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| I have a well bred, 2D, 7 yr old gelding that I was planning on legging up and running after recently having a baby. He came up sore and the vet said his right hock is fusing. Has anyone ever sold a horse, obviously pretty cheap or discounted due to the hock fusing, while their hocks were fusing? I love this horse but don't have the time or money to invest in more vet bills. I would keep him if I had a place to turn him out for a while.
Are fusing hocks career ending? Am I being unrealistic about selling him as is? How much is a horse like this worth or should be discounted?
Thanks for any advice! |
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 Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
| I can't tell you worth but fusing can be a good thing, once fused there is no more need for injections, they are pain free in that hock. The rub is it can sometimes take a very long time for them to completely fuse. I have one that took a couple of years to completely fuse, we injected him about once a year, now he is fused and have not had the need to inject. |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| It all depends on how sore the horse was, if there are any bone spurs etc.
There is no time line on when a horse will be fused and if they will fuse completely. A lot of horses need medical intervention of some type.
Since he is a gelding you will practically have to give him away as it is 2500-5k to surgically fuse the hocks. And if they choose to let him fuse naturally they could blow him up as he will be working in pain and may refuse, buck etc to get away from the pain.
It would be a big gamble to take for someone looking at a horse with bad hocks |
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  Warmblood with Wings
Posts: 27846
 
Location: Florida.. | Id inject and sell and tell them maintenance is required.. its a natural process.. its painful so normally turn out, or inject .. or if you want to go as far as surgical although not many do.. it would be a shame to not use the horse so young just because hes fusing. or you can sell with vet papers and xrays but you will have to lower his price.. due to they will have to take care of the issue..
Edited by Bibliafarm 2016-04-26 10:40 PM
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| Thanks for the advice. I actually thought about giving him away but I'm not to that point yet. I don't want him to be used and in a lot of pain with a new owner either. I know that it would take the right buyer for this specific scenario.
What are y'all injecting with? Due to the nature of how he is fusing, my vet said he would not be a good candidate for the alcohol injections.
Edited by BigMomma 2016-04-26 11:52 PM
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 My Heart Be Happy
Posts: 9159
Location: Arkansas | Just wanted to send up a prayer for your boy and tell you how lucky he is to have you on his side. A lot of people wouldn't be trying to figure things out to his benefit. . . . |
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 Expert
Posts: 1367
Location: mi | Depending on what my vet said after seeing exrays I would not stop from buying a horse that was actively fusing if he was everything else I wanted. If it was going to be as simple as injections once or twice a year until he was done, that has almost gotten to be normal maintenance anymore on a middle aged horse.
On the same note if they are standard lower joint injections you might find its not that expensive and want to keep him for yourself verses dropping the price way down and then going and buying something else that you will not know for sure what issues might develop.....
Really it all comes down to what the xrays showed. Fusing can be a simple process to go through and not too expensive or it can be super painful and expensive and time consuming.
Edited by ajs2002 2016-04-27 10:31 AM
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Warmblood with Wings
Posts: 27846
Location: Florida.. | Most horses fuse at some time in their life.. .. its just controlling the pain and Inflammation during its process.. which with modern medicine its fairly simple.. if you know what to look for and take care of it right away so it doesnt cause other issues.. some owners ignore it and ride them thru it and it causes other issues. |
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 Born not Made
Posts: 2937
Location: North Dakota | When my gelding was 8, we finally diagnosed him with an advanced fusing hock on the right side (I say "finally" because there were several other issues we were working through as well!). I injected and the improvement was tremendous. I did end up also supplementing with Previcox since the injections did not 100% clear out all the pain.
Fortunately in my case, as of last fall he was completely fused. So he should not need any more injections. (Currently he's got the year off this year because I'm pregnant.) I know that some horses are not so "lucky" and may never fuse.
I guess I would consider fusing hocks to be maintainance, just like anything else. I don't know that I personally would buy a horse with fusing hocks (only because I'm about sick of spending money at the vet!!!) but I wouldn't consider fusing hocks to completely depreciate their worth, especially if he has no other health issues to speak of and is a solid barrel horse.
Remember that chemical fusing (trying to force them to fuse) isn't always successful either. For some, injections work very well to manage the pain while the process is occuring.
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