Late winter/early spring is the time of year when those of us with the competitive urge start planning for the upcoming season of competitions. Top of mind is generally conditioning, schedule planning, and diet to ensure our horses are in peak performance shape come spring. But let’s not forget about the importance of addressing our horses from the inside out to make sure that there aren’t underlying issues that are going to rear their ugly head once competition season arrives. As many of you know, Dr. Penttila competes at a high level on her barrel horse so we’re going to share with you some tips and tricks from our veterinary team on how we keeps her horses in top form. In this blog post we’re going to explore the reasons why to consider taking radiographs of your young horses before they start into training.
The primary reason to take these radiographs in long yearlings and two year olds is to know what’s there before that horse starts using its joints to train. If you have an OCD chip or a stifle cyst, and you don’t find out until the horse is 60 days into training and starting to have some joint swelling or lameness, that’s 60 days of time and money that you could have used more wisely. As well, it’s 60 days of increased inflammation in that joint that will predispose the horse to more arthritis down the road.
In addition, there may be other findings that will guide treatment on screening radiographs; if the horse has juvenile osteoarthritis starting in its lower hock joints, for example, it may really benefit from ProStride or other regenerative treatments in those joints in its early career.
OCD (osteochondritis dissecans) is most common in the hocks, followed by the stifles. It’s these joints that we will most commonly radiograph for screening purposes in young horses. OCD is also quite common in the fetlocks and can be found in other joints too. Technically, it is a failure of the bone to form properly in these joints. In practicality, it often means a chip fragment in the joint, acting like a small piece of gravel in between as the joint moves, causing trauma to the cartilage and inflammation to the joint. Arthroscopic surgery is the mainstay of treatment for these horses. It involves small incisions to go in with a camera, remove the fragments, and clean up the joint. Usually horses can be back in training within 60 days.
Stifle cysts (subchondral cystic lesions of the stifle) are another way that bone can fail to form properly in a young horse. Lameness will often start as the horse is brought into work, but can also manifest later in life. Surgical placement of a screw across the cyst encourages this cyst to fill in with bone and heal. Usually horses can be back in training within 90-120 days.
Both of these types of surgeries are best done before the horse is missing any training days, and before the joint has taken any true work. They have a good to excellent prognosis for the horse to go forward in an athletic career.