WWYD - Bone spavin. Retire or?

[Birker2020]

I certainly was told timing with fusion is important .

its a last resort after all else has failed but depends on what xrays show i was told. up to the op entirely and advice of vet.

 

[Birker2020]

Quote/edit fail there, this bit was supposed to be at the bottom!

for me it is the more long term complications that mean I wouldn't do it, even the current merck vet manual states it is a treatment 'difficult to recommend' even if you don't fancy going searching out the papers yourself.
http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/mu...in_horses.html

sorry i hadnt seen that ester happy to be corrected. it certainly wasnt the case with my experience and i wasnt aware of this nor have heard of this with friends who have had the procedure done. im not a vet and never claimed to be i can only go on my own experience. i know tildren is normally the next step after steroid but before E.F although cant remember why. Never really understood reason for order but think fusion is last resort cos if it doesnt work no room in hock joint space for anything else if u follow. but like i say its only part of the jigsaw of a treatment plan.

 

[ester]

GS this is a fairly nice summary with an adequate reference list, though there are plenty others out there too

https://www.acvs.org/files/proceedings/2012/data/papers/019.pdf

I do want to clarify re. previous post that I do know that MIA and ethyl alcohol injection are not the same and do not work quite the same way (I think MIA is much less used these days), it was just that they info provided by ycbm was the same as what was specified on the previously shared link for chemical arthrodesis so I didn't understand why it was being questioned.

GS I opted to treat F's likely spavin conservatively (exercise, natural anti inflamms etc) and didn't want to start on the steriod path too early given that at his age he was going to be getting a bit clunky and if you xrayed you'd be surprised not to find something. He came out of hunting last year a bit clunkier than I would like and a speculative steroid injection worked really well. In hindsight now I wish I'd done that perhaps 6 months or so earlier given that his current issue is with the annular ligament on the opposite leg. Something was going to make him slow down eventually though.

 

[ester]

sorry i hadnt seen that ester happy to be corrected. it certainly wasnt the case with my experience and i wasnt aware of this nor have heard of this with friends who have had the procedure done. im not a vet and never claimed to be i can only go on my own experience. i know tildren is normally the next step after steroid but before E.F although cant remember why. Never really understood reason for order but think fusion is last resort cos if it doesnt work no room in hock joint space for anything else if u follow. but like i say its only part of the jigsaw of a treatment plan.

Yes, you can't reverse the fusion, so if that doesn't work you are out of options/have already compromised the joint.

 

[Achinghips]

Even with fusion, there will be some stiffness, so competition will be compromised. Fusion with ethanol didn't work for my 10 year old Tb and I retired her

 

[DonskiWA]

Tons of good info here - thanks all.
Re: Cushings - it is managed with Prascend. I had no idea that it might be banned f competing? I'm in Australia though, so it may be different. I shall have to check. Oops.
I'm going to see a new horse today, although I feel like I'm a cheating on a boyfriend! I'm hoping I don't like him. My vet is back from hols tomorrow so I can have the final deciding chat with him then. I feel a lot more informed though now.

 

[Goldenstar]

I am seeing out vet again shortly .
As long as Fatty is happy as we are going on of course there's no reason to do more .
I can use cartofen regularly and Danilon when needed .
1/10 lame and one refusal in horrible conditions is not the end of the world .
However he has a stifle giving him Jip he got kicked about this time last year and I think this stifle is taking more strain because of the hock so we have having to help that out as well.
I anxious not to end up with all the issues horses get when then work with an issue like this ( KS , ligament issues that sort of thing )which is why I am intervening heavily early .
He runs to fat so quickly and our grass is so good this Autumn it's a juggling act ATM as of course I want him out as soon as possible.
I am not a fan of repeated steroid jabs they compromise the joint everytime and there's always the risk of complete disaster from infection and the lami risk as well, hence the discussion around going for fusion early .