Hock problems

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Marigold4

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If a horse has an osteochondral fragment on its hock, discovered on xray, that is still attached but horse is 100% sound, flexions good, no swelling so not causing any problems, will it definitely cause a problem in the future or might the xray result be an incidental finding and might never be an issue? Horse is young and in light work.
 
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Thanks for replying. Vet is recommending taking it out to prevent later complications, but the arthroscopy doesn't seem as minor an op as he suggests.
 
I don't have much to offer other than I had a horse vetted that had this on his x-rays. My vets conservative view was that it will likely cause some issues at some point but that could just be earlier onset OA in that joint than you'd get otherwise and could be much later down the line, but she also advised that removing it could cause equal amounts of trauma to the joint that would have a similar effect later on.... so she was very much "there's no straight answer" 🤷‍♀️ I chose not to go ahead with buying purely because I probably wouldn't have operated on a sound horse, which meant as I had the x-rays I would never be covered on insurance if we did end up with complications in that hock 🤦‍♀️ But if it was a horse I already owned I'm not sure I'd be massively concerned and probably put it down to one of those things "if I didn't know about it I wouldn't be worrying".

Curiously I actually have the same thing in my own ankle, only discovered by chance on an x-ray - doesn't cause me any issues and I had no idea it was there! :oops:
 
I’d be tempted to leave it alone personally. Can you get a second opinion based on the X-rays? Might be worth getting another person to look at it if the vet is insisting
 
Thanks, Ime. So can I check with you, the fragment discovered on vetting was still attached and not floating around in the joint? You thought it was worth the risk, so bought the horse anyway?
 
Traks said:
Honestly I’d leave it myself. Is it costly to do?
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Yes, that's probably right. It's not my horse though, thankfully. It's a friend's young horse that had a vetting and this was discovered, so it puts her in a difficult position regarding selling.
 
ihatework said:
Might never be an issue. I’d leave it alone if at all possible.

The annoying thing will be if you are insured, you leave it, but it needs to come out in the future.
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It's a friend's horse and this was discovered on a vetting for a purchaser, so it's difficult to know what to do. Have the op so that he has clean x-rays or sell for less? Or keep?
 
Marigold4 said:
Thanks, Ime. So can I check with you, the fragment discovered on vetting was still attached and not floating around in the joint? You thought it was worth the risk, so bought the horse anyway?
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I think so yes - we didn't give it much thought at the time as she 'passed' the vetting for what we wanted her to do and so we assumed points noted on review of X-rays were not a concern.
 
lme said:
I think so yes - we didn't give it much thought at the time as she 'passed' the vetting for what we wanted her to do and so we assumed points noted on review of X-rays were not a concern.
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Problem is once it’s been commented on an xray the insurance may feel differently about it!
 
Marigold4 said:
It's a friend's horse and this was discovered on a vetting for a purchaser, so it's difficult to know what to do. Have the op so that he has clean x-rays or sell for less? Or keep?
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Even if operated it’s the sort of thing that should morally be declared.

As it’s a sales horse I’d leave it at buyer discretion. Be prepared to accept an offer but I’m not sure I’d be jumping to operate (or writing the horse off as unsellable). It will reduce your buyer pool but if it’s a nice horse plenty will gamble.
 
ihatework said:
Even if operated it’s the sort of thing that should morally be declared.

As it’s a sales horse I’d leave it at buyer discretion. Be prepared to accept an offer but I’m not sure I’d be jumping to operate (or writing the horse off as unsellable). It will reduce your buyer pool but if it’s a nice horse plenty will gamble.
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Buyer has offered sale price less cost of surgery, vat, nursing etc, if it should come to that, as leg is now uninsured. Does that sound fair?
 
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