for your experiences and good wishes. It's interesting to hear about the progression in a horse that wasn't operated on as this won't be an option for me financially.
 
my tb has bone spavins in both hocks which were picked up on bones scans and then x-rayed, he has had them injected with cortisone and is sound for now!
he is 12 and presented with irregular striding, lame on flexion test and the same as yours a painfull sacroliac to the point that when it was palpated he prety much sat on the floor so he had it nerve blocked and their was no change so it was just a secondry pain from his hocks.
 
Has your horse been x-rayed? this would be my first port of call (along a full lameness work up). As without knowing exactly whats going you cant deal/manage the problem effectivly. Especially as only 7 as this is quite young to be getting spavin.
Get a more definate diagnosis before you start treating stuff then you will know what is the primary cause of the pain and what is seconadary. I would push for a full lamness work up and get to bottom of the problem
 
Thanks for your info China, your boys reaction to sacroiliac pressure sounds very much like my boys was! Interesting to hear that you followed this up and it was definitely related.

Thanks Loopy! (great name btw!)
We were trying to do a full work up, starting with nerve blocks so we knew which bits to xray. Infuriatingly, for the first time in a month he wasn't lame enough! Due to my budget, the vet was reluctant to start xraying bits randomly, especially as if the problem is very high up he would have to go to into the hospital as opposed to doing it on the yard. I am tempted to just get his hocks done anyway, the only problem is that if we find abnormalities we can't be sure if they are causing the problem without nerve blocking first.
 
No worries, i felt relieved first time round to have a diagnosis then googled it and went into a black hole :( my vets are fab which obv helps a lot, and i also had lots of help and support from people on here.
As far as I'm aware if you x-ray your vet should be able to see any changes and you can take it from there. It isn't the end of the world as you can see by Pidge, he's had it twice now in the same hock. i just do the best I can by him and he rewards me with such a zest for life, its infectious :D
 
get hocks x rayed then at least then you will have an idea as weather it could be that or not seems good place to start. Had to do this on my old horse that was very neddle shy and limited insurance, so ruled out bones scans etc. hocks showed quite conclusivly some changes also all symptoms/history pointed to hocks, unfortunatly she didn't responde greatly to tretment, improvment was short lived she was then worse than she was before treatment. she was 17ish (had other issues too0 so was semi retired and was kept on one bute daily. worked very happily on this until she died of an unrelated injury.
 
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