Joint maintenance, supplements, or injections?

[candyappy]

@JB

How do you define “good” here? There are many, many horses who are injected annually with “because they’re showing” as the only “need”

@4horses

She’s not lame- no head bobbing. She’s not jumping or doing anything super strenuous.

Well it doesn’t look like OP’s horse is in that category yet.
A “good” vet will do what the horse needs. That would be determined by a thorough exam. Not do unnecessary procedures just because the owner said so.

Kind of like a " good" doctor will not do unnecessary procedures on me or prescribe meds just because I wanted it or was looking to a possible need in the future.

[Victorious]

I have been using the same vet practice for a long time. We have a very established relationship and I never demand things that are not reasonable but if I call and say I want Bobo’s hocks injected friday, they would do it because they know Bobo well and we would have had conversations about Bobo and soundness beforehand. That is an example of how a vet could show up and just inject with no exam. Context matters and the relationship you have with your vet matters. My vets do trust me to be honest with them in the same way I trust them to be honest with me. I don’t think I would use a practice that did not operate this way. JMO

[GoodTimes]

I would skip the joint supplements. Better bang for your buck going with something like Adequan, Pentosan or Legend. They work via different mechanisms, so which one to try first, or switching to a different one is a conversation to have with your vet.

As far as joint injections? I would never inject a joint without an x-ray, especially if the horse is sound. About 12 years ago one of my horses was mildly unsound on his left hind. Tried adequan with no improvement. After a few months we took him to a specialist for a workup, with the assumption that we would end up doing hock injections. X-rays were clean. Turned out it had been a hamstring injury and a round of shockwave had him sound again the next day.
Fast forward 8 years and that same horse started dragging his hind toes a little, had a little more trouble with his lead changes, a long spot that was easy for him a year or two prior was now feeling a little scary. Trainer kept pushing us to start Legend injections or to just inject his hocks. I refused and sent him for a workup with a lameness specialist. Virtually no arthritis, x-rays looked almost identical to the ones done 8 years prior. Specialist concluded that he was having degenerative changes in his hind suspensories. We opted to retire him and start him on Equioxx.