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[RC] Bone Spurs - Bruce WearyHi Barbara--Of course, I will defer to any vet that wants to chime in here, but with the history you give, the outlook for doing endurance work is bleak, in my opinion. You mentioned heat, pain and degenerative changes (bone spurs) are all present, or occur with work. Bone spurs are funny things. They are often the after effect of joint wear and tear, and not the cause of the pain itself. If bone spurs grow into an inconvenient space, they can indeed be pain-causing themselves. At any rate, spurs and other bony changes are a response to trauma--either momentary or repetitive. In the exercising horse, there may be biomechanical problems, poor bony alignment, bad shoeing, or even a history of poor nutritional support when the horse was developing, all of which can make the horse prone to excessive joint trauma as a result of work. The horse can go through a damage/healing/damage/healing cycle, with joint damage (cartilage disruption, thinning, bone spurs) occurring as a result of the joints trying to heal themselves. This healing usually takes place with a "cheaper grade of tissue" that is even less able to handle the rigors of endurance riding. Since you can't use meds to control the inflammation and discomfort during a ride, and the predictable clinical future of the problems you mention is not good, you may want to consider letting this horse salvage what life he has left in his joints and place him in a pursuit that he can tolerate and even enjoy. I guess to put it in a human perspective, imagine someone who has bone spurs and degenerative changes in their knees or ankles, and that they get hot, painful, and cause the runner to stumble when running. What sort of career might they have to look forward to in marathon running? We have a horse that essentially has the same problem yours does. He is retired now, but was able to complete 3,000 miles and earn a Tevis buckle. If I could have seen the problems coming, I would have retired him sooner. FWIW, Dr Q world renowned bone spur expert =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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