Horse gonitis symptoms

Question

What are the symptoms of gonitis in horses? What is the cause and how do you fix it?

Answer 1

Great question.

Yes, this horse will definetly trot off lame with a flexion test.

http://lib.bioinfo.pl/pmid:4921442

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index....

Causes:

Inflammation in the stifle due to injury may lead to degenerative joint disease.

  

Also OCD, upward fixation of the patella, injuries to the medial or lateral collective ligaments, Cruciate ligaments, menisci or bacterial infections will contribute to lameness.  

Healing may begin with prolonged rest, injections of steroids, and or bute.  Surgery may be indicated in the severity of  OCD.

The severity of the injury or inflammation will determine whether or not the horse has a succesfull recovery...a chronic condition will hinder a successful recovery due to the potential for arthritic changes in the stifle area.    

Have known two horses with "gonitis"; one a TB mare used in dressage and another was a yearling AQHA mare intended as a rail horse with a specialty of western pleasure.  The yearling will never have a show career as the OCD was too great as she had a major area of bone lesion.  The TB mare was "ok" to be a brood mare but her show career was over.

Answer 2

Any of several causes may lead to the inflammation...upward patellar fixation, infection, ligament damage, cartilage damage, etc. of the joint all may be the cause, and the treatment would be related to the cause.

Commonly, the gait is impaired, with a swinging movement that has a shortened stride, or the hock remaining in flexion.

the most important thing to determine in gonitis is what is causing it....only then can how to fix it be determined.

I'm not a vet, but if you are talking about flexion test of the stifle joint, it would.  If you are talking about flexion test of the hock, or other leg joint, I don't know.