07/07/2025
Joint injections
In today’s age- athletes are competing at higher levels and at younger ages. What does that mean? It means horses are needing to be maintained and even prevention exams done more frequently.
What are signs your horse is needing an exam/injections?
-changes in behavior while in work (bolting, not turning, refusal of alley way, ear pinning, not wanting to be caught/loaded)
-poor performance (consistent times are getting slower, not finishing turns, inconsistency)
-change in gait (over stepping, pulling shoes, becoming choppy, bunny hopping)
-much more
How frequent do we recommend exams?
For my personal horses we tend to do them 4x a year (mainly before bigger races). This is a preventive thing to catch things before they become an issue. We recommend atleast twice a year for your athletes.
Type of injections:
There are different type of injections (regenerative vs steriod). Depending on the degree of lameness, joint changes on X-rays, and need of athlete- is what I base on what we inject. My top choice is generally Prostride (regenerative).
Here is an athlete(sedated and sterile prep done prior) that started having some behavior changes in the arena- lameness exam showed soreness to hocks- minimal response but there.
However look at the poor fluid that is dripping out of his DIT joint (second needle stick). All four hock joints (TMT/DIT) had inflammatory fluid on today’s appoitnement. His X-rays are clean.
This is a prime example of how we use X-rays to help guide but not treat our patients. They hold a good baseline for us.
He will get two days off, and light riding on day 3, then back to work.
Keep in mind most Injections can take up to two weeks see them fully working. So use that to time you exams/Injections
Contact us to get your athletes in the books!
Dr.T
