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Discussion on Surgical removal of bone spurs?
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Posted on Thursday, Jan 24, 2002 - 3:55 am:
Hi,my 14 yo dressage horse has a pair of bone spurs,shaped like a beak,on either side of his top knee joint. the spurs are not in the actual joint space so only hurt when a fair bit of pressure is on the leg.As hes 17.3hh and doing fei level dressage theres a fair amount of that!I was wondering if there is any way to remove the spurs,or if new spurs would just grow back?Just thinking of this after reading about arthroscopy and chip removal.Thanks Doctor.
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Posted on Thursday, Jan 24, 2002 - 7:05 am:
Hello Judy,
It is a common misunderstanding that these osteophytes are a direct cause of pain. This is not true as some horses without pain have them. On the other hand they usually form from chronic irritation in the joint and are a harbinger of degenerative joint disease. It is unlikely that surgical removal will be of any benefit I am afraid. For more on this and for other management recommendations of caring for a horse with arthritis see, Equine Diseases: Lameness: Diseases of Joints : Arthritis and DJD: An Overview. Be sure to follow the link to the interpretation of radiographs in the article.
DrO
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