I thought some of you might be interested in this.
My much loved pet of a 23 year old quarter horse gelding, Lucky, has been retired for several years with progressively degenerating ringbone on his left fore. X rays have shown the pastern joint to be degenerating and fusing over time.
He’s been managed pretty comfortably with bute, but this year, he’s been getting progressively more lame. Still eating, bright, happy to be out with my little herd of retirees, but becoming hard to keep weigh on and getting to the point where we knew this couldn’t go on for much longer.
My vet and I had discussed the possibility of injecting the pastern joint with grain alcohol, to speed the progress of the fusion and to deaden the nerves in the mean time.
It’s still a relatively experimental procedure, and we are well aware of the risks involved, but all we are trying to achieve at this point is a comfortable pasture ornament, and the only other option at this point is to euthanize, so we felt it was worth a try.
So, this morning, we did it. Lucky is still snoozing off the sedatives and nerve block in his stall.
It was a bit of a performance getting the needle in the joint space as there isn’t much of one left, but thanks to the miracle of digital x-rays, vet was able to place the needle very precisely, and was rewarded with a little joint fluid. Apart from that, the whole thing was a no-brainer and was done standing, in my garage… (redneck horsekeeping here. It’s the spot with the flat floor and the rubber mats…)
There’s no guarantees, of course, but if it does work, this will be A Good Thing. And relatively inexpensive–I’m expecting a bill of aroud $300 including farm call and sedation and x-rays and the injection itself.
I’ll keep this post updated with progress reports.
