Yearling with OCD in stifles. Opinions and your experiences?

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dressagediva456

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My yearling has just been diagnosed with OCD in his stifles. Only low grade, as no chips have come away yet. He just has lesions. Right is worse than left. Vet has said it is 2/5 on the scale, and doesn't want to do surgery yet. He has suggested 4 months box rest, restricted diet and re xray after 4 months. I have read online that using the conservative method usually also involves anti inflammatory injections to help the healing process?

Please could anyone tell me if they have had success without surgery. I am worried that I will coop him up for 4 months and then have to do the surgery route anyway. Only positive thing is it is coming in to winter, and he hates the cold anyway.

He is 100% sound, not lame at all.

Thanks in advance :)
 
Hey Dressagediva456, I'm sorry to hear your yearling has OCD in his stifle joints.
I know everyone's experiences of this will be slightly different, but I used to have a lovely lad who had OCD in both of his stifles. I bought him as a 5 year old, after taking it really slowly with him, 6 months down the line he struggled to get the correct canter lead on the right rein... this lead to his diagnosis although he hadn't been lame prior to this. He had a Tildren injection and this worked really well for him, I believe there's another drug that has replaced Tildren, but I can't remember what it's called, although you can still request Tildren. I also used Cosequin and Devils Claw and this made a big difference too. Ultimately I could only ever hack him, no more schooling as he couldn't cope and eventually I couldn't hack him either. He also had Adequan injections, steroids and some other weekly injections, which I can't remember either! (I've got a really bad memory!). He never had surgery as the vet at Liphook didn't recommend it for him.
Hope all goes well with your boys box rest.
 
If the flap is still attached we might well try and reattach them with PDS pins as described by Nixon et al. The aim of the surgery is to allow the lesion to return to a normal joint surface. Not all cases are suitable but they do best if treated early ( ie as soon as diagnosed). The traditional dig out surgery carries a reasonable prognosis in any event.
 
stranger1612 said:
If the flap is still attached we might well try and reattach them with PDS pins as described by Nixon et al. The aim of the surgery is to allow the lesion to return to a normal joint surface. Not all cases are suitable but they do best if treated early ( ie as soon as diagnosed). The traditional dig out surgery carries a reasonable prognosis in any event.
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Thank you i really hope my boy recovers, have pmed you!
 
Sorry to hear about your boy. How did you find out he had OCD when he has not been lame? Were you x-raying for something else? Is he insured? If he were mine I would be having a serious chat with my vet about long term prognosis before getting too invested (financially/emotionally etc) in treating him at this stage. I know I would be pretty reluctant to box rest such a young horse unless the odds were very good that it would be the solution to the problem. What were your future plans for him? My horse (6 yo) is having stifle issues, not OCD, my vet expects her to return to full fitness but still will not recommend her returning to endurance/jumping big fences. My vet is a very experienced horse vet and I trust his judgement fully and that he will be 100% honest with me, if you are not in the same boat then it may also be worth looking at getting a second opinion. Have you scanned as well to see if there are any soft tissue issues to deal with too?
 
Sorry to hear....

You may well have to accept that he is going to deteriorate, I bought a KPWN x TB gelding as a three year old he was diagnosed at five with OCD in one of his stifles.
It showed up originally in him just being off colour and no longer as keen in his work as he had been, he was intended to be an eventer and had, had a super attitude. After diagnosis it was discovered that there were complications, we made the decision with the vet to operate on him and he went on box rest whilst we crossed our fingers. To cut a long story short, the surgery failed he was fine standing in box, but hopping lame after hooliganing around in the field and he was PTS in Dec 2011.

I hope it works out for you, I think that you need to consider that you are unlikely to have the horse that you want back, at best one that cant do everything or is in and out of work, worst case unable to work fullstop.

I'm hoping that treatment and diagnosis has improved, my insurers AM TRust Equine were superb, but it was a horrible time for me and my friend who backed him and competed him for me.
 
Thanks for your response, although I feel my horses case is quite different from yours, as he is only 17 months old and my vet who specialises in young horses and breeding has said that it will be very very unlikely this will effect him later on in life. He has said 4 months of box rest, and then to re xray. It is very mild and in the early stages, and he has never been lame at all. I just had a feeling he was growing too quickly so xrayed for peace of mind. Very glad I did! If the xrays have no improvement in 4 months, we will go for surgery.
 
Also I am very sorry to hear about your horse, must have been heartbreaking. I am having many sleepless nights over this, as this horse means the utter world to me.
 
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