Sep. 4, 2017, 04:36 PM
Hello everyone. I have had horses for years but for the first time i have had to now inject my 7 year olds stifles. I don’t know much about it and it makes me nervous about his career as he is a barrel racer. Just looking to get some knowledge on stifle injections and what other people have experienced. I’m also looking to put him on a joint supplement but I’m just looking to find the right one! He is on a strict exercise program but again, I’ve never had to inject joints before so I’m just looking for more knowledge thanks!
I had a mare with upper patella fixation. I had her stifles injected once and then did 30 days of previcox while we worked to improve her muscle condition. Use of a pessoa rig and Equiband work wonders. The vet never recommend blistering, so we just injected once and worked hard to get her fit. When I bought her, she had been a broodmare for over 4 years. So, the thought was she was just weak and not conditioned enough though we had already gotten her restarted (boy was she opinionated!). I’ve sold her so don’t know if the new owner has injected her. But, she is used for eventing and is still showing. She looks great and is sound. My current horse has a different problem, but we use Pentosan for joints. We give a shot 1x a week for 5 weeks 3-4 times a year (about $120 for the 5 weeks). Much cheaper than Adequan or Legend. My vets have never supported joint supplements that you feed. Limited experience here, but wanted to give you one that had a happy ending. Good luck.
What exactly is your horse’s problem? There’s blistering injections to address UPF which is where the medial patellar ligament catches, and then there’s steroid and HA injections to address joint issues.
In either case, stifle issues can be difficult. I have an older one (15) who gets injections for arthritis as needed, and is maintained on Equioxx and shows and does quite well. My 7 yr old was retired due to a bad stifle and an ever-present hitch. God help me, just bought a 5 yr old so hopefully all will be okay with him. TWH can be prone to stifle issues, and I’d suspect barrel racing stresses that joint quite a bit. Whatever the case, expect this to be something that will need to be managed throughout your horse’s career. Pentosan and a good joint supplement and proper nutrition are also key IMO.
My vet said it the beginning of arthritis. I use the possa usually but I am only to be walk trot for 6 weeks. No cantering. So I’ve stopped using it as my horse is VERY fresh and I know I wouldn’t be able to prevent him from cantering. So I am doing pole work with him to help improve his muscles along his top line and hind quarters. My vet just said to see how he does and didn’t give me a real answer as to what the outcome will be
My horse had upward fixation of the patella. He locked multiple times over the course of about 48-72 hours, and then not again after that (been about 2 months). He’s 5, and clearly growing so I do not know if it will ever present itself again. I chose not to inject and to do “physical therapy” instead.
He has no arthritis thought, so that is a little different. Poles are a good way to strengthen the area. Walking over raised poles encourages strength too. I also hack or handwalk up hilly terrain, sets of backing up (proper form is important), and transitions. He has already shown improvement in his hind end. This horse has always tracked up well and has good reach.
With arthritis an injection is probably inevitable, but the same exercises can be used to strengthen the hind end and muscles surrounding the joint.
It is a somewhat see how it goes type thing. See if his movement improves after months of a strict workout plan, and I suppose see how the arthritis changes over time.
Stifles have very varying outcomes so it’s not a surprise your vet could not give you a prognosis - some have okay prognosis but generally once arthritis sets in it is an ongoing maintenance issue. The problem with stifles getting sore is it causes the horse to compensate in other areas which is why you usually see soreness in the hocks, suspensory and back once stifle issues crop up.
The no cantering is very important - it’s not so much the cantering but the circling – you want to avoid circles at all costs when rehabbing from a stifle injury or weakness. That means for about a month you are going to want to do straight lines only with very little circling. Keep circles to a minimum and if you have to circle try to keep them bigger than 20 meters.
The best results I’ve seen have come from a thorough maintenance overhaul: 24/7 turnout for maximum movement (this is imperative), very limited stall-time, a joint/anti-flam supplement like MSM, Plat CJ, Devil’s Claw/Yucca, a month/course of Estrone & a month of hacking hillwork.
A good pole exercise is 6 walk poles in a row on the long-side. Walk over them every time you are on that side. After 2 weeks of that, raise the 2 in the middle (cavaletti). If you do trot poles, 3 in a row is enough. I’ve found that for walk poles, the more the better but for trot poles, keeping it simple at 3 is better than doing 6 in a row. I think they can fatigue very quickly at the trot over poles.
The other issue with stifles is that time off IME is not good for them. You want to keep them in consistent work. You also really want them moving around in turnout as much as possible.
For what it is worth, one of my geldings had a medial tear in his stifle that required major time off - two years and he was still NQR and had arthritis in his joint. We injected and he was probably only imperceptibly off. We elected to keep him on 24/7 turnout, put him on estrone and I did two months of straight hacking with poles with him. He loved work and loved people so we kept him in work with maintenance. He would be really stiff and sore if stalled for any length of time so was kept out on the face of a hill which did wonders for him.
Was there any bony changes on an x-rays?
Are both stifles affected or just one?
Are they catching at all, or just arthritis?
How did he flex in his hocks? Did you do x-rays of them?
I agree that when you have stifle problems, one of the hardest things you can do is lope small circles (which of course, is what is required on the barrel pattern 
).
I have a horse who has had stifles problems. At age 7, the vet diagnosed him with a sticky stifle on the right side, but it would never fully lock. We tried injections (didn’t really help) and I focused on keeping him in really good shape and doing specific exercises to help strengthen them. He’s 11 this year and flexed a bit sore in his stifles mid-summer but his bigger problem was that his other hock (left) was now fusing – already dealt with that on his right. I opted to inject both hocks and stifles at his last visit, since he was sore on both.
Stifle problems are tricky - that’s for sure.
There was one bony change. There was almost like a hook of the one side. They have never stuck. We injected both stifles but she said it more the right.
If you are dealing with a bone spur of sorts and NOT sticky stifles, you can pretty much disregard any of the exercise comments above because your problem is in the bone and not the soft tissue.
A joint supplement also won’t do any good. It’s not going to change the bone formation. Now with that said, I would probably still do some sort of supplement just to help with the other joints and for good overall health, but don’t expect it to help the bone spur.
You did not say - did you also do hock x-rays? (I’m kind of anal about them, after having a horse that flexed normal but was fusing horribly.) If you have not, I would personally do it on a barrel horse on a regular basis at least every couple years. Yup, anal, but sometimes you just don’t know what is going on otherwise, and x-rays are pretty cheap in comparison to other things.
Bony changes stink. Sometimes the horse remains fine and sometimes not. Sometimes you can do surgery to remove them but sometimes not. Just impossible to know what’s going to happen. You can manage the PAIN with injections but of course that does not treat the problem itself.
You may want to, as heartbreaking as it is, consider moving him on to something that does not require tight circles and speed.
Barrel racing is not a career I’d advise for a horse with bone spurs in his stifle. The sport prognosis for a horse with bone spurs and/or arthritic changes in the stifle at that young an age is very poor.
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I would second this. And also would try IRAP or ProStride over a regular steroid and HA injection. This will be long term maintenance and isn’t a quick fix. Plan to incorporate Equioxx and maybe something like Pentosan or Adequan into long term management once injections are completed. I keep mine on a high level joint supplement (Exceed 6-way) too and do feel it helps.
If they are seeing osteoarthritic changes, have you looked into tildren or osphos?
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