Maintaining Ringbone: Minnow gets Injected with Ethyl Alcohol
Minnow was diagnosed with high ringbone back in 2008, and he’s been retired from all riding and competition since then. He’s lived pretty comfortably for many years, but this year he has been noticeably more sore. So in an effort to make him more comfortable for years to come I’ve been trying lots of options to help him be more pain free.
Our previous attempts to help Minnow can be read about here:
Maintaining Ringbone: Minnow’s Trip to New Bolton
Maintaining Ringbone: Minnow tries Ground Control Shoes
Since then we also began giving Minnow Pentosan injections because we had heard great things about this drug from some of our friends, in helping horses with arthritis. There really wasn’t any noticeable difference when Minnow was given Pentosan, so it wasn’t going to be a long term benefit to him.
We also tried giving Minnow Equioxx, which did help with his pain some, but the most helpful by far was giving Minnow bute along with a Fast track supplement to help protect the lining in his stomach.
While bute did help make Minnow more comfortable I still wanted to do all that I could to help him be more pain free, and bute is never a great long-term pain medication just because of the harm it can do to the intestines. So with the help of our vet we made another appointment for Minnow at New Bolton to have him injected with Ethyl Alcohol into his pastern joint with one of the renowned vet’s there.
The goal with the injection was to destroy the remaining cartilage in the joint allowing the joint to fuse as it has been trying to do naturally for the past several years. With this injection there is no guarantee it will work, and likely no results would even been seen for many months as it takes time for the joint to fuse. But there really is no down side to this procedure other than the risk of infection due to inserting the needle. Minnow should not be any more painful than he already is. So with fingers crossed we took Minnow back to New Bolton to have him injected.
Using X-rays, the vet was able to put the needle into the right space in Minnow’s joint to inject the alcohol (which was a bit difficult because his joint is already pretty deteriorated).
After one day we miraculously already saw improvement in Minnow. For the past 2 weeks he’s been “resting” in his stall and the small turnout paddock attached to his stall.
Here’s a video of Minnow BEFORE the injection:
Minnow a week AFTER the injection:
While Minnow is significantly improved, the hope is that his joint will continue to fuse over time and eventually he could be possibly even be pain free. He is so much more comfortable already that we have taken him off all of the pain meds and this week he gets to go out in the pasture with his buddies again.
While this procedure is never recommended for horses that will be ridden (Minnow will never be ridden again), Minnow met a lot of the criteria to make this procedure successful for him. Time will continue to tell how beneficial it will be to him.
Minnow is very special to me, and I will continue to do everything I can to make him comfortable and happy!
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My vet recommended this procedure for my 13 year old gelding so he can be ridden trail again. Why do you say this procedure should never be done on a horse for riding?
Our vet said she would never recommend this to be done on a horse that someone planned to ride afterwards. I think mainly because it would not be safe. I think it may depend on the horse and type of use though. Afterwards my pony was ok enough to hop on bareback and walk. But I do not ride him anymore really. Within the past 2 weeks he has recently had a slight limp in the joint that was injected. Hard to tell right now if it’s related to his ringbone of just soreness from the harsh winter/cold/snow we are having. Some of my other ponies have come up slightly lame as well this winter due to bruises from the ice in their pasture. So only time will tell at this point.
I’ve got a 21 year old mare in Spain with same ringbone problem and after trying diferent shoeing, we found that a heart shoe with silicone has been the best issue. She’s very comfortable with it. She’s also retired in a field with other horses. We have to take on that this disease hasn’t got a cure so we have to deal with it the best we can and do the best for our horses even if this means not riding them again.
I have had 2 horses with fused pastern, they were already fused when I bought them. I didn’t know that they where until the vet pointed it out to me. I rode those horses hard for meny years with very little problems. So why is it not safe to ride them once the joint has fused? Thank you
The only way that I know of to tell if a joint is fused is to have an X-ray done. Minnow just got re-xrayed a few weeks ago after this initial procedure years ago and while the joint is much closer to fusing, he is still not fused yet. It can take YEARS for a joint to fuse completely. That being said, he personally is not ridden because he has joint pain and is chronically lame because of ringbone. If the joint were to finally fuse someday (and he were pain free) it’s still not advised to ride hem by vets because of the safety risks to us humans. The horse no longer has the mobility in the joint they should, and trips/falls are more likely. And certainly jumping a horse with a fused joint would not be advised. This is just what we have learned from our vets. We personally have no plans to ride Minnow again, but to keep him comfortable for as long as we can.