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 Coyote Country Queen
Posts: 5666
   
| Does anyone have any experience with cartilage damage in the stifle. Early in December my mare came up 3-legged lame overnight. She likes to buck and play in her pen so Im assuming she slipped or something. I let her stand around for a month and a half, and she seemed to be getting better but was still off. I took her to the vet last week. When flexed at the ankle she showed a slight increase in lameness, was a little worse when flexed at the hock, and much worse when flexed at the stifle. My vet suggested x-raying the stifle as that appeared the worst. X-Rays showed what appeared to be damage to the cartilage. He was not very optimistic that she would ever return to performance based on the type of injury he saw.
He gave me a couple of options, but what we agreed was the most reasonable was to inject and give her 3-4 months off to see if she improves. He told me she could have regular turnout, but she will run and play hard so we decided it was best to keep her in her stall with a run. She's still being pretty wild in there, so I decided to hand walk her daily to try to keep her from aggrivating the injury.
I'm looking for any experiences with an injury like this. And also any suggestions on how to help this type of injury heal the best. |
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Coyote Country Queen
Posts: 5666
| Anybody? I want to maximize her chances of returning to competition. I know the odds aren't good, but I sure want to give it an honest try. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 585
Location: Texas | Was the other option surgery? |
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Coyote Country Queen
Posts: 5666
| The other options were to not inject and wait to see if she got better with more time off, or to do arthroscopy. My vet felt like I'd be wasting my money by doing a scope. He said he'd be able to see better what was going on, but since he didn't think there was anything that could be done it wouldn't be worth it. |
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Regular
Posts: 56
Location: Oklahoma | No good news from me. My horse is a pasture ornament as a result of damage. Been retired for 5 years now. I tried the injections but my vet told me it would probably be for nothing............ Hope you have better luck  |
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Coyote Country Queen
Posts: 5666
| That's pretty much how my vet felt. I asked about breeding her and he thought she'd be fine to carry a foal. He said that if I bred her this year it would force me to give her extra time off. I'm just not sure what to do at this point. Thinking I'll let her stand for the 3-4 months. If she looks better we'll go from there. If not, I guess I'll look into breeding her in 2016. |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| Adequan Im
Flush the stifle, then add stem cells and inject with HA
This is what I would have done.
I have had great success with stem cells in other joints, I had one mare tear the joint capsule right out of the joint, stem cells saved her, now on an xray the joint looks normal. |
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I Am a Snake Killer
Posts: 1927
Location: Golden Gulf Coast of Texas | I am just now legging mine back up after having him scoped. I had clean X-rays and clean ultrasound but still had issues. Tried injecting didn't help. Next option was PRP. Mine didn't have any flaps only roughed up the cartilage. Probably try him at the first of march and see if it's better. I think it depends on how much the cartilage is messed up. If there are flaps they need surgery to clean those up then maybe even stem cell. Wonder why your vet doesn't want to scope? |
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Coyote Country Queen
Posts: 5666
| Based on what he saw on the x-rays he didn't feel like there was anything he could do. I think it had to do with the amount of change and the location. I thought about calling back and discussing IRAP or PRP. He would have gladly scoped if I wanted it done, but he just didn't think it was worth the money.
It wasn't a good day at the vet for me. My other mare had a bad diagnosis too. Basically they could do an MRI, but based on her history he didn't think they would be able to do anything. I guess I could have spent a lot of money on diagnostics but didn't really have any treatment options. |
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I Am a Snake Killer
Posts: 1927
Location: Golden Gulf Coast of Texas | Jenbabe - 2015-01-28 12:13 PM
Based on what he saw on the x-rays he didn't feel like there was anything he could do. I think it had to do with the amount of change and the location. I thought about calling back and discussing IRAP or PRP. He would have gladly scoped if I wanted it done, but he just didn't think it was worth the money.
It wasn't a good day at the vet for me. My other mare had a bad diagnosis too. Basically they could do an MRI, but based on her history he didn't think they would be able to do anything. I guess I could have spent a lot of money on diagnostics but didn't really have any treatment options.
So you had arthritic changes in the joint? Cartilage tears? I'm also giving loading dose of adequin. I know how you feel. I have two and both have had issues in the last year, I'm tired of sitting at home! |
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Coyote Country Queen
Posts: 5666
| mreklaw - 2015-01-28 12:23 PM
Jenbabe - 2015-01-28 12:13 PM
Based on what he saw on the x-rays he didn't feel like there was anything he could do. I think it had to do with the amount of change and the location. I thought about calling back and discussing IRAP or PRP. He would have gladly scoped if I wanted it done, but he just didn't think it was worth the money.
It wasn't a good day at the vet for me. My other mare had a bad diagnosis too. Basically they could do an MRI, but based on her history he didn't think they would be able to do anything. I guess I could have spent a lot of money on diagnostics but didn't really have any treatment options.
So you had arthritic changes in the joint? Cartilage tears? I'm also giving loading dose of adequin. I know how you feel. I have two and both have had issues in the last year, I'm tired of sitting at home!
She's only 5 so I don't think there were any arthritic changes, just changes in the way the cartilage looked on x-Ray. I thought I had a good understanding when I left the vet, but now Im feeling confused and not sure I know exactly what's going on.
Edited by Jenbabe 2015-01-28 12:33 PM
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 585
Location: Texas | Dr. Hague did my arthroscopic surgery. He gave me a 50% chance of coming back to performance level, before surgery. He did come back and ran great for 2 years. I also keep him on Adequan. Another injury ended his career but I would do the surgery again with those same odds. I wish you good luck! Deciding to quit a good one is heart breaking!
Edited by workerbee 2015-01-28 12:59 PM
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 Veteran
Posts: 212
| My horse is 14 and had bad knee arthritis for a year or so then chipped the knee and had surgery. We did IRAP and she was off 4 months and our vet thought her cartilage looked fantastic after, for what we started with. :) it would be worth a shot to try if you can afford too. It cant hurt anything I wouldn't think. I don't know where you live, but at Miss State they pulled/ spun her IRAP for 500 then shipped it to my local vet to do the injections. I am surprised your vet did not recommend PRP, irap, or stem cells since she needs to regenerate cartilage, which I don't think is the main function of regular steroid injections. I could be wrong, but maybe try going to a vet known for lameness and orthopedic surgery |
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Expert
Posts: 2685
| Honestly, I would breed her now and give her a year or so off. I did and my mare did not take BUT she did get 6 months or so off and came back 100%. However, I got the bad news from a highly respected vet after a lameness exam, block and radiographs and after the time off I took her to my work place (equine vet more known for repro and surgery [colic] than lameness) and they did not find a sing abnormality in her gait or "recheck" radiographs. SO either the time off did her stifle a WORLD of good OR the first vet was way off. I will add that I put her on 3 months of the loading dose on ECJR that is supposed to be miracle stuff for stifles. It was STOOOPID expensive, but I like to tell myself it helped lol
ETA the new magnacu (PHT + copper) stifle wraps might be a good idea.
Edited by RoaniePonie11 2015-01-28 1:51 PM
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Coyote Country Queen
Posts: 5666
| This mare was seen at Oakridge, so I feel confident in the diagnosis. After leaving the clinic I wondered about IRAP/PRP. I haven't called back to ask about it, thought I might do some research first. I didn't ask any percentages, but he said that he didn't think there was anything he could do even if she was scoped. He really was not optimistic at all, so I'm not going to get my hopes up, I just want to do what I can within reason to help her. |
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Expert
Posts: 2685
| Jenbabe - 2015-01-28 2:07 PM
This mare was seen at Oakridge, so I feel confident in the diagnosis. After leaving the clinic I wondered about IRAP/PRP. I haven't called back to ask about it, thought I might do some research first. I didn't ask any percentages, but he said that he didn't think there was anything he could do even if she was scoped. He really was not optimistic at all, so I'm not going to get my hopes up, I just want to do what I can within reason to help her.
Oakridge is who diagnosed my mare with the stifle issue also. They flexed, blocked and radiographed her. I'm not saying anyone is right or wrong. I am definitely not looking this gift horse in the mouth. All I know is by the grace of God, my mare is sound now.
Good luck!
Here at my work we have had good luck with IRAP on stifles. Just $$$. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 999
Location: Sunny So Cal | Unfortunately I don't have any experience with a stifle injury but my mare does have a stifle that gets stuck. I put her on THE NutraWOUND to help with her torn ligament and then once it healed I just never took her off of it and she seems to not have that stifle slipping. I have owned her for almost 12 years and she has always slipped on that stifle but now isn't. She is 19 years old. Always worth a try. She has been on THE NutraWOUND for about 9 months now. |
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Meanest Teacher!!!
Posts: 8555
Location: sunny california | Cowgirl Kat - 2015-01-28 1:20 PM Unfortunately I don't have any experience with a stifle injury but my mare does have a stifle that gets stuck. I put her on THE NutraWOUND to help with her torn ligament and then once it healed I just never took her off of it and she seems to not have that stifle slipping. I have owned her for almost 12 years and she has always slipped on that stifle but now isn't. She is 19 years old. Always worth a try. She has been on THE NutraWOUND for about 9 months now.
this is what i would do as well |
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I Am a Snake Killer
Posts: 1927
Location: Golden Gulf Coast of Texas | kwanatha - 2015-01-28 7:46 PM
Cowgirl Kat - 2015-01-28 1:20 PM Unfortunately I don't have any experience with a stifle injury but my mare does have a stifle that gets stuck. I put her on THE NutraWOUND to help with her torn ligament and then once it healed I just never took her off of it and she seems to not have that stifle slipping. I have owned her for almost 12 years and she has always slipped on that stifle but now isn't. She is 19 years old. Always worth a try. She has been on THE NutraWOUND for about 9 months now.
this is what i would do as well
Big difference between stifle ligament issue and cartilage damage! I've dealt with both. |
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Sock Snob
Posts: 3021
| If you do nothing else i would put her on some pentosan, and a feed thru suppliment. My, mare had a stifle injury and i knew no local general practice type vets could not fix her. My gelding and i went to a show and he won like 3k after i carrier her to a lamness vet he watched her go told me what was wrong, he said lets see what she want to do, told me to put her on actiflex and start legging her, but she had been off for about 9 months, she she actuially got better and we injected her and and entered her into my state finals i just put her in senior she actuailly did a god job. My husband got sick turned her out for winter and next summer got her legged up and we just injected her carried her to super show senior run good, but next run when she came out lame on other side, just retired her, but about 2 months later on the last lame side she blew a big absess, so really that was all that was wrong. I bred her and have a carbon copy of my mare so i cant ask for anything better. |
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| stem cells work on a torn meniscus |
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 Night Chat Leader
Posts: 13150
Location: Home....Smiling M Farms | Cosequin ASU or stem cell might help. |
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Cartilage Damage In Stifle