My vet is recommending that I have arthroscopic knee surgery done on my horse. I am trying to decide whether to proceed with the surgery. It would be to remove a bone spur (attached). He is no longer sound between injections and recently started stumbling. We are doing First Level, if it matters.
If you had a horse have arthroscopic knee surgery, what was the outcome, how long was the horse sound afterwards, and would you do it again.
Any other advice would be welcomed.
Many years ago I owned a mare who had a bone chip removed from her knee. Not sure how similar that is, hers was from an old injury.
The surgery and rehab was quite simple and she was sound after her rehab. I was very glad I did it as she was unsound before the surgery.
Hope this helps.
I saw one after bone chip removal not come sound.
I have seen it done on quite a few horses. The recovery time depended on what was done. Usually you can see a difference as soon as it begins to heal. I’ve seen them happy on the leg within a week, for minor ones (where soft tissue damage due to the procedure was minimal).
Not exactly the same, but my horse had his hock scoped in 2014 to remove an OCD flap. He wasn’t lame before surgery, but obviously we didn’t want to leave a joint mouse in there that would be the nidus for cartilage wear and arthritis down the road!
I am a small animal veterinary technician working in an orthopaedic referral practice so quite a bit of my knowledge is transferrable, and if I can tell you one thing - if your vet is recommending your horse be scoped, I encourage you to pursue it. Joint injections typically only help alleviate inflammation, which can result in temporary soundness, but in your horse’s case, the nidus of the problem is still present. Best to get that thing out of there before the joint is destroyed. Best of luck!
twiceblessed
I have been getting conflicting advice from vets. One says the surgery is a waste of money, the other recommends it. The one who recommends it say if it is successful, it is reasonable to expected 1 to 2 years improvement to level where I could ride him.
The vet who is recommending the surgery thinks something other then the bone spur is happening. Either a chip has broken off or a piece of cartilage is causing the new issues. He had x-rays taken at the and of August and no evidence of a chip was seen.
Over the last couple of weeks, he has going from being comfortable when riding with no visible lameness to at times when being lead, not wanting to walk and stumbling daily. This weekend he almost week to his knees when he stumbled.
What sort of imaging have you done to determine the extent of the soft tissue damage?
IMHO, that is often what determines how sound the horse comes after removal.
hmmm. I don’t know how big your spur is, or if it’s impinging the joints flexion…but something about the stumbeling you describe seems…I dunno, I’d want to rule out something else going on. Lyme comes to mind.
I am in very similar situation. My horse had a fall this summer. Was fine. Then a bump showed up on knee but he was sound and he was slightly swinging leg off—very slightly. Xrays showed spur coming off side of…one of those cubes of bone in the knee. 3 vets said—it was kinda “normal” arthritis. Normal spur formation that can just happen with age and time. 3 vets said they didn’t think it should bother him much.
I did hosing, clay poulticing, Surpass, DMSO till blue in the face. Bump is nice and cold, not warm or any bigger. But still had slight swinging leg off.
emailed one of the vets, he said he really thought the prob would be soft tissue somewhere else. That he didn’t think this spur should be causing the prob.
Taking a broader view after that email…holy @#$% I found a muscle in spasm just behind the shoulder…thumping away. Sore and trigger-y back muscles as well. Did 10 days Robaaxin and seemed like maybe that was the culprit, he got better. Then…he got a hoof abscess on a hind…some horses are sensible and say ow, my hoof hurts real bad, I’ll just stand hear misserable till the darn thing lets go. My horse is not like that…my horse puts weight on ow abscess hoof and flies into a fit of temper rearing and bucking on 3 legs, running on 3 legs, slipping and spinning on stall mats 3 legs…putting a lot of strain on the muscles spasm shoulder and back we’d only recently calmed down ;0( Big suprise his entire back had muscles spasms and the one in the shoulder came back too.
So…I’ at a place where I have no idea which came first, what caused what, I have a bump on a knee, whole bunch of muscle spasms and a NQR LF shoulder swing. I just drew blood for a Lyme to rule it out—he had some nasty tick bites recently.
[QUOTE=joiedevie99;8905198]
What sort of imaging have you done to determine the extent of the soft tissue damage?
IMHO, that is often what determines how sound the horse comes after removal.[/QUOTE]
No imaging has been done other than x-rays. Recently, to confirm that the knee is the primary issue, the foot was blocked and then the knee. No improvement occurred when the foot was blocked, but significant improvement was seen when the knee was blocked.
I asked why 100% improvement was not seen with the knee block. The vet indicated that some sensation remains in the knee and that is why 100% improvement was not seen.
The bone spur is located on the right front middle carpal (toward the front on the knee on the inside) and is large.
As for it being some sort of neurological issues, no other symptoms are present. Overall stiffness has not occurred, the horse does not have muscle wasting, and his energy level has remained the same. No ‘funky’ movements have been observed.
What I have been told is stumbling is typically a foot issue if it isn’t neurological.
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