I am familiar with this disease in foals and its treatments at that age. However, I am interested in knowing if anyone has had long term effects from this disease, as the horse turns 4, 5 or 6 years old? Did any of them develop arthritis, OCD that could be traced back to this condition etc…?? Cant seem to find anything long term, as very often it can be corrected as a foal. But what if it wasn’t corrected properly?? Thanks!
I had a foal who had epiphysitis in the fetlocks and nothing we did made much difference. She was intermittently lame from it into her yearling year and then she just kind of grew out of it. She was a perfectly sound riding horse and had a perfect vetting when I sold her.
I have never seen any long term issues.
My WB was affected, not mildly, in his front pasterns, not lame but there was a good bit of heat, when I got him as a weanling (he was getting 10lb of Purina Jr a day :eek:) A feed change and some restriction of movement fixed it, and it was never a problem from then on.
More problems would be expected if it goes on longer, as it could damage the growth plate permanently.
[QUOTE=JB;7495121]
More problems would be expected if it goes on longer, as it could damage the growth plate permanently.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, gotta agree with this - I’ve seen it in a few youngsters caught (and corrected) early, and no lasting problems. OTOH, I saw a few QH foals who had it, the breeder was just amazed at all the “Bone” his foals were developing (OMG!). And they all ended up lame. Feed a heavy diet of alfalfa and concentrated feed. Luckily, only a few foals before breeder realized he couldn’t afford this business venture.
I think if there is no bone changes they turn around just fine unless they develop an ALD from it.
Mmhhh good info so far thanks! So let us just assume the growth plates did not get the opportunity to fully form/close as a baby…what symptoms would a horse show now at ages 4 -6? Would he be significantly lame? Or overall just stiff, not move with fluidity and lack of impulsion?
