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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 490
 
| My 8 year old was diagnosed with 1 in each hock. We injected on Friday, the day he confirmed the spurs. We also gave her a shot of Legend. Ill repeat the Legend shot on the 10th and inject again at the end of the month. He said 3 weeks. Tells me if Im lucky, Ill get 3-4 months out of each injection. I will inject if its in the horses best interest, however the idea of sticking a needle in the joint that often scares me. So... tell me your experiences. What would be alternative therapies I can do to prolong the injections? |
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I just read the headlines
Posts: 4483
| Jazz's Girl - 2016-10-03 9:25 AM
My 8 year old was diagnosed with 1 in each hock. We injected on Friday, the day he confirmed the spurs. We also gave her a shot of Legend. Ill repeat the Legend shot on the 10th and inject again at the end of the month. He said 3 weeks. Tells me if Im lucky, Ill get 3-4 months out of each injection. I will inject if its in the horses best interest, however the idea of sticking a needle in the joint that often scares me. So... tell me your experiences. What would be alternative therapies I can do to prolong the injections?
My gelding has a spur on the back of his hock. Vet said it wasn't bad enough to inject but put us on Adequan. I am also feeding him Cur Ost EQ Plus and the Pure. He is doing really well with that. I added Forco and now he is doing even better. He is much more supple throughout his whole body and standing square on both hind and fore legs. Before he always had his right hock up under him somewhat. I also only feed alfalfa cubes and coastal hay with a little timothy pellets. No oats. For some reason he does better with no grain. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 672
| My heading horse had a bad spur in his R hock and when we got down to injecting every 3-4 months I retired him. I really didn't like the idea of injecting him that often and it was getting harder for him to work and stay comfortable. He was 18 when I retired him and now he's in a big pasture with the colts and is the babysitter. Sorry, it sucks! Was surgery an option? |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 490
| veintiocho - 2016-10-03 1:18 PM
My heading horse had a bad spur in his R hock and when we got down to injecting every 3-4 months I retired him. I really didn't like the idea of injecting him that often and it was getting harder for him to work and stay comfortable. He was 18 when I retired him and now he's in a big pasture with the colts and is the babysitter. Sorry, it sucks! Was surgery an option?
He did not say. And I forgot to ask. I think on brain overload when he started talking injections every 3-4 months and Legend shots every month. A friend is going through the same thing with her barrel horse and he said surgery would do more harm than good on her horse. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 672
| Jazz's Girl - 2016-10-03 1:32 PM
veintiocho - 2016-10-03 1:18 PM
My heading horse had a bad spur in his R hock and when we got down to injecting every 3-4 months I retired him. I really didn't like the idea of injecting him that often and it was getting harder for him to work and stay comfortable. He was 18 when I retired him and now he's in a big pasture with the colts and is the babysitter. Sorry, it sucks! Was surgery an option?
He did not say. And I forgot to ask. I think on brain overload when he started talking injections every 3-4 months and Legend shots every month. A friend is going through the same thing with her barrel horse and he said surgery would do more harm than good on her horse.
My vet just mentioned that it was an option, but based on his age and recovery time and the fact that even if he did come back sound I would only be able to compete on him for a short while longer so I didn't look into it further. Even though he was a very good heading horse, he will never be a kids horse, or pretty much any other persons horse lol his personality isn't changing!
Since your horse is only 8, he's still relatively young so it might be something to look in to?
Edited by veintiocho 2016-10-03 3:09 PM
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
 
| My first horse with hock problems had a spur that kept hooking on the tendon when he turned, injections weren't an option, we had to surgically fuse and remove the bone spurs. Night and day difference, he went from the bottom of 1d to the top of 1d, gate refusals evaporated, it was awesome.
Since I had a good experience and my horses are young I find it more cost effective to surgically fuse, I have fused 2 others with good results. |
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 The Vaccinator
Posts: 3810
Location: Slipping down the slope of old age. Boo hoo. | I have a beautiful smart mare that became my showmanship horse after being diagnosed with bone spurs in both hocks. We injected one time - to get us through a national show since we had already spent several thousand dollars to enter the show. We were top 10 in our riding events. That was it - I did not want to risk injections again. I am grateful and happy I can afford to have her at home with me as a fat, happy, beautiful and world class "leading" horse. |
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 My Heart Be Happy
Posts: 9159
Location: Arkansas | I love getting on a forum where the people truly take their horses' best interests to heart rather than doing things for a quick fix or that might not work. And are happy just to have their babies still with them if things don't work out like they wanted. |
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Expert
Posts: 3514
| You could try Pentosen once a week. 3 ccs O E Nutraceuticals also has a product called game changer. It's a great product. Has natural anti inflammatory added. Plus glucosamine, HA. |
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 Leader of the Pack
Posts: 1343
Location: Eatonville, wa | My gelding was diagnosed with bone spur in each hock as well when I last got him injected. He's only 7, myvet brought up surgery to remove them before next round of injections . my vet said if I'm lucky I'll get 6months to a year before the next round. I over been keeping him on THE joint supplement, making sure he is kept legged up and fit, pht boots, low impact regular exercises so that barrels is the only strenuous thing that really does anything to him.
The surgery is fairly expensive, so I have to look at cost vs. value of horse. |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| newlifecowgirl - 2016-10-04 11:43 AM
My gelding was diagnosed with bone spur in each hock as well when I last got him injected. He's only 7, myvet brought up surgery to remove them before next round of injections . my vet said if I'm lucky I'll get 6months to a year before the next round. I over been keeping him on THE joint supplement, making sure he is kept legged up and fit, pht boots, low impact regular exercises so that barrels is the only strenuous thing that really does anything to him.
The surgery is fairly expensive, so I have to look at cost vs. value of horse.
In my area the cost of surgery is 5k, it is a big chunk of change initially, but actually cost effective.
Look at your monthly and yearly costs.
THE isn't really cheap 60-100/month 1200 a year, in 5 years the surgery already paid for itself
Injections twice a year, this will get to the point they only last 3 months even less, injections in my area 150/hock ( I am using the middle of the line HA price) so say 600 a year.
Already you are paying 1800 a year extra. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 490
| Rode her last night for the first time since friday. Just eased her around to let her see that she wasnt going to hurt as bad. Shes still not 100% to the right but feels alot better to the left. Of course she was full of herself so I let her play a bit. I hope with the program that the vet suggested (Legend once a month and injections as needed) that I can keep her feeling good. Ive started putting my hock wraps on her every day and letting her wear them for a few hours. Shes probably 95% better than she was before Fri. But I want her at 100%! |
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