Tildren or not?

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Solar

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Hi,

My horse has been x-rayed and this showed a bit of ringbone, some arthritic changes and a bony spur above the navicular bursa.
He has intermittent lameness, made worse by the hard ground in summer.

This year he has already had a steroid injection into the coffin joint which didn't seem to make much difference.
He's just finished a course of Adequan and 4 weeks box rest (plus 1 bute a day).
He's loads better, with just the odd "off step", most noticeable when coming back to walk when he's trotted up.
The vets wants him to do another week in the box with 2 x 15mins of hand walking each day and then re-asses.

Going forward, I have arranged for him to come in overnight onto a deep bed and EVA matting to try and give his joints some respite each day (he is usually at grass 24-7-365).

The vet has said it may be worth trying Tildren. I'm a little unsure whether to go ahead with this for a few reasons. 1. he is a lot better and the change in living arrangements may help but we won't know that for a while yet. 2. I have read that Tildren can cause colicky side effects and carries a risk of heart attack and 3. Actual navicular hasn't been mentioned so will Tildren even help?

I will, of course, discuss this with my vet before making any desicions but any advice or comments from some knowledgable people will be greatly appreciated.
My chap is taking all this treatment with such good spirits and I don't want to take advantage of his amazing nature by putting him through anymore than he strictly needs to be.

Thanks in adance :)
 
Hi. My gelding has just finished two lots of Tildren treatment for a cyst on his Navicular bone. The process was very uncomplicated and he had a drip administered over 40 mins. He got a shot of Buscopan at the time to help with any colic. He has been fine with no side effects at all other that weeing rather a lot for a few hours. He is quite a stressy horse and can get colic but was totally fine. :)
 
Thanks Madam_max, do you feel the tildren has helped your horse, there seem to be quite a few posts on here saying it doesn't seem to have helped?
 
If your worried about collic get the vet to give him an anti spasmodic aftrer the Tildren. Heart attacks were common before they started administering it by drip over a period of time. One horse on our yard has had it for spavin - seems to have worked well. Just had one of mine done, and will know in a week or so if it's made a difference.
 
My horse had Tildren in December last year. Before that he had three lots of injections directly into both hock joints for Arthritic changes. He was 5/10 in one hock and 3/10 in the other. The actual process was very quick, there is a risk of colic but my horse was monitored by two nurses at all time and the proceedure was performed at a Veterinary college.

Within a month he was only mildly lame on the off hind, his worse hock.

We are now end of August and I was just about to go on the forum to ask if anyone had used a good supplement to help arthritis of the hock, he has now started to show signs of un soundness and has only been worked very lightly this year.

I know that there is a fusion available but my concern would be the longterm problems that that may bring!

Tildren did help my horse short term, but it look as though it is not going to be the answer for him long term.
 
Doonrocket, will you keep us updated on how it goes? My chap has a week of hand walking before a decision is made on the tildren. Fingers crossed it helps yours :-)

The Doghouse, I am using cortavet, like cortaflex but stronger and it does seem to help x
 
Ho Solar, difficult to say really as he never was really 'lame' as such. However I am due to get back on him next week and lunged him today and he looks fab. He's very complicated, so it's not that straightforward.
 
Hi, my pony has had three lots of Tildren and is due to have her fourth next month. She has spavins in both hocks and also has arthritis in one hind fetlock after having a bone chip removed from there last year. She had all three joints medicated last autumn and had two lots of Tildren a month apart in February (generally it is done as a course of two or three if your horse responds to it) and we had really good results. She returned to full work including dressage (well, local prelim/novice) and sponsored rides jumping up to 3'6 XC.
Now she is slightly less stiff on bute and as we are coming to the end of the 12 months on my insurance we are retreating her with another dose of the steroids, two more Tildren and a course of Adequan (I'm a bit nervous as I have my first go of giving an injection without the vet there tomorrow).
She had the joint supplement synequin to start with which I guess has been effective although as part of a many-pronged approach it would be impossible to say exactly which bits have had the most impact. When the insurance runs out I will change her to riaflex which has much the same ingredients but is much cheaper. Synequin is the one the vet prescribes - riaflex is what people on here have recommended and I only just heard of it recently.
Since having Tildren and her steroid injection on Thursday her stride with her back legs is about 9-10 inches longer, she has gone from just touching the heel of her front hoof print with her toe of her hind shoe to over tracking by two or three inches (my mare is quite long in the back which doesn't help).
Have a look on the Tildren website - I know people whose horses have been prescribed it for arthritis and navicular. As I understand it it helps all bony conditions because it lets bone regeneration catch up with bone degeneration but there is a simple explanation on their website which will make more sense than any nonsense I might write.
As far as the risks are concerned - as a previous poster has said, they give it slowly now in a drip to make it safer and some vets prefer to give it at the clinic. My vet came to the yard but stayed the whole time, every time and checked the horse's heart and digestion thoroughly afterwards. You are advised to stay and keep an eye for anything unusual. In my horse's case, she felt a bit rough after the first one (wasn't eating her hay and whickered when she saw me when she usually bellows, was still eating carrots and pony nuts though) so I gave her a bran mash and a bute and she was fine. She was completely fine the second and third times. It wasn't bad enough to put me off doing it again as the benefits outweighed the risks.
 
Yes of course solar.

Will let you know how it goes! Good luck with your boy! Im going to give mine a couple of weeks off as it maybe something else, he is working through on the left rein but on the right rein is very stiff and it is as if he cant bend to the right, he tilts his head to the left trying the balance himself and goes round in a stiff line through his shoulder!

The Dog House
 
Mine had tildren, for spavin, didnt see an improvement but then found out later that lameness was stifle related so that was probally why. Mine didn't have any adverse effects at all, I too was quite worried but all was fine!
Good luck.
 
Sorry that's probably my post that you read about colic and heart attacks. Think the chance of your horse getting colic is something like 7% and the chance of a heart attack is something like 0.3%.

I would recommend tildren every time, my horse had it three times so we could get as much use out of our claim as possible. The vet gave him an antispasmodic injection prior to the infusion of tildren and he was a little colicky but nothing he hasn't had about a hundred times before. Here is a link to a really good source of info:

http://www.georgevetgroup.co.uk/pdf's/equine_factsheets/TILDRENFACTSHEET.pdf

I would definetley recommend Tildren even though its approx £450-£500 a time.
 
The colic risk is why they give it as an infusion. My vet did it over about 45min- 1 hour with my horse but have been told that another local practise has the horses in for the day and gives the infusion over 4-5 hours. Mine had it earlier this year and was absolutely fine. Vet said he'd given him something to help any colicky symptoms but he had nothing at all, thankfully.

He's been a lot better since having the treatment too, moving much better. It isn't going to cure my horse, nothing will, but he's a lot more comfortable :)
 
chestnut cob said:
The colic risk is why they give it as an infusion. My vet did it over about 45min- 1 hour with my horse but have been told that another local practise has the horses in for the day and gives the infusion over 4-5 hours.
Click to expand...

That's right. If you do it over 45mins to an hour which is the usual practice fewer horses colic as a result. But if you infuse it too quickly (under half hour) in trials they found that this was the time that most horses that were going to colic would colic as a result.

It was my vet that was one of a few that did a lot of research regarding Tildren and first trialled the Tildren infusions.

My horse was colicky on each occasion but he has always had spasmodic colic since the day I've had him so I wasn't too concerned. What did concern me was his demeanour following the infusions, total lack of interest in anything, very down, lethargic and wee'd and wee'd for England the rest of the day and the next. His bed was soaking wet.

BUT like I said in my post before, don't let this put you off. It is the best thing you can be given for your horse as far as veterinary medicine goes at this moment in time so don't worry about the side effects. I probably wouldn't have even cared but for the fact my horse is a) very colicky anyway albeit mild, gassy colic due to our rich grass b) has a very small cardiac arythmia (2nd degree heart block).
 
Hi All,

Thank you so much for all the posts and advice.

We went ahead with the Tildren yesterday and he was fine! He was a little quiet last night and had a very wet bed this morning but other than that all good :D

So, he is also now on a course of Navilox & Aspirin to increase circulation.

He was beautifully sound yesterday, including on a very tight circle, so hopefully these recent treatments will help to keep him sound as he comes back into work.

Fingers crossed and will keep you all updated.

xx
 
Solar

So pleased for you. Glad you went ahead. Its always useful to come on a forum and find other peoples experiences though. Gd luck for the future x
 
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