Mare is suddenly a ball of rage after hock injections

[RJC]

So, my 11 yo TB mare had her hocks injected for the first time last Wednesday. Her arthritic hocks were accompanied by some mild lumbar soreness, but she had a chiro Monday and I thought we’d be good to go after her hocks were done.

She was very dramatic when the vet tried to sedate her. She showed everyone her belly, leapt around, and (once the first dose was administered) needed a second large dose because she was fighting the drug’s effects so hard. The vet said she had never seen anything like it.

I’ve started light walk/trot work the last couple days (2.5 days after hocks were done), and she’s been absolutely terrible. She starts grinding her teeth before I even put the saddle on, while usually she only grinds when working on a new dressage task. In crossties, she’s started pinning her ears and lifting hind legs threateningly. The muscles on both sides of her lumbar region are also pretty tight. Under saddle, she tries to curl up in response to the slightest contact (which she hasn’t done in almost a year) and is generally unusually unsteady in the bridle. She’s completely fine at liberty though and moving great.

I can think of three things…ok really about 15 things but these are the most viable.

1. She’s in some weird “end of season” heat, which is only making her sore and grumpy, but not squirty and lusty (which would be normal).

2. She was traumatized by her eventful hock injections and is still mad about it. No idea how this relates to sore back.

3. She had a bad adjustment by the chiropractor and is more “out” than she was before. He’s successfully made the same adjustment once a month for the last 6 months or so, but who knows.

Has anyone else experienced either a sore back after hock injections or a heat with different symptoms than are usual for your mare? She’s my first mare and I still find her confusing after 6 years, so responses from other mare owners are much appreciated.

[Simkie]

I’d say she HURTS. Injecting the hocks is often not a comfortable thing for them, and depending on what steroid was used, it can take more than a few days to kick in and make them feel better. I’d call the vet and discuss.

We we tapped Blush’s hocks, I had to keep her sedated for about 18 hours because she was so sore she’d just back up to the stall wall and kick non stop. We never used depo-medrol in her again–she didn’t have that same reaction to triamcinolone.

[Posting_Trot]

Yes, I’d say she’s in pain. You should call the vet and have the vet look at her again. There are complications that are possible after hock injections, and you want to rule them out.

[RJC]

I was kinda worried about that before injecting. She’s very reactive (allergic to Adequan, bugs, has seasonal allergies). There’s no swelling or heat at her hocks, but I’ll call the vet tomorrow and see what she thinks.

[HoofHeartSoul]

Has she ever been scoped for ulcers? Some horses can deal with the pain of ulcers quite well for awhile but if they become more severe will show more outward signs.

Steroids CAN aggravate ulcers in horses.

If she had some ulcers she might have more severe ones now. That is the first thing I thought of when I read her symptoms.

Ulcers in the stomach can cause pain through the back and barrel and make a horse “angry/sensitive” when leg is applied.

Grinding teeth more so since Steroids.

(teeth grinding is a common sign of ulcers, so if she was grinding a bit before she may have had some mild ulcers and not they are worse)

and yes even IA (inter-articular) steroids can irritate ulcers.

[gumshoe]

What you describe sounds a lot like my horse with ulcers. However, it could be “joint flare” from the injections. I’d talk to the vet.

[mroades]

the steroid in the injections can cause ulcers to flare, as well as things like epm or lyme

[x]

Also, I have found massage with the chiropractic can help with a sore back…

[Ltc4h]

An aside- I’d be concerned w/ underlying issues or adjustments aren’t correct, if you continue to need to re-adjust exactly the same location so often chiropractically.

[RJC]

I left a message for the vet suggesting that Ears was showing symptoms of stomach ulcers or general discomfort and asking her to call back. The mare has never shown any symptoms of ulcers other than the occasional teeth grinding when learning a new rule, but I wouldn’t be shocked if she does have (usually mild) ulcers. She’s outside on grass (hay in winter) for 8 hours a day, doesn’t have a very demanding work or show schedule, is shiny and fat on minimal grain, eats everything set in front of her, and has generally been bright and seemed happy. But again, I wouldn’t be shocked. She might usually have minimal ulcers and the steroids made them suddenly terrible (which I didn’t know was a possible side effect). I’d take ulcers over a host of other issues (epm and lyme?! yikes).

My chiropractor has thought that the lumbar adjustments she’s needed are from carrying herself slightly crooked to alleviate her bad hock. We are expecting this to improve after the injections and it’s gotten better just through the adjustments as well.

And she does love her massages! I heat her back up with my Back on Track no bows and give her a good rub through her back, neck, and shoulder before most rides. She stretches her neck, yawns like crazy, flaps her tongue around, and wiggles her lips. It’s pretty cute and reduces our warm up time, particularly in the winter when she can be kinda cold backed…is that a sign of ulcers?

[TrotTrotPumpkn]

Cold backed is definitely a sign of ulcers in my experience.

I had a horse that was turned out 24x7, ate with relish, got alfalfa for his hay, and had a low stress life and had ulcers. It can happen.

[RJC]

Fantastic. I also just read that they can develop ulcers in just a few days, so even if she didn’t have ulcers before injections, she could easily have them now anyway.

I haven’t had to deal with ulcers before. I know gastrogard is a common go-to, but it’s too expensive to be a long term solution for me. Is this usually a ‘treat and then go back to normal life’ thing? Or something that often becomes chronic once it flares up?

@TrotTrotPumkn - It sounds like there weren’t many changes you could make to his life to protect against ulcers once you discovered them. What did you do?

[go_corona_go]

Curious about this as well. Almost exact same symptoms as my horse after injections recently.

[TrotTrotPumpkn]

Treated with gastro gard and would be proactive about dosing him when we traveled with a quarter tube of ulcer gard. I did a week of gastrogard to see if there was a change (didn’t have him scoped). The result was pretty dramatic, so I knew we had ulcers. I think they had been there forever, but it just took the right conditions to really make them bad.

He also had arthritic hocks and they had also caused some back soreness. Staying on top of his hocks with injections as needed was important for him. I think chronic pain can lead to the stomach stuff–at least that makes sense in my mind.

I am interested to hear if your vet thinks your mare is having a reaction or something. Also to hear how she is doing after a week.

[RJC]

Thanks TrotTrotPumkn. That makes me reasonably optimistic.

We also had kind of a rough summer. Our barn blew down in a tornado (no horses seriously injured thankfully) and we’ve have bounced around a couple times since then. We’re settled now and both love our new place, but the stress of moving and switching herds could easily have started tummy troubles. I guess I never really thought about it since she seemed fine until now.

And I will surely share whatever the vet says and how any treatment (or just passing time) goes. I’m still waiting for a call back from the vet, but luckily she boards with me so it’s easy to run into her

[tpup]

My older gelding stopped eating after hock injections. The steroids stripped his stomach lining of something - I forget the technical details but he had to go on a special medicine, and for future hock injections we had to use very little or no steroids. It was horrible as it affecting him terribly. He was ulcer prone (later scoped and found to have grade 3 chronic). So could be a combo of pain and ulcers. Hope she is better soon.

[RJC]

Vet agrees that it sounds like an ulcer flare up, but since the mare seemed better last night, we are giving it a couple days before starting treatment. She also said that the stress of “fighting off attackers” when they were trying to sedate her and her general unhappiness at the proceedings could have just caused a temporary increase in stomach acid due to stress (like heart burn). We’ll give her today and probably tomorrow off, try to ride on her Thursday, and give up and start Ulcergard if she shows any sign of distress.

Her back was 80% better last night when I just went out to handwalk and groom her, she didn’t grind her teeth at all, and she acted pretty normal (though I didn’t try to saddle her). I found this confusing because two days before she was grinding her teeth as soon as we left her stall.

If such a high percentage of horses have ulcers, why isn’t every single horse on anti-ulcer supplements and getting meds during shows and travel? Why isn’t this as routine as hoof care?

[mroades]

"If such a high percentage of horses have ulcers, why isn’t every single horse on anti-ulcer supplements and getting meds during shows and travel? Why isn’t this as routine as hoof care?[/QUOTE]

It is in my world!

[RJC]

mroades- have you found a supplement that assists with ulcer management after initial treatment?

[RJC]

I found the old COTH thread on “little blue pop rocks” and after reading it through, ordered some. I’ll get a couple tubes of gastrogard to get her by until they get here.

Her back is 100% better, but she still seems grumpier than usual. My vet thinks she seems like an ucler-prone horse anyway, so I’m interested to see if she becomes more agreeable under saddle during/after ulcer treatment.

Thanks everyone who suggested ulcers! That never even crossed my mind.