Horse has had hind end issues for a while now. Stifles were addressed first (which seemed to help for a while), then back x-rayed with small area of adjacent spinous process (injected due to occasional sore back),then hocks injected. He is still uncomfortable. Trot will loosen up but canter is mess. I’m wondering SI (which I wondered for a while) Now thinking I will take him for bone scan and hopefully pinpoint or rule out . He is now 10, was started slowly & did some small jumps at 5 with promising career that never went any wear. Any thoughts, ideas or anecdotes about the bone scan revealing the problem (s)?
Its been a long and winding road…
Thanks
Maybe. There is a chance that an area will light up that you haven’t looked at yet, and additional diagnostics on that area after the scan will find the problem. It’s also possible that lots of things will light up - maybe all areas you’ve already treated - and you won’t have much of a direction to go in. If it does find something, make sure you understand that it isn’t the end of the road. You’ll still need diagnostics (maybe a fair amount) to figure out the problem in whatever area the bone scan identifies.
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I have done bone scans in similar situations, I would never do one again. It’s A LOT of money for something that probably doesn’t even have a 50/50 chance at pinning something down.
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100% agree with this.
I’ve done 3 in my horsey lifetime, and not a single one yielded a result.
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Hi,
Have had 2 bone scans. One helped, one did not. With the one that did, had I known more at the time, may have been able to find issue without the scan.
If you want to provide more details about your horse, breed, expectations for performance, someone here may be able to give some good advice Good Luck!
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How did you (both) finally find the cause(s) of your issues. I feel like we are going thru the never ending process of elimination. I was originally thinking to have the SI injected because of symptoms matching up. But stifles & hocks did check some of the boxes too and are pretty routine. If the bone scan doesn’t explain much, & I will be dropping $3K + on scan alone , I would like something definitive. Thanks for your input
One we ended up finally getting the lameness to block, by going after a nerve in an unusual location for a block.
The other one, the lameness was never resolved, despite the small fortune I poured into her.
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I had a bone scan done on my mare after many other diagnostics failed to find anything conclusive. The vets at two state vet hospitals were not able to diagnose why she tripped a lot and sometimes fell. She was neuro enough that she wasn’t safe to ride, but not neuro enough (ie not clearly a Wobbler) to euthanize. I ended up donating her to one of the state vet hospitals for their recip herd.
Both the myelogram and bone scan were hard on her. She also ended up with a bacterial infection after the bone scan. I would not do the bone scan again. I’d only do a myelogram again if there was suspicion of narrowing of the spinal column.
Best of luck with your horse and figuring it out!
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Unfortunately so much of diagnosing is a systematic approach of ruling in and out one area at a time. As others have indicated, a bone scan often doesn’t yield the precise answers we all desperately want. Sometimes answers are convoluted and involve more than one thing that is going on.
Just stick with a good lameness and sports medicine vet and expect more than one visit if needed. Xrays, and ultrasounds can reveal a lot more useful information after a very good physical exam. A very skilled sports medicine vet can often see how a horse moves and get a good idea of where they are compensating. That is so valuable.
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I agree. We sent one for a bone scan who very clearly is not right behind. Nothing lit up.
I did a bone scan on a horse with suspected SI issues. His other imaging was fine. Bone scan sent us down various dissatisfying rabbit holes but appeared “fine” for the SI. We did eventually treat SI, which helped. Extent of the damage was not able to be appreciated until necropsy.
I’ve also had some success diagnosing SI issues with other imaging. But after the first experience I’d pretty much xray and ultrasound the entire horse before doing a bone scan again. You can do a lot of imaging for the $3k+ investment.
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I did a bone scan on one who had issues consistent with SI…nothing showed up. We did rectal ultrasound and that gave us conclusive answers (S1 nerve root inflammation). So it may or may not point to anything.
Of course, a different horse that looked like SI issues got a bone scan and we ended up finding two fractured ribs. Would have never predicted that…but in that case the bone scan was super helpful.
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Went down the bone scan route with my mare and we had good results from it. Knew she was off in the hind end somewhere, but lameness exams and flexions weren’t coming up with any good answers. The bone scan lit up on her hocks, not the joints, the actual bones. She ended up being diagnosed with juvenile tarsitis or in plain speak, growing pains. Mare was 6 but vet hospital said she had bone development of a 4 year old, still don’t know why but it was good to have an answer. We took her back to walking only for a few months, then built her back up slowly. I’d call our bone scan story a success.
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