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 I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
   
Location: Pacific Northwest | I want to take my horse to have her hocks and stifles checked. She's 18 and seems to be having a harder time rating. But what should I expect when they check her? I want to call various good vets and get a price check but how many total pictures do they usually take? For example, when I had a horses foot x-rayed, they took like 5 pictures of just one foot and ended up costing $500. I need to be somewhat prepared for what I might spend.
We just had our last race last weekend, so I have no plans to run her until I get her looked at and possibly injected. |
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 Expert
Posts: 3782
 
Location: Gainesville, TX | Usually its two pictures of each stifle (so 4 for both) and 2 of each hock (so 4 for both) and that would total 8 xrays total. Xrays run anywhere from 15-50 depending on the clinic. So call around and price them. A futurity package (which is usually hocks and stifles, sometimes knees or front feet) runs around $275-350 in my area. Who is reading the xray and clinics with better xray machines for a clearer picture can also be a consideration. Lameness exam that accompanies xrays usually runs $35-50. If you start seeing things, they may choose to block her. Those also cost or possible ultrasound if it looks like it may be tendon or ligament issues. I think most ultrasounds have been 30-50 that I have seen.
I would start with the lameness exam and go from there. |
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I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
Location: Pacific Northwest | Thank you! I can't go overboard and pour a whole bunch of money into her but I would like to know what I'm dealing with. She's got a lot of try and actually clocked her fastest on a standard this year (18.1, she didn't even run 18s at all when I bought her as a 12yo), the last thing I want to do is make her last years running miserable if she's got something besides regular soreness going on. |
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Defense Attorney for The Horse
Location: Claremore, OK | If you're on a limited budget I would have a good lameness vet go over Her and inject anything that needed to be injected. Considering her age, you don't have a lot to gain by looking at X-rays. I would make her more comfortable and go on and compete on her as long as she's happy and healthy.
Another alternative is to do a loading dose of Adequan and see if that helps. |
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I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
Location: Pacific Northwest | Liana D - 2017-08-23 10:51 AM
If you're on a limited budget I would have a good lameness vet go over Her and inject anything that needed to be injected. Considering her age, you don't have a lot to gain by looking at X-rays. I would make her more comfortable and go on and compete on her as long as she's happy and healthy.
Another alternative is to do a loading dose of Adequan and see if that helps.
I guess I'm just mainly concerned about her stifles. I've heard it can be hard to get a real diagnosis without taking actual images of them. |
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Defense Attorney for The Horse
Location: Claremore, OK | livexlovexrodeo - 2017-08-23 3:38 PM
Liana D - 2017-08-23 10:51 AM
If you're on a limited budget I would have a good lameness vet go over Her and inject anything that needed to be injected. Considering her age, you don't have a lot to gain by looking at X-rays. I would make her more comfortable and go on and compete on her as long as she's happy and healthy.
Another alternative is to do a loading dose of Adequan and see if that helps.
I guess I'm just mainly concerned about her stifles. I've heard it can be hard to get a real diagnosis without taking actual images of them.
It could be hard to get a real diagnosis even with xrays. What if she has a soft tissue problem that wouldn't show up in an X-ray. Sometimes a horse can have a positive flexion and have a very normal xray.
I think it's a great idea to go to a good performance horse vet and get her looked at. How in depth the exam and treatment goes is totally up to you.
ETA: the vet you use, if he's honest, will give you a better idea if xrays are needed or not.
Edited by Liana D 2017-08-23 4:04 PM
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  Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | I just came back from the vet and what I told him was he had lowe lumbar pain and a left hock was suspicious per another vet for being painful. He flexed all 4 legs several different ways and never got him to take a lame step. Checked out the back and did some things for it. I think most all vets will flex before x rays. Let them know your budget ahead of time, they can often work around that and still problem solve vs just running the bill up. Hocks I have had done in the past usually get 2 views and if they need more, then they go from there, but usually 2 views have shown them what they need to see as far as fusing and arthritis. Stifles can be tricky to get a good view, but I have never had a vet charge me for views that had to be retaken due to not being clear enough. |
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 You get what you give
Posts: 13030
Location: Texas | our standard stifle series is 3 views per stifle and hocks are 3 views each...
But I agree, as a vet, I hate to just blindly x ray joints unless its a pre purchase exam. Otherwise we like to do a lameness exam so we can pick where we want to image...otherwise we could just be guessing and if you skip steps you can get lost in the confusion. |
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I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
Location: Pacific Northwest | casualdust07 - 2017-08-23 2:54 PM
our standard stifle series is 3 views per stifle and hocks are 3 views each...
But I agree, as a vet, I hate to just blindly x ray joints unless its a pre purchase exam. Otherwise we like to do a lameness exam so we can pick where we want to image...otherwise we could just be guessing and if you skip steps you can get lost in the confusion.
Thank you (: I assumed they would do a lameness exam before X-rays. I'm more worried about taking her to the vets that people around here use for injections, because I don't just want her injected and sent on her way, and they kind of have that reputation. I don't mind doing a lameness exam, X-rays or whatever else, and then injections, but there are quite a few vets around here where if you say "my barrel horse seems sore" they will just inject their hocks and send you on your way.
Edited by livexlovexrodeo 2017-08-24 8:05 AM
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| Never let a vet inject without X-rays. Also with injections you get what you pay for, there are so many different chemicals you can inject with and most have a negative side effect to the horse as well as the positive.
If a hock looks clean, then you are wasting money xraying and you need to find the route of the pain. Tendons and ligaments can also cause soundness issues. |
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I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
Location: Pacific Northwest | cheryl makofka - 2017-08-24 6:57 AM
Never let a vet inject without X-rays. Also with injections you get what you pay for, there are so many different chemicals you can inject with and most have a negative side effect to the horse as well as the positive.
If a hock looks clean, then you are wasting money xraying and you need to find the route of the pain. Tendons and ligaments can also cause soundness issues.
Thank you. I'm thinking it might also be her lower back.
I plan on calling vets tomorrow to get price ideas since I have tomorrow off. I appreciate everyone's input! |
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 Born not Made
Posts: 2937
Location: North Dakota | I too would not do hock injections without x-rays.
It's pretty rare to have bony changes on a stifle x-ray. So I suppose if you were going to "opt out" of x-rays in a certain area, you could consider not doing the stifle since the majority of the time it is soft tissue. I'm too much of a chicken $h!t to skip though and I usually do the x-ray anyway, just to be sure.
But the lameness exam will dictate what the vet thinks is sore and go from there. If they don't think the stifles are sore, then I wouldn't do x-rays of them. Go where the lameness exam points to be a problem.
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Expert
Posts: 1599
| Save money by asking for a fluoroscope of the hocks, and then stifle x rays  |
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I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
Location: Pacific Northwest | She has a lameness exam scheduled for the 28th. I'll update :) Hopefully its just early arthritis. It only seems to appear when she's running and trying to rate, she still tracks well and picks up all her leads when I ride her. I'm hoping to get another year or two of competing with her, I don't have the room for another horse and everyone else I have is even older than her  |
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Worlds Greatest Laugh
Location: North Dakota | I have had alot of experience with hock xrays and injections. Just because a horse xrays clean doesnt mean that they arent sore in those lower hock joints. They can have inflammation in the lower joints, causing pain. And yes, the xrays look clean. I have had my vet inject several hock sore horses (in the lower hock joints) with terrific results and they all xrayed clean. They did flex with some amount of soreness by the way. |
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I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
Location: Pacific Northwest | So I opted out of x rays for now because my checkbook will not allow me to go crazy all at once. She flexed relatively clean, never actually limped or even moved stiffly off, he just said lifting her left back leg she didn't have the same range of motion as easy as the others. He gave a Legend shot and gave me Equioxx tablets (I know everyone uses previcox but when I search the two the prices for 57mg 60 count bottle are the same for both?) and I'm going to continue with either legend or adequan or both (will have to do a board search later).
I don't have any plans to run her soon, but I'm going to keep her legged up enough to cruise through sporadically over the fall and winter and see if I need to go deeper. She's very finished so it will be easy to tell if injectable joint meds and equioxx is not the answer.
She's never been hurt so my gut was telling me it was just the fact she finally getting old, I'm 28 and have joint pain, but my mind is an over thinker and wouldn't allow me to just bute and run her. |
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 The One
Posts: 7998
Location: South Georgia | livexlovexrodeo - 2017-08-29 12:47 PM So I opted out of x rays for now because my checkbook will not allow me to go crazy all at once. She flexed relatively clean, never actually limped or even moved stiffly off, he just said lifting her left back leg she didn't have the same range of motion as easy as the others. He gave a Legend shot and gave me Equioxx tablets (I know everyone uses previcox but when I search the two the prices for 57mg 60 count bottle are the same for both?) and I'm going to continue with either legend or adequan or both (will have to do a board search later). I don't have any plans to run her soon, but I'm going to keep her legged up enough to cruise through sporadically over the fall and winter and see if I need to go deeper. She's very finished so it will be easy to tell if injectable joint meds and equioxx is not the answer. She's never been hurt so my gut was telling me it was just the fact she finally getting old, I'm 28 and have joint pain, but my mind is an over thinker and wouldn't allow me to just bute and run her. Our best performance vet in the area has looked at my horse twice. He has done flexion tests (inconclusive) and used the lameness locator and found a 1 out of 5 lameness on my mare's left hind. We injected hocks, hoping that that would be the most probable solution, and I have been giving Pentosan injections also as upkeep. There is zero improvement in the lameness felt when loping to the right. Like you mention, it was suggested that maybe I just continue to use her since it does not actually affect her performance. I am an over thinker though and I just cant get past this. When I can afford it, I am going to go back to have that stifle looked at. It HAS to be something. I just cant ignore it, even if it is a 1 out of 5. I feel your pain.
Edited by horsegirl 2017-08-29 1:12 PM
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I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
Location: Pacific Northwest | horsegirl - 2017-08-29 11:10 AM
livexlovexrodeo - 2017-08-29 12:47 PM So I opted out of x rays for now because my checkbook will not allow me to go crazy all at once. She flexed relatively clean, never actually limped or even moved stiffly off, he just said lifting her left back leg she didn't have the same range of motion as easy as the others. He gave a Legend shot and gave me Equioxx tablets (I know everyone uses previcox but when I search the two the prices for 57mg 60 count bottle are the same for both?) and I'm going to continue with either legend or adequan or both (will have to do a board search later). I don't have any plans to run her soon, but I'm going to keep her legged up enough to cruise through sporadically over the fall and winter and see if I need to go deeper. She's very finished so it will be easy to tell if injectable joint meds and equioxx is not the answer. She's never been hurt so my gut was telling me it was just the fact she finally getting old, I'm 28 and have joint pain, but my mind is an over thinker and wouldn't allow me to just bute and run her. Our best performance vet in the area has looked at my horse twice. He has done flexion tests (inconclusive) and used the lameness locator and found a 1 out of 5 lameness on my mare's left hind. We injected hocks, hoping that that would be the most probable solution, and I have been giving Pentosan injections also as upkeep. There is zero improvement in the lameness felt when loping to the right. Like you mention, it was suggested that maybe I just continue to use her since it does not actually affect her performance. I am an over thinker though and I just cant get past this. When I can afford it, I am going to go back to have that stifle looked at. It HAS to be something. I just cant ignore it, even if it is a 1 out of 5. I feel your pain.
It would sure be nice if they could talk lol! Mine has never been injected so I'm hesitant to start now since she's technically a senior and her only problem is she doesn't seem to rate like she used to. I wasn't currently running on bute or anything so it very well could jist be that she's 18 and been working hard since she was 2 and finally is getting achy.
How long have you been giving pentosan? I'm trying to decide between that and Adequan. I know they're a different ingredient. |
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The One
Posts: 7998
Location: South Georgia | livexlovexrodeo - 2017-08-29 4:11 PM
horsegirl - 2017-08-29 11:10 AM
livexlovexrodeo - 2017-08-29 12:47 PM So I opted out of x rays for now because my checkbook will not allow me to go crazy all at once. She flexed relatively clean, never actually limped or even moved stiffly off, he just said lifting her left back leg she didn't have the same range of motion as easy as the others. He gave a Legend shot and gave me Equioxx tablets (I know everyone uses previcox but when I search the two the prices for 57mg 60 count bottle are the same for both?) and I'm going to continue with either legend or adequan or both (will have to do a board search later). I don't have any plans to run her soon, but I'm going to keep her legged up enough to cruise through sporadically over the fall and winter and see if I need to go deeper. She's very finished so it will be easy to tell if injectable joint meds and equioxx is not the answer. She's never been hurt so my gut was telling me it was just the fact she finally getting old, I'm 28 and have joint pain, but my mind is an over thinker and wouldn't allow me to just bute and run her. Our best performance vet in the area has looked at my horse twice. He has done flexion tests (inconclusive) and used the lameness locator and found a 1 out of 5 lameness on my mare's left hind. We injected hocks, hoping that that would be the most probable solution, and I have been giving Pentosan injections also as upkeep. There is zero improvement in the lameness felt when loping to the right. Like you mention, it was suggested that maybe I just continue to use her since it does not actually affect her performance. I am an over thinker though and I just cant get past this. When I can afford it, I am going to go back to have that stifle looked at. It HAS to be something. I just cant ignore it, even if it is a 1 out of 5. I feel your pain.
It would sure be nice if they could talk lol! Mine has never been injected so I'm hesitant to start now since she's technically a senior and her only problem is she doesn't seem to rate like she used to. I wasn't currently running on bute or anything so it very well could jist be that she's 18 and been working hard since she was 2 and finally is getting achy.
How long have you been giving pentosan? I'm trying to decide between that and Adequan. I know they're a different ingredient.
She has been given the loading dose (5mL every 5 days for 5 doses) and then two more injections on two week intervals. I have never given it before, nor have I done Legend. It may help, I guess, but I cant tell because its not fixing her lameness issue that I went there for. |
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I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
Location: Pacific Northwest | horsegirl - 2017-08-29 1:17 PM
livexlovexrodeo - 2017-08-29 4:11 PM
horsegirl - 2017-08-29 11:10 AM
livexlovexrodeo - 2017-08-29 12:47 PM So I opted out of x rays for now because my checkbook will not allow me to go crazy all at once. She flexed relatively clean, never actually limped or even moved stiffly off, he just said lifting her left back leg she didn't have the same range of motion as easy as the others. He gave a Legend shot and gave me Equioxx tablets (I know everyone uses previcox but when I search the two the prices for 57mg 60 count bottle are the same for both?) and I'm going to continue with either legend or adequan or both (will have to do a board search later). I don't have any plans to run her soon, but I'm going to keep her legged up enough to cruise through sporadically over the fall and winter and see if I need to go deeper. She's very finished so it will be easy to tell if injectable joint meds and equioxx is not the answer. She's never been hurt so my gut was telling me it was just the fact she finally getting old, I'm 28 and have joint pain, but my mind is an over thinker and wouldn't allow me to just bute and run her. Our best performance vet in the area has looked at my horse twice. He has done flexion tests (inconclusive) and used the lameness locator and found a 1 out of 5 lameness on my mare's left hind. We injected hocks, hoping that that would be the most probable solution, and I have been giving Pentosan injections also as upkeep. There is zero improvement in the lameness felt when loping to the right. Like you mention, it was suggested that maybe I just continue to use her since it does not actually affect her performance. I am an over thinker though and I just cant get past this. When I can afford it, I am going to go back to have that stifle looked at. It HAS to be something. I just cant ignore it, even if it is a 1 out of 5. I feel your pain.
It would sure be nice if they could talk lol! Mine has never been injected so I'm hesitant to start now since she's technically a senior and her only problem is she doesn't seem to rate like she used to. I wasn't currently running on bute or anything so it very well could jist be that she's 18 and been working hard since she was 2 and finally is getting achy.
How long have you been giving pentosan? I'm trying to decide between that and Adequan. I know they're a different ingredient.
She has been given the loading dose (5mL every 5 days for 5 doses ) and then two more injections on two week intervals. I have never given it before, nor have I done Legend. It may help, I guess, but I cant tell because its not fixing her lameness issue that I went there for.
From what I've read about Legend it's more for inflammation and doesn't last long. I guess people usually use it before a run or together with Adequan, which was what the vet suggested.
I'm new at the IV/IM joint stuff too, but supposedly if you find the right combination it really does help. |
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