Home Current News News Archive Shop/Advertise Ridecamp Classified Events Learn/AERC
Endurance.Net Home Ridecamp Archives
ridecamp@endurance.net
[Archives Index]   [Date Index]   [Thread Index]   [Author Index]   [Subject Index]

[RC] Bone spavin - Kristi Schaaf

Val -

I have a 13 yoa gelding (the love of my life) who was
diagnosed with bone spavin 3 years ago, right before
we were planning to do our first 50 after 1000 miles
of NATRC. It was heartbreaking. The vet told me to not
get my hopes up on the fusion - he could be 30 by the
time they fuse, IF they fuse at all. I work at a vet
college and one of our clinic vets does laser surgery
on bone spavins (currently with mixed results I
believe - some get better, some get worse, some don't
change). I looked into that possibility for my horse,
but he isn't a candidate because he isn't grade 2 lame
consistently (vet's criteria). What works to make my
guy 'serviceably sound' are hock injections of Depo
Medrol once, or sometimes twice, a year (my vet's
policy is to not inject them more than 3 times a
year). Luckily they have helped enough that I've been
able to do pleasure rides on his good days. He's had a
GREAT winter this year - good enough that I'm hoping
that just MAYBE his hocks fused during a couple of
rough months last fall, and (fingers crossed) maybe he
can be a distance horse again. I won't know till I try
riding him this spring to see how he feels. Also, keep
in mind that fusion isn't a miracle in every case. My
vet's horse's hocks are fused (according to
radiograph) and he's still lame, because more than
just the tarsal-metatarsal joint is affected in his
case. I work in a veterinary library, so if you have
access to a fax machine, I would be glad to fax you
info on bone spavin from our text books on hand...

Kristi  

=====


__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
http://platinum.yahoo.com

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

Ride Long and Ride Safe!!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=