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 Born not Made
Posts: 2937
   
Location: North Dakota | Possibly getting my horse's hocks injected. I've never done that before. I've read that you can inject the upper hocks or the lower hocks?
Can someone give me a run down of hock injections? That way I can maybe plan ahead for some educated questions to ask my vet when I take my horse for his lameness eval.
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 You get what you give
Posts: 13030
 
Location: Texas |
The most proximal joint is the tarsocrural joint, or tibiotarsal joint.
Then you have the proximal intertarsal joint
The distal intertarsal joint (centrodistal joint)
tarsometatarsal joint
The tarsocrural joint and the proximal intertarsal joint communicate- so if you inject one you inject both.
The proximal intertarsal and distal intertarsal joints DO NOT communicate.
the distal intertarsal joint and the tarsometatarsal joints communicate 35-40% of the time.
The most common joints to inject are the tarsometatarsal joint, distal intertarsal joint, and then tibiotarsal joint (that also gets the proximal intertarsal joint) |
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  Damn Yankee
Posts: 12390
Location: Somewhere between raising hell and Amazing Grace | You need to have the vet do radiographs and tell you which part needs injected. Don't guess. Won't do you any good. Most people do upper part I believe, but feel free to correct me if I am wrong.
My 15 year old gelding has spurs in his lower joint, so we inject lower with him. If we do upper it won't help him at all. |
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 Pork Fat is my Favorite
Posts: 3791
Location: The Oklahoma plains. | casualdust07 - 2014-05-30 12:04 PM The most proximal joint is the tarsocrural joint, or tibiotarsal joint. Then you have the proximal intertarsal joint The distal intertarsal joint (centrodistal joint) tarsometatarsal joint The tarsocrural joint and the proximal intertarsal joint communicate- so if you inject one you inject both. The proximal intertarsal and distal intertarsal joints DO NOT communicate. the distal intertarsal joint and the tarsometatarsal joints communicate 35-40% of the time. The most common joints to inject are the tarsometatarsal joint, distal intertarsal joint, and then tibiotarsal joint (that also gets the proximal intertarsal joint)
What she said:)
Seriously though- in our area most do the lower joint or both lowers but many call the top of the lower the upper when actually that tibia one is the real upper upper. The lowers move less but are injected the most.
Maybe Cheryl M will get on here and further explain this if needed. I hear her say how often they laser fuse them in her neck of the woods. They dont do that in our area often at all. But the first I heard of this was when Melanie Southard did this with Snickers before the NFR- seemed to work for her. |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| The lower joints in the hock are low motion joints, but these are the ones that are most impacted by arthritis, if the lower joints begin to fuse, not a big deal, but it is the shearing motion that causes the horses pain.
The lower joints from what it sounds like on this board most vets are injecting depo and HA into these joints. I personally advise against injecting depo into a horse period as the research shows the reminants of the depo can stay in the joint for years and prevents/inhibits healing to occur.
My vet will not fuse a horse that has been given depo shots as it is a waste of money as the joint most likely will not fuse properly.
The high motion joint if this needs to be done I suggest absolutely do not inject depo in as depo has also shown to erode cartilage, once the upper joint is gone, you are generally looking at euthanization.
I don't mess around with hocks on young horses, when they start showing early arthritis, I fuse then I don't have to worry about them ever. My vet does laser fusion it costs 5k
Alcohol fusion is very painful and the studies are not showing positive results, and there can be absolutely no communication between upper and lower joint if there is and alcohol is injected you have just wrecked the upper joint.
The dremmel bit fusion very pain ful costs the same as laser, but good results, most vets do this.
For injecting joints I suggest getting HA 4 or 5 the thicker the better, trimethylsolone spelling might be off as this steroid has shown to promote cartilage regeneration (instead of depo) and a small amount of antibiotic.
Also for injecting make sure that the hock is scrubbed for 7 min prior to alcohol. This will greatly reduce the chance of infection. Most bacteria/viruses are removed by mechanical force scrubbing, and there are too many things floating out there that are resistant.
If you have any questions feel free to message me, I will be gone for the afternoon but will respond.
Sorry I have no time to list references right now, if you are wondering sources please pm me and I will quote them. |
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