Diagnosis OCD - Anyone know anything about it

applecart14 said:
The experts are still out on whether its a hereditary condition but all research points that way so if its a mare don't breed from her.

Heres a site I have found about it.
http://www.recoveryeq.com/osteochondrosis_pro.htm
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Thank you so much for this. I called the breeder or my mares Dam, who has had 4 generations of the line and he says it is all clear. His wife was very upset at the suggestion, but the vet had suggested that it was possibly hereditory. The breeder said that he had also known the sires line very well and had never heard of OCD. He has been in contact with the sires breeder since 1982. So that may point to it being more of a feeding and nutrition issue. The thing that is worrying me is that if this joint has it, why won't other joints have it? So you operate once and then you might get more cartilage coming away in other joints? Any idea if this is the case? Do you think it can be diagnosed in an Xray if there may be a liklihood of more fragments?

Thank you so much for your feedback. Much appreciated!!!!
 
My horse had stifle OCD, a very bad case and despite an operation which was successful in the short term, two years on the problem recurred and he had to be PTS. There are success stories though with the op, I think it depends on the severity of the problem in the first instance and how well the horse takes to the recovery (mine went nuts with 9 months box rest). Good luck!
 
ive got a yearling filly too! she had the xrays and its defo confirmed, gutted. was advised not to put her through the operation even though reports state its often a success which upset me but i trust my vets! she has good days and bad days but we will take each day as it comes, atm she is very happy, out in a 13acre field with mare 14yr mare and a 34yr gelding and she has gone from a wild newforest pony sales reject to a stunning ( and atm sound) little arab yearling, doing what yearlings do best and trying to rear over my head haha! i dont regret my desision to keep her alive and i know (i also hope i realllyyyyy dont have too) have her pts when it gets cold but she is my first foal, i bought her for £75 and have never had a pony effect my emotional state so much, i completly adore her!! it too started out with fat hinds when in over winter, then one night she couldnt put any weight at all on her hinds, she basically dragged herself everywhere, the next day her stifles had like a bulge on the inside and we looked it up and found ODC. never even heard of it before, well apart from the whole scrubbing hands thing lol! we loaded her up and my vets kindly did the xrays for 1/2 price to try out a new mechine and came back with the xrays saying she had it in both stifles and will prob develope it in her fetlocks!
 
Forrest Imp - So terribly sorry to hear your news too. Boo Boo and Imp You have helped by answering another question I had about the condition and that was if I had the surgery, what was to prevent it from occurring elsewhere.
I still have another question though - Does anyone know if it can be seen whether it was caused by trauma or not? The reason I am clinging on to this is that it is the same leg that was badly beaten up about six weeks ago with a couple of hair line fractures in it. If it can be caused by a blow, then I assume that it could be operated on and she would not get a re occurrence.
It is heart breaking to think about pts a young horse that has done nothing but has oodles of potential. :(
 
speedycivic said:
Forrest Imp - So terribly sorry to hear your news too. Boo Boo and Imp You have helped by answering another question I had about the condition and that was if I had the surgery, what was to prevent it from occurring elsewhere.
I still have another question though - Does anyone know if it can be seen whether it was caused by trauma or not? The reason I am clinging on to this is that it is the same leg that was badly beaten up about six weeks ago with a couple of hair line fractures in it. If it can be caused by a blow, then I assume that it could be operated on and she would not get a re occurrence.
It is heart breaking to think about pts a young horse that has done nothing but has oodles of potential. :(
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A horse of mine was diagnosed with OCD in his hock and sent for an operation to remove the fragments and clean up the joint. It turned out it was not OCD at all but a kick. The fragment was removed and he was sound on the leg.

At the time though, I was told that even if it was OCD the prognosis was very good. Maybe that was because it was located in the hock. I don't know.
 
Thomas's OCD was in the stiffles (bilaterally as I think it can only present billaterally if OCD) and recurred in the stiffles. He either had a recurring cause or he re-injured himself during the recovery, but given the condition recur as bad as before the op, the cause was really irrelevant by that stage.
 
my 9yr old was diagnosed with OCD in both his stifles last yr. he also had a cruciate lig problem on top which i guess could have been linked to the OCD. he had arthroscopy to clean up the joints but he was never quite right from when I brought him back into work at the beginning of this yr. he seemed ok-ish for a while and we went back to doing some prelim/novice dressage but he's not sound on hard ground so have just put him out on loan as a happy hacker and hope he might have a few more yrs in him just doing low key stuff. If not I think he'll have to be PTS as he isn't happy as a field ornament, much as it breaks my heart.
 
I am so sorry to hear of this...... but the issue of OCD has been swept under the carpet for far too long..... breeders ignore it to the detriment of their reputation.
 
speedycivic said:
It is heart breaking to think about pts a young horse that has done nothing but has oodles of potential. :(
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I agree. That's why I thought it very irresponsible of someone I used to know letting her OCD mare be sold as a brood mare when there was even the slightest possibility of it being a hereditary condition just so she could either get money for her rather than sell her as a companion, or so she could in that person's eyes 'serve a useful purpose in life'. I'm sorry but to potentially put another poor animal through this painful and debilitating disease is, in my mind at the least negligent and at the most cruel. If I've upset anyone by saying that then I am sorry but I feel very strongly about this subject. They reckon that Wobblers may be hereditary and when i think about how much my wobblers horse suffered before diagnosis was finally reached I wouldn't breed from a wobblers horse either and would avoid is bloodline like the plague when looking for another horse of his breeding.

I do hope that you find the answer you are looking for Speedycivic. Best wishes.
 
Wagtail said:
A horse of mine was diagnosed with OCD in his hock and sent for an operation to remove the fragments and clean up the joint. It turned out it was not OCD at all but a kick. The fragment was removed and he was sound on the leg.

At the time though, I was told that even if it was OCD the prognosis was very good. Maybe that was because it was located in the hock. I don't know.
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Wow, this was good news for me. If I could know that this was what it was, then I think the prognosis may be better. The thing is that it has occurred in only one leg and it is the leg that was kicked to pieces on the 11th July.
 
Booboos said:
Thomas's OCD was in the stiffles (bilaterally as I think it can only present billaterally if OCD) and recurred in the stiffles. He either had a recurring cause or he re-injured himself during the recovery, but given the condition recur as bad as before the op, the cause was really irrelevant by that stage.
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This is also very interesting to me. Did you get signs in both legs? My mare has one leg affected and it is the leg that was kicked very badly on the 11th July. With several hairline fractures
 
star said:
my 9yr old was diagnosed with OCD in both his stifles last yr. he also had a cruciate lig problem on top which i guess could have been linked to the OCD. he had arthroscopy to clean up the joints but he was never quite right from when I brought him back into work at the beginning of this yr. he seemed ok-ish for a while and we went back to doing some prelim/novice dressage but he's not sound on hard ground so have just put him out on loan as a happy hacker and hope he might have a few more yrs in him just doing low key stuff. If not I think he'll have to be PTS as he isn't happy as a field ornament, much as it breaks my heart.
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Hi Star..that is what I am worried about, a long term problem for her. I can face not riding her ever again, but she needs to be well and have a purpose as she is only just six years old
 
Still can't get my head around the hereditary side of things? Do you think that maybe in the case of my horse, it was just one of those things - if she has OCD confirmed? Because I have spoken to the breeders, small scale very small scale who have owned 5 generations of same dam (dam, Grand dam, Great Grand dam, Great Great Grand dam) never heard of OCD and no issues. Then on the sires side, The breeder has known them for 30 years, and no occurrence. The dams breeder in touch will all the "children" except one and all good. I also don't get the feeding thing that could cause it. She was neither fed a lot or under fed. All of this just doesn't fit. And I can't help myself hoping and praying that it is a fracture rather than OCD.
Have a stack of questions for the vet
If it occurrs bilaterally, then he should xray the other hock?
Can you see if it is OCD from the Xray - given the message about OCD diagnosed and it was a fracture.
How can he be sure it is OCD?
Would the surface of the joints look flakey?
I think my dear horses life hangs in the balance and so it is critical the vet gets this right.
Also the wounds she had on the 11th July were to stifle, and cannon bone on that leg. ( whilst she was on loan to someone) We don't know how long she was left in the field with these wounds. But also there were two other nasty older wounds to the front of both hocks. The vet never Xrayed the hocks. (Not blaming him when I say this, as this was not an area of concern) but maybe there was some damage there that got missed and she has only just started work. Was doing 10 min 2x daily and went up to 20 min 2x daily when this hock blew up on day three.
 
Sorry to hear your horse has been diagnosed with OCD. I went through this with my mare a few years ago. She had a textbook lesion on x-ray of her hock - she only ever had it unilaterally, but we did x-ray both hocks. If your vet has done nerve blocks and pinpointed the lameness to only that one hock, he may feel its not necssary to x-ray both though, but it is certainly worth questioning him about this, and if you are covered by insurance it may be easier to do both for your peace of mind (they can also have lesions and not be lame from them).

I opted for the surgery with my mare which went well and she was back in full work after about 6 months. Unfortunately however, within 2 years the hock was so riddled with arthritis that she had to be PTS aged 8. this is definitely an aspect to discuss and consider with your vet too as operating on any joint will lead to an inflammatory response which will highly increase your chances of artritis developing - i dont think this was an aspect my vet discussed with me in enough depth beforehand - i thought i'd have at least 5-10 years before i had to worry about it (especially in a horse so young - she was 5 or 6 at the time of the surgery), and from his reaction a few years later it seemed like this was a far more common side effect then i had originally thought.

what breed is your horse? it definitely has been shown to be hereditary in some breeds (warmbloods particularly) and from over feeding youngsters, but it can also be related to hormone inbalances. My mare was belgium wb and also the most hormone thing on the planet, so never did quite work out whether it was hereditary or hormone related!

Good luck with whatever option you go for, and dont be afraid of asking your vet lots and lots and questions and taking your time in deciding your options!
 
these stories are so sad, i feel for all off you, lola was confirmed as having OCD at just 8 months old, her dad was a 2yr old colt, and she was an "accident" according to the owner! we also bought her half sister ( same dad) and she is fine, absolutly stunning.

has anyone heard of horses out growing it???
 
forest imp said:
has anyone heard of horses out growing it???
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OCD can occur in all breeds, but the incidence rate seems to be higher in Thoroughbreds and Standardbreds. It is not generally thought of as a genetic disorder, but it does seem to occasionally follow “family lines,” said White. McIlwraith is working with researchers in the United Kingdom to more closely look for genetic biomarkers for OCD in blood samples of race horses.

If a young horse develops lesions, they aren’t usually detectable on radiographs until a horse is 6 months old. Yet it’s possible that even with the evidence of lesions on radiographs, the horse may not be showing any signs of discomfort or lameness. Sometimes lameness or swelling around the joint may not show up until later. The tough call here is to decide whether to do surgery anyway, or to employ more conservative treatments such as stall rest and limited hand-walking to see if the lesion goes away on its own.
 
speedycivic said:
This is also very interesting to me. Did you get signs in both legs? My mare has one leg affected and it is the leg that was kicked very badly on the 11th July. With several hairline fractures
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The first sign of trouble was one of his patellas locking. The vet prescribed a few weeks rest, it got better, back into work, problem recurred, so we looked into it further. It was only when he was nerve blocked that we realised he was seriously lame on both hinds (I believe stiffle OCD is always bilateral but I may be confused about that). In retrospect you could feel it in the way he was when ridden because I felt it again 18 months after the op when he relapsed and two weeks later the patella started locking again. I can't quite describe the problem, first time round we thought it was a schooling issue, but he was leaning on the right rein and right shoulder (the left stiffle was the worst affected) and you could feel stiffness through his back - although at the same time he was winning Novice BD so it wasn't incredibly obvious that this was a physical rather than a training problem.

My vet advised against x-rays as you can't see the cartiledge on them, we went straight for arthroscopy where the scope of the problem on both legs became evident immediately. When it recurred I went by the symptoms, decided he had had enough and retired him.
 
Booboos said:
The first sign of trouble was one of his patellas locking. The vet prescribed a few weeks rest, it got better, back into work, problem recurred, so we looked into it further. It was only when he was nerve blocked that we realised he was seriously lame on both hinds (I believe stiffle OCD is always bilateral but I may be confused about that). In retrospect you could feel it in the way he was when ridden because I felt it again 18 months after the op when he relapsed and two weeks later the patella started locking again. I can't quite describe the problem, first time round we thought it was a schooling issue, but he was leaning on the right rein and right shoulder (the left stiffle was the worst affected) and you could feel stiffness through his back - although at the same time he was winning Novice BD so it wasn't incredibly obvious that this was a physical rather than a training problem.

My vet advised against x-rays as you can't see the cartiledge on them, we went straight for arthroscopy where the scope of the problem on both legs became evident immediately. When it recurred I went by the symptoms, decided he had had enough and retired him.
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Very helpful info. xxxx
 
forest imp said:
has anyone heard of horses out growing it???
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My horse has, I think... (fingers crossed!).

He was diagnosed with it at 3 months old in his hind fetlocks after they swelled up, and the xrays showed a bone fragment at the back of the long pastern bone. On follow-up xrays, this had reattached.



He's 4 yrs old now, and I've backed him and ridden him away quietly over the summer and he doesn't seem to be showing any problems.
 
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