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 A Gopher's Worst Nightmare
Posts: 5094
 
Location: Southern Oregon | If you were looking at young barrel horses and a super nice one came along, completely sound as always has been. Already running the pattern and placing, under the age of 7. Then your xrays show ocd in the hocks, would you continue your search or still consider this horse or move on? I have never dealt with OCD, and a friend is asking me about this situation.
Edited by cowgirl_3207 2015-09-21 4:31 PM
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 Expert
Posts: 3782
   
Location: Gainesville, TX | How bad and how much maintenance will they need? |
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A Gopher's Worst Nightmare
Posts: 5094
Location: Southern Oregon | I'm guessing it was very mild, this mare has never been lame or sore. The owner has an AMAZING vet, and she takes immaculate care of all of her horses and they are all seen by the vet regularly . I'm not sure on the maintenance since I have never owned one with OCD |
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Expert
Posts: 3782
Location: Gainesville, TX | Does the horse run and win in the 1D? If so I'd be willing to go with it. Honestly most horses are dealing with some kind of arthritis by the time they are 10. If your friend is willing to ice and inject if necessary (maybe some pentosan and legend) I bet the horse still has a number of competition years left. I'd just be eyes wide open on the deal. Maybe drug test just in case. |
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 IMA No Hair Style Gal
Posts: 2594
| I got a yellow horse out of Pat Cowan a year or so ago. He is 5 and has minor OCD in his stifle. It is easy to maintain. I actually just keep him on Equithrive with no issues. I had him for sale for a bit but everyone wanted to run when I said he had minor OCD.Honestly, a lot of horses have minor things such as this. For this horse you know about it upfront. My advice would be to read up on OCD and get a few vet opinions and go from there.As for maintaining my horse with OCD, it is easy and I don't mind it really at all. His is in his left stifle only according to his x rays. He would crossfire so had x rays done after we ruled out other things and on the supplement he doesn't crossfire. |
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 Saint Stacey
| Depends. The one I had with OCD's in the hocks was fine after we did surgery and had them removed. They can't heal without help. So saying the horse is fine is sort of a false statement. They might be fine now, but if the OCD flakes off in the joint capsule, you will have a mess on your hands. OCD's happen when the cartilage doesn't change to bone. You basically have pockets of cartilage in the bone. I would personally keep looking. |
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IMA No Hair Style Gal
Posts: 2594
| My vet sent xrays to Dr. Park, who runs Park Equine Hospital in Lexington KY. Said surgery would cause damage and our horse was not a candidate otherwise we were very willing to do the surgery. Supplement manages it fine, as long as horse is priced accordingly I would send the xrays already taken to a few vets for opinions to help make the decision. Good luck! |
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 Go For It!
Location: Texas | SKM - 2015-09-21 6:24 PM
Depends. The one I had with OCD's in the hocks was fine after we did surgery and had them removed. They can't heal without help. So saying the horse is fine is sort of a false statement. They might be fine now, but if the OCD flakes off in the joint capsule, you will have a mess on your hands. OCD's happen when the cartilage doesn't change to bone. You basically have pockets of cartilage in the bone. I would personally keep looking.
SKM is correct... If it is a really nice horse, and priced right, the ocd lesion wouldn't scare me off. I would definitely have surgery on it to remove it though. You should be able to get it done for about $1500.00 +/-
I had the surgery done on a nice mare I had and she has had no issues with it to date. Good luck!
Let me add that if it were in the stifle I would probably pass on him.
Edited by grinandbareit 2015-09-21 7:33 PM
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  Warmblood with Wings
Posts: 27846
Location: Florida.. | grinandbareit - 2015-09-21 8:30 PM SKM - 2015-09-21 6:24 PM Depends. The one I had with OCD's in the hocks was fine after we did surgery and had them removed. They can't heal without help. So saying the horse is fine is sort of a false statement. They might be fine now, but if the OCD flakes off in the joint capsule, you will have a mess on your hands. OCD's happen when the cartilage doesn't change to bone. You basically have pockets of cartilage in the bone. I would personally keep looking. SKM is correct... If it is a really nice horse, and priced right, the ocd lesion wouldn't scare me off. I would definitely have surgery on it to remove it though. You should be able to get it done for about $1500.00 +/- I had the surgery done on a nice mare I had and she has had no issues with it to date. Good luck! Let me add that if it were in the stifle I would probably pass on him.
agree |
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 You get what you give
Posts: 13030
Location: Texas | OCDs are defective cartilage and subchondral bone. Realize, cartilage is not seen on radiographs, so the defect that you are seeing on radiograph is truly a bony problem and a cartilage problem. and just a quick clarification- cartilage does not turn into bone, it's replaced by bone either through the normal process of endochondral ossification or through pathology that somehow sends blood supply to cartilage... I know it sounds nit picky.. but why not mention it LOL.
So when you see an OCD.. there is defect in the bone underneath the cartilage that you can see. what you can't see is how messed up the cartilage is. You don't see that until you scope them. You can sometimes get an idea if there's a mineralized flap on the radiograph (which is a hallmark difference between OC and OCD). So long story short, like what SKM has said.. they may be fine now, but they aren't going to stay fine.. well, I mean maybe the random horse may stay fine.. but in my experience, it eventually shows up.
Injections are not a permanent fix to OCD.. in fact, its not a fix at all. Joint injections just treat the clinical signs. |
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