OCD - diagnosis with Ultrasound, MRI or other ? Also in vets

[maginn]

I had my mare's hocks x-rayed in Sept, as she had a swollen hock. She was also sore in her back which by chriropractor thinks was coming from the hock.

She was not lame but became slightly lame with a flexion test. The vet suspected OCD but they couldn't find anything wrong with her, so with their recommendation I turned her away in the hope that it was maybe just a strain (she had fallen in the field some weeks before when tazzing about and had been slightly lame for 2 days then she seemed fine).

However I have noticed that the hock joint seems to be swelling whenever the joint is flexed, as she has mud fever on that leg as well (aaahhh) she is waving at me when I am trying to treat it and I noticed that the joint noticably swells immediately afterwards, she is not lame though.

I keep thinking it must be OCD but my vets (well respected horse vets) said as there was nothing showing on xray they wanted to "give her the benefit of the doubt". This is all well and good but my thoughts are if there is a problem it would be best to treat it early. I noticed in H&H this week that they are advocating ultrasound for diagnosis of OCD but they only mention in the stifles, can they use for Hocks as well ? If there is only a cartlidge problem, rather than bone chips this will prob not show up on x -ray so I wonder if it would be worth having an ultrasound done, or would I need to have MRI ? Or something else...? My insurance will only cover 1/2 the cost of an MRI scan so want to avoid this if possible as likely to cost the earth I should imagine.

Have any of you had a diagnisis by means others than Xray.
I wonder if I might be better to send her for a full evaluation at newmarket, or am I being over the top ?

She is such a lovely horse I want to do the absolute best for her.

 

[CBFan]

Xray is the most common method of diagnosis for OCD but my filly had ultrasound scans on her stifles as they suspected something 'non boney' causing an abnormality and sure enough they found it.

I remember when my first mare was diagnosed with 'bone spavin' she actually had very little boney change showing on the xray but was noticably lame and a bonescan showed up 'hotspots' on the hocks indicating that they were the site of pain. she had the joints medicated with steroids and didn't look back.

Have your vets mentioned medicating the joint?

 

[maginn]

Not yet...I am going to call them on Monday to discuss the next step. It is so difficult without a diagnosis. I was at Your horse live yesterday and there was a vet there who was on a stand advertising a standing MRI. Apparently OCD in the hock is not always very easy to diagnose in the hock. They said even an MRI might not be conclusive. His suggestion was to go away & work her until she went lame, but the problem is she wasn't lame when she was in work before, so how will this help ? Anyway I would feel terrible inflicting pain on my lovely horse and surely this is likely to make any problem she does have worse. Woudn't it be better to treat something earlier rather than later ? He is not my vet so didn't see the point in having an argument about it. He also mentioned bone scans but said they are not much use in the hocks except with young TB's. I just hope I can get to the bottom of it, as not knowing is doing my head in ! I am going to ask for nerve blocks as someone else on the forum has commented that she could be bilaterally lame, and if that is the case it would show the lameness up.