One of my horse’s had his SI joints injected for the first time yesterday afternoon. My usual vet was out of town so I had one of his partners do the injections. My usual vet has always said to keep him in the day of injections, turn him out the second day, and tack walk the third - this is when we’ve injected hocks and stifles.
New vet that did the SI injections said I needed to keep him in his stall the day of injections AND the following day, then I could put him in a small paddock the third day, and could resume normal turnout the fourth day.
This seems a little unnessary to keep him cooped up so long and he’s a quiet horse in turnout anyway, not one to rip and buck around.
Is this the standard for SI injections though? Or is light movement okay for him? It’s killing me to see him stuck in a stall when he usually has free access to at least his paddock!
SI injection is not the same as hocks. Follow the professional vet’s advice and don’t go looking for other answers/ the ones you want to hear on the net (meant in the kindest way! hard to convey over the web)
That sounds about right. It’s been years since I injected an SI but IIRC, for my event horse who had SI injection & mesotherapy, I believe he spent the first couple days in the stall and then graduated to turnout. He had a full week off from riding.
Hope the SI injection works as well for you as it did for my guy. He was a completely different horse post-injection.
No offence taken, I totally get it! Just wanted to hear other’s experiences since I can’t ask my normal vet his thoughts. Was just curious if this was the norm for SI injections since he’s never had them before
@beowulf Thank you! Exactly the input I was looking for and very encouraging to hear how well it worked for your horse!
i’m always amazed how anxious people are to get their horse back into work after they get an 8-inch needle stuck in their back. how would you feel?? this second vet seems to have a better plan. personally, for any back or SI injection, I wouldn’t tack walk for at least 7 days. the point is to relieve inflammation and pain, sitting on their back won’t do that. the longer you wait the better the results. injections are great, but they are too risky and expensive to be in a hurry. rushing back into work will negate the treatment.
Stall rest for the rest of the day of the injection, and the next 2 days (with hand walking/grazing). Turnout on the 3rd day following the injection, tack walking or light work on the 4th day.
My horses’ protocol no matter what is injected is to keep them on stall rest 3 days with as much hand walking/grazing as I feel like… the idea is to keep the meds concentrated in the area/joint that was injected so they can do their job… and movement (riding, exercise, playing in pasture) disperses the meds and not as much is absorbed in the desired area…decreasing the effectiveness of the treatment. After three days, light work gradually returning to normal, and turn out is ok.
I wasn’t asking about riding, I was asking about turn out. He’ll get at least a week off (possibly more as I’m moving this weekend). He has a small paddock attached to his stall, he’s used to having free access to both his stall and paddock and moseys from his haynet outside to his stall to nap. That’s the most energy he expends in his paddock so I was wondering how giving him access to his paddock would be any different than frequently hand walking him.
Thanks all for weighing in, sounds like this vet’s protocol is spot on with others. At least today he can have his paddock
To be fair, OP didn’t mention anything about riding. Her question was about whether the time for being in a stall was normal. Some post-injection aftercares, it’s better for them to be moving ASAP (stifles & coffin bone, for instance) and see minimal stall-time before turnout.
As someone who is very pro-turnout, and for the most part, not a fan of stall-rest except when absolutely necessary, I can understand OP’s question because one of the best things about turnout (and the biggest drawback to stall-rest) is that turnout tends to encourage movement which helps with inflammation… so when a horse has something that is seriously inflamed, sometimes it is better for them to be moving more than standing still.
For all injections, CSU says to keep in for 3 days with hand walking. My other vet says to turnout starting the next day in most cases. I do the second because the horse is a lot quieter that way and is out by himself anyway. If I’ve injected hocks or SI or neck, I don’t really want him spinning small circles in the stall. But YMMV
@beowulf the OP mentioned in the first post about tack walking. someone else mentioned stall rest to keep medication in place. i’ve never heard that before, not sure if that’s scientifically proven. i’m of the mind turnout sooner rather than later if they are well behaved.
personally, i’ve always turned out before the injections (morning of so the horse gets out), stall rest after injections until the next day, then turnout if i know the horse will just graze and walk around. i take more time off from tack walking than vets typically recommend. what’s a week off? the downtime also helps reduce with inflammation.
Oh, on the riding side of things, I’ll add that my horse is pretty sore locally from SI injections for a while. Although the vets have said I could get on after 3 days, I usually give him a week off, but as I said above, I do let him have turnout. If he’s a little ouchy to groom, he’s too ouchy to ride. I mean, those needles are BIG!
The downtime in a stall doesn’t reduce inflammation, is the point. Stalling and/or controlled movementt is, in a general sense, quite proven to contribute to the amount of inflammation in an aggravated area. In one study it took as little as 6 hours to see changes in the amount of inflammation in an area (coffin joint, in this specific study). Careful movement or exercise is usually, in non-accute cases, proven to decrease it… which, it sounds like OP knows this, hence her questioning of the being in a stall for “longer than usual”.
You definitely want to keep them moving as little as possible following an SI injection for the first three days.
There are some injections you absolutely do not want to turn out the first day after. There are some where it is okay. Each site has a different protocol and I saw nothing innocuous about the question. Some horses are fine in a stall and others are quieter in a standing… depends on the horse and the site injected.
I’ll also add that my gelding was quite sore in the days following too. It is a big needle that goes through a lot of tissue. I found using poultice and/or Sore No More (wait a few days after injection for the injection site to close) helped.
The OP didn’t ask about tack-walking for the SI in the OP. She was referring to in the past and was detailing the vet’s protocol for hocks/stifles. Nowhere did the OP ask about riding the horse now. Give them the benefit of the doubt because the question was about the stall-time being normal, not the riding. :encouragement:
My lameness vet always recommended stalling the day of the injections, then “quiet turnout” for a few days afterward. My guy was always pretty sensible in turnout, so that meant normal turnout for him. It really depends on your individual horse. Some horses will cause themselves more harm by staying in and pacing their stalls than by going out as usual.
Like Beowulf said, all I was saying was that in the past, after hock or stifle injections, the vet had me talk walking a couple of days after injections. I was in no way implying I was planning on the same after SI injections - I was just questioning if the stall rest protocol was typical for THESE INJECTIONS.
This horse is used to having 24/7 access from stall to small paddock. Locking him in stresses him out and he tends to pace and stop drinking. He never does more than mosey around his paddock, which is why I was hoping it would be okay to give him access that instead of keeping him on stall rest for two days, that seemed the safer option for this particular horse.
In any case, it’s 4 days post-injection now and he’s allowed full turnout so he’s happily grazing in the pasture. Thanks to those of you who read and comprehended my actual question :lol:
We just had SI injections this week, no jumping for a week but normal turnout the next day. My horse would be quieter on turn out then left in a stall when his pasture mates were turned out.
