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Member
Posts: 19
| I injected my 14 yr old geldings hock for three years when I was competing on him. He's been off a full year, no reason other than I haven't been riding. I was thinking about legging him up for a couple races late fall. I'm wondering if I need to inject for that? How do you know when they've fused? Do you have to have X-rays done or? Any help or experiences would be helpful. |
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 Expert
Posts: 5290
 
| Arkyatheart - 2016-08-22 1:46 PM
I injected my 14 yr old geldings hock for three years when I was competing on him. He's been off a full year, no reason other than I haven't been riding. I was thinking about legging him up for a couple races late fall. I'm wondering if I need to inject for that? How do you know when they've fused? Do you have to have X-rays done or? Any help or experiences would be helpful.
My gelding has been injected twice a year for about 5 years now. He would def show you he was off when he was ready. Then it went to once a year, now its been over a year and he hasn't ever gone sore again so he finally fused. We did xrays originally and you could see where he was losing joint space and was on his way to bone on bone. Which is good. When they fuse no more pain. When we DID inject, we used steroid ONLY, no HA cause we wanted that sucker to fuse. You might talk to your vet about just using some previcox for those few months your legging up and competing. |
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Member
Posts: 19
| Thank you for that information. I've always heard about fusing but didn't know when it occurs. I'll ask about the previcox. |
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 You get what you give
Posts: 13030
 
Location: Texas | fusing doesn't always occur. Some horses need occasional injections their entire careers and maintain relatively clean joints. The way to tell if they are fusing is to do radiographs over time and compare.
If you are wanting to leg him up, I would go ahead and start riding, and when you get closer to adding some strenuous work, get him looked at, radiographed, and injected if needed. |
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Fused Hocks