Bodie update
A bunch of you have written to ask for an update on Bodie - I really, really appreciate it, and I'm sorry I haven't written back. It's just been a...pretty tough week, and some of it is that I just haven't wanted to sit down and put it in writing. But I figured I'd go ahead and post an update here.
In short, the news about Bodie was, in the vet's words, very bad.
The bone scan - nuclear scintigraphy - he had last Thursday revealed a subchondral bone cyst in his right hind pastern joint, which was confirmed with x-rays. Subchondral means the cyst is situated immediately under the cartilege that lines the joint. In this case, it's the joint between the long and short pastern (ankle) bones; the cyst is actually in the long (upper) bone, in the end of the bone that would touch the short (lower) bone, but for the cartilege that separates them. It's like a little pit or hole in the bone, right under (or really, above) that cartilege. The cyst is the primary issue, and it's what was causing his severe lameness - but secondarily, in response to the pain and irritation of the cyst, he's started to develop what's called "ringbone," which is excess bony growth - essentially bony arthritis, or "degenerative joint disease" - around that pastern joint, near the cyst.
The problem is that historically there has been extremely limited success in restoring horses with this type of bone cyst to soundness. Traditional treatments for arthritic-type conditions (which this is), such as joint injections and shock wave therapy, don't seem to work very well for the cysts. In Bodie's case, the developing ringbone is an additional problem - ringbone is a type of arthritis that can be very resistant to treatment as well, and once the bony growths actually extend to the surfaces inside the joint (which hasn't yet happened to Bodie, thankfully), often the horse is never sound again; the pain can't be managed well enough to keep him in work.
There are some newer treatments that are potentially more promising. There's a drug called Tildren, which is a member of a class of drugs used in France to treat osteoporosis in women (it's not approved here for human use; only for experimental use in horses). It reduces the resorption of bone - the process by which the body breaks down bone and releases the minerals. It can help various equine conditions, including arthritis; it's been shown to help with soundness in horses with bone cysts.
There's also a treatment called IRAP therapy in which a serum containing an anti-inflammatory substance called Interleuken is isolated from the horse's own blood using a sort of centrifuge; this substance can be frozen and later re-injected back into the horse's joint(s) to reduce the inflammatory proteins that cause the degredation of cartilege in the joint and decrease cartilege production. It can be extremely effective for certain types of joint issues.
The vet told me that Bodie's best chance to regain soundness was to treat the cyst as aggressively as possible immediately. So last Friday he was administered the Tildren, both systemically through an IV drip, and locally by "perfusion" of the bad joint. Hopefully, it will stop the progress of the cyst; with best of luck, new bone will form to "fill it in" a little. The Tildren should also help the ringbone - at least stop the progression, at best improve it. Also, they drew blood so they could isolate the IRAP serum, though they won't inject it for at least a month.
But even with all that, the vet, who has seen as much of this kind of thing as any vet, is giving me just barely 50% odds that Bodie will ever be sound enough to resume his former activities - i.e., go back into full training as a dressage horse.
I know that means there's a 50% chance that he will, but I'm a negative thinker by nature... Still, I'm trying not to think about it in those terms, but instead to look at it as smaller steps. For now, it's the next month that's key. What we really want is for him to go down one to two grades in lameness by the end of a month - that will be a sign that the Tildren is working. Happily, I'm at least allowed to walk him under saddle, and he can have turnout.
So that's where things stand. I've pretty much made the decision to look for another horse - I'd been considering it for a while anyway, because I feel like it's getting tougher and tougher for Griggs to do the work I ask of him, and I like having two in active work - now with Bodie out of commission for the foreseeable future, I'm thinking I want to do it sooner rather than later.
But the thought of never really riding Bodie again...it's hard to bear. And I can't bear to hope for the best and then end up crushed. So I'm trying not to think at all.
In short, the news about Bodie was, in the vet's words, very bad.
The bone scan - nuclear scintigraphy - he had last Thursday revealed a subchondral bone cyst in his right hind pastern joint, which was confirmed with x-rays. Subchondral means the cyst is situated immediately under the cartilege that lines the joint. In this case, it's the joint between the long and short pastern (ankle) bones; the cyst is actually in the long (upper) bone, in the end of the bone that would touch the short (lower) bone, but for the cartilege that separates them. It's like a little pit or hole in the bone, right under (or really, above) that cartilege. The cyst is the primary issue, and it's what was causing his severe lameness - but secondarily, in response to the pain and irritation of the cyst, he's started to develop what's called "ringbone," which is excess bony growth - essentially bony arthritis, or "degenerative joint disease" - around that pastern joint, near the cyst.
The problem is that historically there has been extremely limited success in restoring horses with this type of bone cyst to soundness. Traditional treatments for arthritic-type conditions (which this is), such as joint injections and shock wave therapy, don't seem to work very well for the cysts. In Bodie's case, the developing ringbone is an additional problem - ringbone is a type of arthritis that can be very resistant to treatment as well, and once the bony growths actually extend to the surfaces inside the joint (which hasn't yet happened to Bodie, thankfully), often the horse is never sound again; the pain can't be managed well enough to keep him in work.
There are some newer treatments that are potentially more promising. There's a drug called Tildren, which is a member of a class of drugs used in France to treat osteoporosis in women (it's not approved here for human use; only for experimental use in horses). It reduces the resorption of bone - the process by which the body breaks down bone and releases the minerals. It can help various equine conditions, including arthritis; it's been shown to help with soundness in horses with bone cysts.
There's also a treatment called IRAP therapy in which a serum containing an anti-inflammatory substance called Interleuken is isolated from the horse's own blood using a sort of centrifuge; this substance can be frozen and later re-injected back into the horse's joint(s) to reduce the inflammatory proteins that cause the degredation of cartilege in the joint and decrease cartilege production. It can be extremely effective for certain types of joint issues.
The vet told me that Bodie's best chance to regain soundness was to treat the cyst as aggressively as possible immediately. So last Friday he was administered the Tildren, both systemically through an IV drip, and locally by "perfusion" of the bad joint. Hopefully, it will stop the progress of the cyst; with best of luck, new bone will form to "fill it in" a little. The Tildren should also help the ringbone - at least stop the progression, at best improve it. Also, they drew blood so they could isolate the IRAP serum, though they won't inject it for at least a month.
But even with all that, the vet, who has seen as much of this kind of thing as any vet, is giving me just barely 50% odds that Bodie will ever be sound enough to resume his former activities - i.e., go back into full training as a dressage horse.
I know that means there's a 50% chance that he will, but I'm a negative thinker by nature... Still, I'm trying not to think about it in those terms, but instead to look at it as smaller steps. For now, it's the next month that's key. What we really want is for him to go down one to two grades in lameness by the end of a month - that will be a sign that the Tildren is working. Happily, I'm at least allowed to walk him under saddle, and he can have turnout.
So that's where things stand. I've pretty much made the decision to look for another horse - I'd been considering it for a while anyway, because I feel like it's getting tougher and tougher for Griggs to do the work I ask of him, and I like having two in active work - now with Bodie out of commission for the foreseeable future, I'm thinking I want to do it sooner rather than later.
But the thought of never really riding Bodie again...it's hard to bear. And I can't bear to hope for the best and then end up crushed. So I'm trying not to think at all.