Bone Spavin

[IH Health]

Bone Spavin

Also known as
Periostitis

What is it?
Bones are covered in a thin membrane (layer) called Periosteum. Trauma to the bone from a direct blow or damage to the ligaments can cause the periosteum to become inflamed and haemorrhaging occurring between the layer and the bone, lifting them apart. Osteoblasts (bone forming cells) then attempt to create new bone to fill in the gap. This leads to bony lumps called bone spavins and normally form in the hock joint.

Causes
Normally caused by old age and conditions such as DJD (osteoarthritis). It is a wear and tear condition. Poor conformation such as sickle and cow hocks can also accelerate the condition.

Symptoms
• Stiffness in the hind legs when moving (can decrease with exercise) however stiffness returns and increases after work
• Dragging of the toe
• Lameness increases after hock is flexed
• Reluctance to flex hock joint for picking up of feet
• Refusal to jump
• Swelling on the hock
• Muscle wastage (not always)
• Changes in the bone density seen by x-rays

Treatment
Therapeutic shoeing with raised heels and rolled toes may be recommended along with a course of bute. Surgery may be an option on younger horses but about half of the horses with this condition remain unsound.

Please post below any information you have on this subject or of your experiences in diagnosis/treatment/aftercare. All information given is for reference only and does not constitute or should replace qualified veterinarian advice.

[Catrin]

I seems my 22 year old, who had a serious injury several years back resulting in ten months box rest, may have Bone Spavin. He is now on a course of Calcarea Phos and will start acupuncture shortly, which should help prevent the bony lumps. Chris Day (holistic vet) is optimistic of a cure, he needs hot dry weather and no melting snow, which will be harder to lay hands on than the medication.

[blueali]

This seems a good time to tell Blue's story.

Blue was diagnosed aged 11 and went on the Tildren drug trail at RVC. This was great as the progress of the degeneration was monitored carefully. I did loads of my own research and disagree with must of the traditional treatments (as do some vets). The main thing is as much comfortable exercise as possible using painkillers if necessary to get going. Bute never worked on Blue so it was just a slow exercise program. The bones affected are just a little stack at the front of the hock, they don't have much effect on movement so one solution is that they eventually fuse and so there is no more pain just slightly less movement. I'm not familiar with Calcarea Phos but it sounds like it should work similarly to the Tildren by controllong the new bone formation to minimise painful bony lumps.

When Blue's hocks get stiff her hooves wear more on the outside (they used to colapse quite a bit when first diagnosed). The big question was always which causes which? I now am fairly certain that her hoof shape changes to reduce the stress on her joints during bad times as once we stopped interferring and trying to correct this she has stayed sound she just gets an interesting limb flight pattern. So in my opinion remedial shoeing will only have a very short term benefit as the hoof will continue to try to adapt to accomodate a different movement and joint stress.

I strongly recommend feeding linseed (micronised or oil), I stopped once and noticed the difference!

Blue doesn't like hard ground and I never do more than walk on roads or hard summer ground - Blue is extremely reluctant to anyway. She also doesn't like deep ground but worst of all is slippery ground. She was quite happy in the snow but once it melted we noticed her limb flight change. She tells me if she's not comfortable running on particular ground, even though her off hock was giving her a bit of trouble last month she asked to canter for about 1Km on good ground and was doing flying changes in an arena.

The most important thing is that Bone Spavin certainly doesn't mean retirement or even doing less in Blue's case (except jumping).

[Catrin]

Thanks blueali, very helpful to hear of your progress. Freyr is barefoot, so that should help with compensatory/uneven wear.

Calcarea Phos is a constituitional remedy, so prescribed based on the horse's temperament and the conditions that exacerbate or improve the symptoms, so, as with all homeopathic remedies, it cannot be used to treat the 'condition' unless the other horse has the same temperament and responses that Freyr had.

I hadn't wanted to use linseed as I didn't want to risk increasing his weight, but I am feeding a tablespoon of cod liver oil in the hopes it will 'oil' the joints. Freyr hasn't shown any difference in walking on hard grouns and we have had some severe frosts in the last week. I haven't been able to ride him, even if I had wanted to as last week we had four inches of snow and since it has been frosty and icy. I only intended to hack him to keep him straight for a while and then go back to schooling when he feels freeer and the weather is warmer.

It's so encouraging to hear that Blue still wants to jump. I certainly want to keep Freyr working as in every other way he still acts like a young horse.

[cmfbambi]

Hi,
our 4 year old (today) has just been diagnosed with DJD. She hasn't got any bone spavins but the joint space is clearly reduced and so is the density in the bone.
Today she had a drip with Tildren and now we have to see how she responds to that.
Our vet mentioned the remedial shoeing but Bambi is barefoot and I would like to keep her that way if possible.
Does anybody know anything about the prognosis in such a young animal?

[blueali]

Poor Bambi. I hope the Tildren works. Personally I have never found a good explanation of how shoeing can help arthritis it just doesn't seem logical to me.

My experience has taught me to seek second opinions for treatment ideas and to follow my instincts to keep my horse healthy and happy.

Good luck.

[Catrin]

Freyr has improved tremendously since the weather got warmer. He has been doing exercises at walk and can step over a low pole with no effort now. If an older animal can improve, then there must be hope for a younger one. I would have no hesitation in getting a holistic vet to visit and advise. I shared some of the travel costs for Chris Day with other people in the area as he tries to see two or three people in the area of the country on one day. I consider it one of the best £500 for veterinary advice I have had. There are other vets, like Nick Thompson based in Bath www.holisticvet.co.uk whose travel would be cheaper for you. I can definitely see big disadvantages in shoes and none for barefoot.