Ask the Vet with Dr. Steve Fisch, DVM Dear Dr. Fisch, I love reading your articles each month and have put the information to use in the past. I thought I would write and see if you can help me. I have an older gelding (he is 24 this year) that is now retired. He barrel raced for most of his life and unfortunately he has some arthritis in his knees. He gets around ok most of the time, but is stiff when coming out of his stall in the mornings. We stall him at night and turn him out during the day. I was wondering if you have any suggestions to help us keep him comfortable in his retirement. (Exercise, supplements, topical treatments, etc?) Thanks for your help, Grace I am glad that you enjoy and benefit from the articles. I enjoy hearing from all of you. The questions I receive are all good questions. It sounds like your horse has lived a very productive life and is now ready to live his retirement in comfort. Along with the short answer we are going to include the first of two articles that I wrote a while back regarding balanced joint health. The second portion will follow next month. The articles are a lot of reading but if you want the “whys and how’s” then the articles go into maintaining joint health in some detail. After reading the articles, I would get you horse looked at by an equine veterinarian who does a lot of work with lameness. Even though he is no longer an athlete, an accurate diagnosis is still vital to the success of the treatment. You may need to get your horses knees x-rayed or radiographed. Even though he is not “working” joint injections might help him or delay the progression of osteoarthritis in his knees and/or other joints. There are also other preventive measures that are explained in detail in the two articles on balanced joint health. Another area that is often overlooked in old and young horses alike is proper hoof balancing. Many people tend to let the “old retired horse” get behind in his hoof trimming. His feet not only need to be trimmed on a regular basis but they need to be trimmed properly. The heels need to be filed back to the widest part of the frog. The toe needs to be the proper length. Most horses are trimmed or shod with the toes too long and the heels under run. The feet also need to be balanced medial to lateral. Proper hoof balance can have a great beneficial effect on the soundness of a horse in training or a retired athlete.
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As far as keeping him up at night, if the weather is good, I would let him out at night so he can walk around. The old saying of “if you don’t use it you lose it” applies to joints and ligaments and tendons. He may be a little stiff in the morning because he hasn’t been able to just walk around and be a horse during the night. He may especially get stiff if you put him in the stall in early afternoon. If the weather is bad then by all means keep him in the stall at night. One last word of advice on any horse is to keep their teeth floated properly. While the teeth don’t directly affect the joints, they are an important part of total body health. Make sure you have someone float the teeth that understands proper dental health. Make sure your equine dentist is truly an equine dentist. Some people float a horse’s teeth too much. The teeth are not meant to be perfectly smooth. They look good and feel good when perfectly smooth but they cannot perform their job of grinding feed when filed table top smooth. The rear molars are often over looked and this can cause great problems. So while his joints are important, make sure you take care of the rest of his body also. Read the articles and let me know if you have any further questions. I hope you and your horse have a great summer.
Stephen D. Fisch, DVM AVS Equine Hospital located at 9085 Magnolia Hill Drive Tallahassee, FL 32309. Visit their website at www.avsequinehospital.com or call 850-386-3619