Issue with side effects of arthritis treatment

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Rachel123

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Sep 8, 2016
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Hello,
We recently descovered that my horse has with mild arthritis and although was sound, our vets suggested giving him steroid injections into the joints to relieve any discomfort/delay its development.

Obviously wanting our boy to be as well as possible we went through with the procedure, unaware that in rare cases it has been known to cause laminitis!!

About a week after having the injections he suddenly went lame in his front leg. After taken several x-Rays and using nerve blocks to locate the source of his lameness, the vets suggested that the steroids had caused his laminae to inflame.... Although did not use the word laminitis so seems to suggest it is a lot less severe.

If we knew of this side effect we would obviously never have given the treatment to a previously sound horse, I am in fact very frustrated that the vets did not explain the seriousness of the injections to us. (We were under the impression that it is a very common treatment)

I was just wondering if anyone's horse has recieved steriod injections to treat arthritis? And also if they expericenced any ill effect? But more worrying me is I am going off to university in three weeks and am hoping he will be sound by then... Do you believe this would be possible? (He is currently on 10days stable rest - for swelling to die down)
Any feedback would be greatfully recieved :)
 
It is a very common treatment but there are a couple of serious side effects, one being lami @lauren123 can probably chime in here.

I had my anglo arab's hock medicated several years ago, he got the even rarer side effect 'joint flare' which is an allergic reaction to the steroids, it caused his hock joint to swell hugely and parts of the remodeled bone began chipping off and the joint collapsing, unfortunately one of the chips was under a tendon and he got lamer and lamer, so he was on more and more pain killers and then coliced badly and the decision was made to PTS as his chance of recovery was very small. My vet said this type of reaction is one in millions, so it is very rare but I wish they had mentioned it before, it was a shock as I didn't know about the chance beforehand.

I discussed injections for coffin joint for my mare last year when she went lame, the vet assured me that it is only about 1 case in 1000 that gets lami, but given my previous experience and my mare already being a lami prone cushingoid fatty I refused to have it done especially as they didn't really know what was wrong and a coffin joint block hadn't actually improved her lameness.

In terms of recovery, 3 weeks isn't long to get over lami but hopefully he will be well on his way by then. Have they X-rayed to check for rotation/sinking?
 
Inflammation of the laminae is laminitis, and like Jessey I'd be wanting an x-ray to check there isn't rotation or sinking, did the x-rays taken check for this? What treatment has the vet advised?

I'd be extremely unhappy that the vet hadn't discussed this as a possible side effect & I'd be wanting to know why. With mild arthritis would you have considered it worth the risk if you'd known? My vet wouldn't even contemplate medicating Jim's hocks because he'd had a bout of laminitis before, he felt the risk was far too high particularly given that they weren't bothering him in a normal range of movement.

I hope he makes a full recovery, but like Jess I think 3 weeks on he'll still be needing careful management at best.
 
So sad when vets don't explain procedures and side effects, I don't wish to frighten you but I know a horse who was PTS last week as he developed lammi from steroid injections to his hocks, owner wasn't warned about the risk and was distraught as you can imagine. Hope your horse makes a full recovery but yes as others have said I'd be wanting xrays too and three weeks is probably not long enough to have him back to normal.
 
We had steroid injections twice for J with great success and no side effects. It is always a worry though and I feel very sorry for anyone whose horse suffers with lammi as a consequence. I had them done twice also with Storm again with no side effects - but they weren't as successful as with J. My vet pointed out the risks each time, I don't know the actual statistics, I was always led to believe that the incidence of lammi happening was quite low? (But of course that is small comfort to someone who happens to be the "low" statistic)
 
Thanks Jessey. :)

Oh laminitis, I hate it!!

Although my horse wasn't given steroid injection as such, he was on a high dose of oral steroids. I was made aware of the risk of lami however I was told it's 'slim' as my horse is ' not a fat little pony' A underweight tb he is! So given I was told the chance was slim. I carried on, as the condition he was treated for where severe cases. Though he has been off the steroids since May however we found out very recently last month my horse has rotation in hif left fore and issues in his right. We believe he has had sub clinical lami since March time. My horse has also had 3 sets of xrays and the first 2 sets showed nothing, the last set did.
Before the steroids started he would have been the very last horse I would have thought to get laminitis. I wouldn't have even thought about it as ever being a problem for him, due to his breeding, he certainly isn't your typical lami case.

I don't think I will eve be putting him back on any type of steroids again, they will be totally out of the question. Currently doing another month of pen rest ( my horse doesn't do box rest!) Vet was out only a few days ago to see him. Going to be another 6 weeks atleast I am guessing of getting him right but eventhen we have a long road ahead.

Rachel123 said:
About a week after having the injections he suddenly went lame in his front leg. After taken several x-Rays and using nerve blocks to locate the source of his lameness, the vets suggested that the steroids had caused his laminae to inflame.... Although did not use the word laminitis so seems to suggest it is a lot less severe.
Click to expand...

My vet said the same thing in March when we had the first xrays taken, 'just because their is no changes yet doesn't mean there isn't lami'.

Part of me wishes I had taken him off the drugs then but hind sight is a wonderful thing.

I also heard that steroids work the best on horses that have severe arthritis, however not sure how true that is. Hope your ok, certainly wouldn't want you to go through this.
 
It is a common treatment but as others have said laminitis can be a side effect.
Dylan luckily didn't get that side effect but had a total of three or four injections over the course of 18/24 months and at the last one the vet said he wouldn't be happy doing another treatment due in part to the increasing chance of developing laminitis.
Hope he gets better from the lammi soon. x
 
carthorse said:
Inflammation of the laminae is laminitis, and like Jessey I'd be wanting an x-ray to check there isn't rotation or sinking, did the x-rays taken check for this? What treatment has the vet advised?

I'd be extremely unhappy that the vet hadn't discussed this as a possible side effect & I'd be wanting to know why. With mild arthritis would you have considered it worth the risk if you'd known? My vet wouldn't even contemplate medicating Jim's hocks because he'd had a bout of laminitis before, he felt the risk was far too high particularly given that they weren't bothering him in a normal range of movement.

I hope he makes a full recovery, but like Jess I think 3 weeks on he'll still be needing careful management at best.
Click to expand...

Thankyou, I thought it'd be pushing it to get him back out so quickly, he's currently on stable rest so will continue to follow the vets advice! Yeah they've already X-rayed his feet and lucky there doesn't appear to be any rotation... We would have certainly thought a lot harder about giving him the injections if we'd known and certainly wont be using them to treat his arthritis again!!
 
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sorry to hear this, Lady in village experienced the same thing, however she had rotation in all 4 on her horse, she never did come fully sound to be worked again , shes a companion now.
 
The other thing, Lauren, is that Sox has had laminitis, hasn't he? We have a horse at the yard with an abscess at the mo, following a bout of lami some months ago. Vet told her this is a common occurrence afterwards, unfortunately. Double whammy for you there, with the PPID too...
 
To be fair Domane I don't think Sox had had laminitis before the steroid jabs & at that point he was also showing negative on an acth test.
 
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Yes one of the side effects of steroids is laminitis. More prone if they are a cob as well.
A friend of mine had a Welsh section horse injected with steroids due to severe sweet itch it was the last resort as she'd tried all other treatments. The horse was 18. Never been lame in its life. She'd had it since it was very young. She knew the risks though. Unfortunately the horse developed laminitis two months after. She got it over the lami and started working it again then middle of winter got a second bout of laminitis. The horse was PTS. As the steroids had not helped the sweetitch. The second bout of laminitis came out of the blue, fine one day the next could not put a foot forward.
 
Hi I'm a 3rd year BSc student at the Royal Veterinary College completing research in to 'Owners perceptions of laminitis: the role of diet in cause and management'. This will hopefully bridge the gap between what owners believe and what the current research says. This will help better direct future research and improve educational resources for owners to help our beloved horses and ponies. It would be greatly appreciated if you could take 10 minutes to complete this questionnaire.

Many thanks in advance!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1...9rvcc2bjfLyoUgzJX4hMNggw/viewform?usp=sf_link
 
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