Please share your experiences of treating and working horses with severe arthritis...

T

ThirdTimeLucky

Guest
After reading the thread about Tildren I thought it would be interesting to share our experiences of our horses who have severe arthritis.

Where, why, how treated, what supplements used, what vet prognosis was and what they are doing now. Oh and a picture!

For reference for those who are suffering and trying to treat!

I will start, Kali was diagnosed at age 4 with arthritis and OCD in both hocks, upper and lower joints. She had been in light work 3 months but has a large scar on left hock, which I was told was from an accident with a fence at 5 months old.

She had steriods/HA injections twice, which both times only lasted 2 weeks then she was lame again.

She then had bilateral arthroscopy, 8 weeks box rest, sound for 3 weeks after rest ended then lame again.

She was on cosequine and bute throughout.

I then decided to retire her as couldn't keep her on 4 bute a day.
A friend offered to have her go live at her house for life as a companion so as much as it broke my heart off Kali went.

Then in April, things changed and she needed to come home and I decided to try working her a bit.

She is now on and off sound, sound more than she is lame but always works through it after a 5 minute walk. Not on any bute and happily hacks 3 times a week, up to an hour and a half. Little trot and today we had our first canter since she went lame! :D :D

Photo0290.jpg
 
can people share experiences of their horses with mild/medium arthritis too as mine's just been diagnosed with this and i'd love to hear tips etc :)
 
Sorry maybe I made that a bit specific! Of course!
I am really interested to see what work the horses return to. Vet advised that Kali was PTS last year, he was shocked to see how good she is now. :D
 
OK here goes.

I had a horse on loan overseas who had severe arthritis. Quite frankly, in the UK she would have probably been euthanased as she was hobbling every morning and her joints were clearly swollen and arthritic, sometimes tender.

However, by the time I was ready to ride in the morning, 75% of the time she would be as sound as a pound and the other 25% of the time she would be sound at the end of the lane which led out of the stableyard, even though she might hobble for the first fifty yards.

This was over thirty years ago, so the drug treatments/supplements available were very limited.

I put her on cod liver oil which definitely helped; keeping her weight down so that she appeared to be a little underweight seemed to be the most important factor, though. Whenever she put weight on, she would be lame!

She was kept yarded overnight so could move freely, and we lived in a warm dry climate, so the actual management of her environment was probably optimal.

If her joints were noticeably hotter and more tender than usual, she would have daily icepacks on her fetlocks, knees and hocks. If she was also acutely lame, she had a week of bute. This happened probably a dozen or so times over a four year period.

I hacked her twice daily; if she was on bute/icepacks I would hack her once and lead her out once.

The only time she was perceptibly lame for hacking was after I'd been away on holiday and she had been unridden for six weeks; although yarded overnight and turned out onto a dry lot daily in company, she had put on a considerable amount of weight and lost muscle tone. Whether she had been acutely lame or had had a flare up in her joints while I had been away, and hence been untreated, I do not know.

When I left the country, I obviously had to leave her behind. She was then retired and used only for children's pony rides - she loved children and took great care of them. I believe she was put down several years later at the grand old age of 33 - a remarkable age for a flea-bitten grey with obvious external melanomas.
 
As Nadia has just been diagnosed with the early stages of Arthritis and will start Tildren/steriods/adequan in 2 weeks I'll keep you posted.
For about the last 2 yrs I've had Nadia on Glucosamine and cod liver oil but the gluco was that cheap £15.99 one, after all this time I can safely say that it had no effect so now use the one that the vet supply. Already after 4 weeks her bones don't click as much.
 
My horse has bone spavin, and has come sound on Adequan injections and Cosequin suppliment. Follow up vet check next week, hopefully - will disucss possible follow on treatments with Tildren, for example, and optimin management, showing etc.. Fingers crossed. Will post with results, and also vets advice as to how much he can do in the future, without causing a hastening deterioration. Look forward to reading about others experiences.
 
Bit of info on my boy..he's 18 yo and has just been diagnosed with coffin joint arthritis on both fores. Is only mildly lame (vet scored 3/10 on circle on both reins and 1/10 in straight line) When i get a chance i'll put his x-rays up to show you, and some pictures of his feet. I'm not surprised he's got it to be honest as he was hunted hard in ireland before he came over here as a 5 yo so i was waiting for it really.

anyone else got any x-rays to show and compare?

He's had wedge pads put on for 1-2 shoeings. Vet is coming in 2 weeks to start steroid/HA injections. He had an injection of something beginning with 'C' (how rubbish am i!!) on tuesday. It works on improving the cartilage. He's just started on glucosamine (newmarket 99% stuff from the vet) too. And i'll probably add cortaflex or cider vinegar or something else unless there are contra indications with his other medication.
 
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Had a 9 year old cob with spavin in the hocks. The spavin was in the worst possible place tried all the conventional treatments injections etc, all to no avail horse became lame in walk after about a year and had to be destroyed. Very sad but it happens.
 
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