Darkwater
Well-Known Member
Following about 9 months of problems with my mares eating, she has recently had xrays and subsequently been diagnosed with a disorder or the TMJ (temporomandibular joint - jaw). This was something I asked my vet about after someone on here suggested it as the possible problem so many many thanks to whom that was if you are reading this.
It is not 100% known if this is due to a degenerative arthritis type problem or due to damage but either way she has a complete lack of the cartilage which should exist within the joint on one side, and half as much as she should have on the other.
She has had the joint on both sides injected with a steroid and something else (forgotten the name now and do not have it to hand) which I believe is meant to act as replacement joint fluid to aid joint movement.
She seems slightly better although I was advised to give it a week before assessing the improvement, and it has been 4 days so she may yet improve further. She has also been on bute up to now (2 per day) mainly to reduce the pain from the injections themselves but I obviously need to reduce this to nothing over the next couple of days as it may be this which is causing the improvement (although she has shown little sign of improvement when on bute in the past).
I am relieved to have some idea of what the problem actually is now, but I also feel that it may be worse than what I originally thought the problem was as I know it is likely to be degenerative and get worse.I am really just wondering if anyone has any experience of this problem - any advice on how to best manage it would be gratefully appreciated, and any stories good or bad.
Thank you for reading x
It is not 100% known if this is due to a degenerative arthritis type problem or due to damage but either way she has a complete lack of the cartilage which should exist within the joint on one side, and half as much as she should have on the other.
She has had the joint on both sides injected with a steroid and something else (forgotten the name now and do not have it to hand) which I believe is meant to act as replacement joint fluid to aid joint movement.
She seems slightly better although I was advised to give it a week before assessing the improvement, and it has been 4 days so she may yet improve further. She has also been on bute up to now (2 per day) mainly to reduce the pain from the injections themselves but I obviously need to reduce this to nothing over the next couple of days as it may be this which is causing the improvement (although she has shown little sign of improvement when on bute in the past).
I am relieved to have some idea of what the problem actually is now, but I also feel that it may be worse than what I originally thought the problem was as I know it is likely to be degenerative and get worse.I am really just wondering if anyone has any experience of this problem - any advice on how to best manage it would be gratefully appreciated, and any stories good or bad.
Thank you for reading x