hock arthritis

[Rocklone]

Charms hocks have ballooned and i can be fairly certain she has arthritis in them. She is not lame or stiff. Still running about like a nut. Ill be getting the vet to xray etc as soon as i have the funds (just had to pay a huge emergency vet bill for Jed  ) but just wondering if anyone had the steroid injections into a minis hocks before? Did they take away the swelling? She may need to loose a heck of a lot of weight first because my vet wont inject a fat horse (Jed had to wait nearly 2 months for his injections as he was too fat)


This now means i will never breed her again as i don't feel its fair to add more pressure to her joints and not likely she will drive again so im now down to just Elvis to drive and he goes intermittently lame with having had a bad footcare regime for many years. I toyed the with idea of selling louis but he may be the only horse i can drive now haha

[Anna]

Are you absolutely sure she hasn't skidded and 'sat down' during one of her silly moments? On the muddy ground she could easily have strained herself as she scrambled up again. Arthritis usually develops over a long time with general stiffness slowly developing plus, possibly, small amounts of swelling but not always. Ballooning doesn't sound quite right to me. Not sure I would waste money on x-rays if you are sure it is arthritis as they will only tell you that it is arthritis and not really help in any other way except perhaps for the exact positioning of a steroid injection in the joint should you choose to go that route.
Sorry not being very helpful but did have something similar happen to one of my mini stallions when I was away from home one time. Before I knew it those left in charge had spent some ?500 of my money on x-rays which didn't help at all! I returned home to simply leave him be and within a month all swelling round his hock had gone and all was fine again - he had been playing silly games with his young colt friend and had given his hock a bad wrench. If you are not intending to do anything with her anyway then I would give Charm the benefit of the doubt and time to see if there is any improvement over the next month or so - maybe getting her to lose a little weight as well if really needed. Good luck and keep us posted.
ps hope your weather isn't too bad over there on the emerald isle.

[Rocklone]

Anna, yes its entirely possible she has done that as they were not up like this during summer so its over the space of maybe 2 months they have gone up, but hard to pin point because she got a lot of fluff and i only noticed them when i was able to walk up to her in the paddock one day which is unheard of so i gave her a good feel over and found the hocks. Ive put her on turmeric and shes seemed happier since that and not so willing for me to walk up to her.

Bit wet and a bit cold but nothing too bad, we're surviving haha

[Anna]

Sorry but from your original post it read as if her hocks had suddenly swollen up. But from what you have just said, I have to agree with you in that it does sound as though some 'changes' are happening. I would just continue what you are doing and give her an additive to try to help her (turmeric is great) before going down the 'expensive' route. Hopefully someone else on here will log in soon with more advice.
Just had a load of hail here and someone local has said that there is snow across one of the nearby mountains!

[dcwolcott]

Sorry to read this, and believe Anna's advice is very good.

My feelings are like handling a baby...if they don't act sick (and you said she is not lame or stiff and running around like a nut!), I would go slow.  The first thing I'd start is a weight reduction to help reduce the weight she is carrying.  Over time, you may see this move forward quite a bit to help solve the problem, especially if she's considerably overweight.  Gaining too much weight is also a slow process, so perhaps the continued added weight over a long period has slowly irritated the hocks into swelling.  I would hope some weight loss would be helpful -- and certainly if you have to move forward with vet care, she'll be more able to get the care she may need if she's in "good" weight -- not overweight.

It's so hard to see all that "fluffy horses"  go through and note all the changes.  But it's good you saw this now.

Just my opinion, but waiting -- with some weight loss may be a good first step both financially and for her health.

Keep us posted.

[Chanda]

I don't have any advice on the hock issue or arthritis, but can help a little with the diet...
Safe weight loss: it's recommended to feed 2% of ideal weight or 1.5% of current weight, which ever is greater, reassess as weight is lost, and make adjustments.   Dieting too fast can cause it's own problems, so you want to go slow. 

[dcwolcott]

DITTO THAT CONCERN.   

[Ryan]

Ive got nothing to add except ill second the turmeric.

[Holly]

Keeping  her in my prayers that its nothing serious. 

[Rocklone]

Great advice from you all and ties in with what i personally think i should do too, but in this day and age of people screaming your an animal abuser if the vet is not out once a week ill admit i felt a little scared to post this. Shes doing well with her weight loss and turmeric, and the hocks swelling whilst not down has started to disperse more, so i can feel her joints again and shes moving a lot more freely. Shes running around like a nut on crack now haha and seems to have a good range of motion in the hock.

[Rocklone]

She has also gained an eyebrow it seems hahaa

[dcwolcott]

Oh this is good news!!  Keep us posted as she moves forward.  We're all pulling for her!!   

[Anna]

Agree with Diane - great news! Hopefully with a little more time and a continuation with what you are doing we shall see her fully recovered. And yes please keep updating us.

[Silver City Heritage Farm]

Happy (belated) summer!  I'm just checking to see how Charm is coming along.

I think you've had extended spring-like conditions there as we've had here in the Carolinas on the east coast of the US.

Has Charm's regimen worked?  Did the turmeric help?  Has the swelling in her hocks improved?  Did you end up having to call the vet out?

I hope she's doing well and is on the mend.  I look forward to your update!

[Rocklone]

Sorry its a very late reply, i kept having issues saying its a wrong password and if i got in i forgot about this thread haha

Charms doing well, the hock swelling is not anywhere near like it was. I would not say its gone back to normal and at her age i don't think it ever will, but its not OMG anymore and there is no heat/stiffness. She is able to get up/down/trot/canter/buck at the annoying horses as normal but she will never be worked or bred again. I feel the turmeric definitely helped the swelling go down at the start when i caught it but she has not had any in a while and the swelling has not come back, so im happy with her She lives out 24/7 98% of the time only coming in for really bad storms etc so i think that might help too. Thank you for asking