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Veteran
Posts: 286
 
| Do injections help relieve the pain of a fusing hock??? |
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  Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
 
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | I think they more or less do, but some things they inject with might help them fuse? I'm kind of new to it, we have an old horse that won't fuse all the way and he has some pain, sorest hocks the vet has ever seen. But even with alcohol injected it still didn't do the trick. :( |
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Defense Attorney for The Horse
Location: Claremore, OK | BFN - 2018-06-11 6:29 PM
Do injections help relieve the pain of a fusing hock???
Yes. A lot of it has to do with how well a horse tolerates pain but they do definitely help. |
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 You get what you give
Posts: 13030
Location: Texas | BFN - 2018-06-11 6:29 PM
Do injections help relieve the pain of a fusing hock???
heck yes they do.
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Veteran
Posts: 286
| This will be my first fusing hock case,...lol,...so, is there anything else is should know?? I bet the vet is going to inject my gelding's hock tomorrow morning...and who knows what other recommendations from there. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 629
| Yes it helps, but in my experience, the pain relief doesn't last as long as if the hocks aren't fusing and you're doing injections for usual wear and tear and arthritis.
I have been injecting my mare for 3-4 years for arthritis, and I could do them once per year and she did great. Then she began to fuse, and the injections only helped for about 3 months. |
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You get what you give
Posts: 13030
Location: Texas | OutlawsLastDance - 2018-06-12 5:54 PM
Yes it helps, but in my experience, the pain relief doesn't last as long as if the hocks aren't fusing and you're doing injections for usual wear and tear and arthritis.
I have been injecting my mare for 3-4 years for arthritis, and I could do them once per year and she did great. Then she began to fuse, and the injections only helped for about 3 months.
You would be correct. The steroids are only in the joint for about that long. In horses that don't really have any pathology in the hock, just sore from being athletes, they may stay sound for months after the steroids wear off. For horses who have arthritis and are in the process of fusing, you will likely see shorter duration of action with joint injections. However, when you are trying to get hocks to fuse, injecting them more often with steroids may help speed that along anyway since you aren't worrying about being conservative to preserve articular cartilage like you would be in a high motion joint. |
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Veteran
Posts: 286
| Update
Our vet injected both of his hocks and gave him some OsPhos.
The right hock was fusing, and quite far along in the process, and there was just a little bit of arthritic changes apparent in both hocks.
The vet said he wouldn't recommend laser surgery at this time. He hopes the gelding's hock will just completely fuse on his own soon.
Thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge with me. I really appreciate it. |
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 Expert
Posts: 5290
| Took my mare in for hock X-rays yesterday. We wanted to check for fusing. She is 13 and no signs of fusing. Lol she was injected 9 months ago and still doing great! I asked vet to X-ray other hock and she said no need to. Whatever one side does, the other is doing. |
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Veteran
Posts: 286
| Idk....only the right hock on my gelding is fusing.  |
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 Scorpions R Us
Posts: 9586
Location: So. Cali. | Someone I know recently gave their gelding Osphos for a fusing hock and it defiantly made a difference. |
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You get what you give
Posts: 13030
Location: Texas | BFN - 2018-06-14 9:37 AM
Idk....only the right hock on my gelding is fusing.
Yeah it’s definitely not the case that what one is doing the other is doing too. Likely, yes, but not always. |
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Expert
Posts: 1409
Location: Oklahoma | FLITASTIC - 2018-06-13 7:01 PM
Took my mare in for hock X-rays yesterday. We wanted to check for fusing. She is 13 and no signs of fusing. Lol she was injected 9 months ago and still doing great! I asked vet to X-ray other hock and she said no need to. Whatever one side does, the other is doing.
This is wrong. My horse was xrayed in both hocks right hock has arthritis, the left clean. Mths later I am having trouble so we just xray the right bc that the one that showed arthritis didn't xray the left bc it was clean. so we decided to do the bone scan bc the right hock looked the same and he wasn't showing that to be the problem, but he also wasn't showing the left hock being the problem either, well that is when we found the cyst in the left hock. If I had xrayed both hocks I wouldn't have needed the bone scan. I will always xray both sides no matter what or area. |
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Veteran
Posts: 286
| I agree with looking at both sides....my thought process also went something like this, "What if my gelding's right hock was sore from something that was going on with the other side"...so, since he is also a keeper ;-), I wanted the radiographs of both hocks,...and who knows, I may need/want to look back at the radiographs down the road to see changes, etc. (Especially since I have spent the extra money for Pentosan and OsPhos.). My gelding is only 6 years old.... I am willing to help him anyway I possibly can. |
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You get what you give
Posts: 13030
Location: Texas | It's worth it IMO to get rads on both sides so you can track changes. Often times I will see both issues on both hocks, but one side is more severe than the other. Yeah you may save $150ish not doing the other side but... we drop $150 on supplements, magnetic boots, special tack, a new bit, all the time.. why not get survey films of your horse? |
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In your experience....