Horse Degenerative Joint Disease - Care and Prevention

     Regardless of what tasks your horse performs, from racing to the casual jaunt around the farm, its joints end up getting a lot of wear and tear. It makes sense since horses are not small or light weight animals, their joints have to hold up a lot of their weight. Without proper care, your horse's joints will wear out overtime or are more prone to experience trauma. When that happens, your horse will likely develop a condition known as degenerative joint disease or DJD in short.

This is a condition that befalls most horse during their lifetime unless the horse is largely let alone to pasture and is never ridden. It is no doubt a wonderful experience to ride a horse, however it is important to note that a horse's body is not design to take heavy weight naturally. Bearing this in mind, caring for your horse's joints should be a top priority when thinking about your horse's overall health for the future.

Degenerative joint disease is the name given to the condition that arises and progresses as a horse's joint becomes worn. The membrane within the joint is slowly worn and inflamed to where it no longer produces the fluids found in a joint regularly or in sufficient quantities. The limited amount of fluid causes the cartilage of the joint to thin and possibly even tear which will be painful for your horse. A horse with untreated degenerative joint disease will likely experience lameness.

Your first sign that your horse may be having joint problems is a little bit of puffiness around the joint areas. Unless you are looking for this, you are unlikely to notice it, and a horse that exhibits no other symptoms might still be on the path towards serious joint disability.

More overt and obvious symptoms involve clear pain in the joint areas, and your horse may be very reluctant to do work. At this stage, the horse will have obvious puffiness around the joints. As you take your horse out, you may notice that her gait seems very stiff, but as she warms up, the gait improves noticeably. If you notice that maneuvers that usually would have been easily performed are now very difficult or your horse refuses to do them, this may also be a sign that degenerative joint disease has indeed set in.

You should bring your horse in for a checkup immediately if you suspect that it is developing degenerative joint disease. A flex test will be carry out on the joints. Afterward you will likely be asked to lead your horse to walk around briefly which will give your vet a chance to get a look at the horse's gait. At this point the vet will tell you what he or she thinks and your horse may require x-rays.

There are a couple of options to help manage your horse's joint problem. You can run your horse's joints with cold water after activities. This simple act will help reduce the swelling in the area. You might also consider limiting your horse to activities that do not stress the affected joints.

Last but not least, your veterinarian can administer injections, made out of your horse's own blood, that go directly into the joint to help mitigate the pain and inflammation.