A couple of questions about bone spavin

[jenren!!]

Theres still a few questions that have been boiling in my head about this. I will ring the vet if i am still confused. Anyway, Aramis is 8 and has just been diagnosed with a mild bone spavin in her left hock. She was on bute twice a day for a week then she was on bute once a day. She has been on bute once a day for a week now, so been on bute 2 weeks. She is in daily exercise, for about half an hour. Mainly walk but spells of trot also. About 5 mins at a time in trot. We are slowly increasing this. She is not lame, the bute has kicked in and she is finding the work ok, sometimes dropiing out of trot, but she is fine. The vet said the prognosis is good, so im feeling fairly positive about it and trying not to fear the worst.

We got the vet bill last week and it said she 'remains 1-2/10ths lame and positive to hock flexion. Carries limb medially, low level of work at present'.

Anyway, if any of you are vets or understand what this means, she has 'some loss of joint space with schlerosis of subchondral bone plate. Peri-articular remodelling at dorsal aspect of both TMT joints. Bring into light regular exercise. Give one sachet bute twice daily x 7 days once started trotting.'

Does this sound pretty mild? He says it was. Anyway, im just wondering when you know the joint has fused? How long do you leave it until you take her off the bute and see what she is like? I think the vet is the best port of call here but i wondered whether any of you know. Im guessing she'll have to go for x-rays again eventually. Just from reading other threads iv got a bit worried again. Im also worried im overworking her, even though she's not really showing it. Oh i am a stress head :rolleyes:

[Pink's lady]

Can't tell you all that much about bone spavin yet (tis this years course;)) but I can inturprate the jargon:


'remains 1-2/10ths lame and positive to hock flexion. Carries limb medially, low level of work at present'.

= She still mildly lame and reacts the flexion tests. She carries her legs closer together than normal (medial means the 'middle', lateral means the 'outside' ) and is only on a low level of way at the present time (i.e when they wrote this)


'some loss of joint space with schlerosis of subchondral bone plate. Peri-articular remodelling at dorsal aspect of both TMT joints. Bring into light regular exercise. Give one sachet bute twice daily x 7 days once started trotting.'

= She's got growth of bone (hence the loss of space), hardening (sclerosis) of the bone that's underlying the cartilage of the joint surface (subchondral bone plate). There's a change in shape of the bone of the Tarsal-Metatarsal (i.e the small joints of the hock) on both sides of the joint.

The rest is pretty self expalaintory.

It sounds like normal arthristis - otherwise she's be hobbly lame. You're aiming to make the arhtritis much much worse, the there is totally remodling of the bone and the two sides of the joint meet and fuse together.

[Jessey]

You're a stress head :o no not really, it is a worry.

Because you are trying to get the joint to fuse you would normally work them as if nothing was wrong, so long as the bute covers all the pain, so I think you are doing just right, so long as she is sound don't hesitate to work her, it is for the best.

Re the lameness, because you are getting a joint to fuse she will always have what we non-vets would call a stiffness, vets say the horse is lame but only very mildly 1/2 a point out of 10.
Positive to flexion just shows that under stress to that joint, she is still lame.
Carrying the limb medially just means she is carrying the leg slightly unevenly towards the inside, (the oposite is lateral = dishing) this could indicate she is slightly stiff or uncomfortable but it may also just be part of the process of the fusion or just the way she is built, don't worry about it but do keep an eye on it and let the vet know if it changes.

Hope that helps.

J x