Hello,
I’m here to get some info and cases of what others have done with weanlings who develop epiphysitis with tendon contraction to the point of knuckling over.
I have a coming 8 months old filly (May '21) who came in from turnout in November with bilateral knuckled hind fetlocks (she was 5-6 months then), had the vet out immediately and she diagnosed epiphysitis as her hind fetlocks appeared swollen as well - the fronts were swollen 2 weeks after this visit when we did radiographs at her recheck.
The vet’s direction was for diet management, bute for her obvious pain, and paddock rest to reduce excessive movement. Tried FoalAide from Buckeye but didnt help. She’s on orchard grass hay, beet pulp with flax to get her bute and supplements into her. She’s not overweight.
I’ve followed this very carefully, but saw little to no improvement for the first 6 weeks which my vet agreed was not a good sign and recommended we look at surgery or consider euthanasia.
I decided to give her a few more weeks to see if it would resolve with no other treatment options available and surgery is not an option due to a combination of cost and intensive recovery for the filly (60 days stall rest with bandaging, splinting, etc). I switched her to another supplement which seemed to help, then we had a cold snap here on the west coast and she miraculously recovered for 3 weeks over the holidays. She has been off bute and continued diet management and I thought we were in the clear. Last week when it warmed up again she started knuckling again slightly in the hinds and now has swelling in all fetlocks again… I wonder if the cold weather was helpful for reducing the inflammation and pain (??)
This is now week 10, despite her improvement for 3 weeks we’re back to square one now, surgery is not an option, this is a filly I rescued from auction as a 4 month old (she didn’t have this when purchased) and I hadn’t planned to keep her long term but to adopt her out. I’m concerned about her long term prognosis for being sound or even recovering from this at all, very few people if any would adopt her at this point. I’ve dumped a lot of money into this girls recovery and love her to bits but I need to make a call at some point soon. I don’t want to pass off an unsound young horse to an uncertain future. If she hadn’t recovered for that 3 weeks, the decision would be fairly clear but I’m questioning it now.
My question is for those with experience dealing with this as owners, breeders, vets - what would you do with this situation? How long is it appropriate to wait it out for her to fully recover or should I be electing for humane euthanasia at this time? I’ve read other threads on epiphysitis here but none seem to be as severe a case as this filly. Any input would be helpful to make the best decision for her.
Thank you!
