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 I Want a "MAN"
Posts: 3610
   
Location: MD | I'm looking at a horse that owners have had for 3 years. They inject this horses hocks and stifles 2x a year. They have not done xrays. They said they do it as precautionary. This is a 12 year old. Would this worry you at all? I was thinking that he may do fine on something like Legend? I have a pre purchase exam scheduled for Saturday. Does that seem like a lot of injecting on a horse just to do as a precautionary? |
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 Owner of a ratting catting machine
Posts: 2258
| People that inject without reason and solid diagnostics from a good lameness vet make me want to punch them in the nose. |
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  Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | classicpotatochip - 2017-02-07 4:10 PM People that inject without reason and solid diagnostics from a good lameness vet make me want to punch them in the nose.
I so agree!!!! |
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 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | CE's wrapn3 - 2017-02-07 3:55 PM I'm looking at a horse that owners have had for 3 years. They inject this horses hocks and stifles 2x a year. They have not done xrays. They said they do it as precautionary. This is a 12 year old. Would this worry you at all? I was thinking that he may do fine on something like Legend? I have a pre purchase exam scheduled for Saturday. Does that seem like a lot of injecting on a horse just to do as a precautionary?
Yes it does, I wonder why they started this in the first place, like what was the reason to think this horse need injections in the first place.  |
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I Am a Snake Killer
Posts: 1927
Location: Golden Gulf Coast of Texas | Yes it would worry me. Who would give an injection to a perfectly sound horse? I mean every time you inject any joint you risk infection so why would you inject a sound joint. I'm not buying what they are selling. The horse probably has some arthritis at that age and it's probably for maintenance. I would bet there have been X-rays at some point. |
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 You get what you give
Posts: 13030
Location: Texas | what if they're just saying its for a precautionary when there's actually a reason for it? just playing devil's advocate. |
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 Warmblood with Wings
Posts: 27846
Location: Florida.. | use your vet not theirs!! get xrays.. |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| It would worry me.
I would be asking what they injected with.
I am not a fam of depo, or betamethasone. If the horse was injected with either I would turn and run. |
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I Want a "MAN"
Posts: 3610
Location: MD | They live too far away to have the PPE done by my vet. It's a vet that neither of us have used. I think maybe he got sore and they said it's probably hocks let's inject and maybe it went away for awhile who knows. I'm getting him xrayed so we'll see what it looks like underneath there. |
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Expert
Posts: 1611
| Southtxponygirl - 2017-02-07 7:01 PM
CE's wrapn3 - 2017-02-07 3:55 PM I'm looking at a horse that owners have had for 3 years. They inject this horses hocks and stifles 2x a year. They have not done xrays. They said they do it as precautionary. This is a 12 year old. Would this worry you at all? I was thinking that he may do fine on something like Legend? I have a pre purchase exam scheduled for Saturday. Does that seem like a lot of injecting on a horse just to do as a precautionary?
Yes it does, I wonder why they started this in the first place, like what was the reason to think this horse need injections in the first place.
He was probably not working. They injected and he started working again and the vet that injected probably did both hocks and stifles at the same time to try and fix the lameness and cover all bases. The horse goes back to work afterwards so the owners are happy and get the same recipe every time. There is a vet going around that solely travels as his practice and he will inject whereever whenever whatever. I don't totally agree with this. If the horse goes back to working and the owners are trying to save money, flame away, but I'm not going to knock it IF the horse goes back to working without any problems.
Yes, I know you need to see what is going on and ideally i want a current picture of my horses hocks just to see where we are at BUT if I inject and he goes back to working without further inquiry then I don't see a problem. BUT I listen to him if he shows any signs of pain of course I'm going back in... |
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Warmblood with Wings
Posts: 27846
Location: Florida.. | I agree if he was sore and xrays showed he needed them and they are only done 2 times a year at 12 yrs of age .. super .. but to tell a potential buyer its done as a precautionary and no xrays were done that would concern me that they werent being honest is why id have xrays so least buyer knows the issues ..but injecting at 12 im sure helps the horse if he had issues..or was fusing.. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 678
Location: Canada | I've found that it depends on the area. I've come across some area's where it's common practice to do teeth, vaccinations and inject every joint known to mankind all at the same time. It's routine for them whether the horse needs it or not.
Two times per year I'd be looking at some x-rays. Don't rely solely on flexion tests as the flexion test! |
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 It Goes On
Posts: 2262
Location: Muskogee, OK | I would definitely get radiographs of the hocks and stifles to cover your bases, but if they are clean and the horse works sound during the PPE it would not worry me especially if the horse has been in significant work. It is very common for hard performing horses to require maintenance in the way of injections 1-2 times per year. |
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Veteran
Posts: 194
Location: Pittsburg, Texas 75686 | I would for SURE get x-rays and have that vet send the x-rays to your vet. WOULD NOT BUY without x-rays etc.  |
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You get what you give
Posts: 13030
Location: Texas | It wouldn't SCARE me, but it would be a "yellow" flag. Someone else posted above, but its fairly common to inject joints without doing radiographs. Best practice is yeah, take radiographs first, but there are plenty of times where you may inject first, look for improvement, and if you get it, then you carry on. Barrel horses, just like horses in other disciplines, have very classic patterns for lameness. And especially for the person with a tighter budget, it's not wrong or malpractice to do the best you can with what the owners are able to pay at that time.
What DOES bother me is the owner who comes with a laundry list of joints to be injected who refuses to let us work up the horse and decide if that's whats best for the horse or not at the time. And people DO that... which may be the case with this horse, so I would always do a thorough exam and confirm the area you want to inject truly is the area that hurts.
Ideally I would like to radiograph first, inject second. But it's the real world and we all know that not all of us have an unlimited budget, and it's not bad or evil to inject a horse without doing x rays if you are fairly confident that the horse is sore in the hocks for example. We are trained to feel, flex, palpate, watch, block, etc to localize the lameness. Another rule of thumb I was taught is, if they don't respond after a therapeutic trial (say you were confident they were sore in the hocks so you injected), then you should definitely radiograph before proceeding further.
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