Posts Tagged ‘rescue

Maintaining Ringbone: Minnow gets new X-rays

Those of you that have followed our ponies’ journey from the beginning may remember that our little Minnow has battled with Ringbone since 2008. Ringbone is essentially a form of equine arthritis, a bone growth in the pastern or coffin joint of a horse. And because in a lot of cases people choose to euthanize a horse with Ringbone (because there is no cure), I have decided to document Minnow’s journey in pain management in the hopes that it might help someone else battling Ringbone in their horse.

Maintaining Ringbone - Minnow injection // Painting Pony

Earlier this year we noticed that he seemed to be more lame on his right front (his initial diagnosis and treatment has always been for his left front), so we decided to have him re-xrayed since it’s been 2 years since we last had him checked. We made sure that we used barrier technologies radiation gloves and other safety measurements before the procedure.

Minnow Ringbone X-Rays // 2015 // Painting Pony

Here’s the shot of his left front, 2 years after being injected with Ethyl Alcohol to help the joint fuse faster:

Minnow Ringbone X-Rays // 2015 // Painting Pony

Here’s what it looked like the day we had it injected:

Managing Ringbone - Chincoteague Minnow's Trip to New Bolton // Painting Pony

As you can see the joint still is not completely fused, but it’s a lot closer, and it’s actually straightened out some. Which I think has attributed to him being more comfortable on it.

So let’s take a look at the right front, the one that has started to bother him more recently:

Minnow Ringbone X-Rays // 2015 // Painting Pony

Minnow Ringbone X-Rays // 2015 // Painting Pony

It’s hard to tell, but there is some white shading around the pastern joint, and indication that Minnow is at the beginning stages of high ringbone in his right front pastern as well. Our vet consulted with New Bolton Animal Hospital, and determined it’s still too early to inject with Ethyl Alcohol for it to be effective. The fact that he’s also developing this in his other leg further proves that in his particular case it was more genetic than anything. It makes me feel better to know, no matter what I would have done, he would have developed ringbone anyway due to his confirmation.

Chincoteague Pony Minnow trains for Pony Penning 2012

But not to worry, Minnow is still doing well (he’s super Minnow after all)! And here’s how we’re managing pain today for him:

Minnow is currently taking 1/2 a pill of 57mg of Previcox daily as well as a scoop of GLS joint supplement. Once starting the Previcox we noticed an improvement in Minnow’s pain. He seems much more comfortable and we even noticed an improvement in his limp (on both legs).

Chincoteague Pony Minnow trains for Pony Penning 2012

If you’d like to check out our previous attempts to help Minnow with his Ringbone diagnosis, you can read more here:

Maintaining Ringbone: Minnow’s Trip to New Bolton

Maintaining Ringbone: Minnow tries Ground Control Shoes

Maintaining Ringbone: Minnow gets injected with Ethyl Alcohol

Maintaining Ringbone: Minnow tries GLS

If you have a story to share about your horse and Ringbone, we’d love to hear about it! Post a comment on this blog post, or share it on our Facebook wall.

Tags : , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,