OCD in the shoulder. What to do?

[About_Time1]

A little background. Now yearling filly was kicked in her left shoulder as a foal. Her owner at the time recognized the hemotoma on her shoulder but filly was sound and was fine in the following months so she was sold. Over time, lameness developed. New owner had complete workup done. Found OCD in the site of injured shoulder and vets said it was from when she was kicked as a foal. Other joints were xrayed to confirm no other OCD in them. So they feel the OCD is from the kick only and not a growth-related problem.

Filly is currently lame. Vets feel she should improve slightly with time but the site is in a place where surgery is not an option. They feel she should be able to be a broodmare someday but there’s a small chance she could end up being ok to be ridden. Only time will tell that.

I am now purchasing her as a broodmare a great price. She is very sweet, has wonderful conformation and am told had movement to die for before all this happened. The people I am buying her from are friends and I totally trust what they tell me. I am happy to do all for my new filly that I can. I am wondering if anyone has any experience with this. She is on OCD pellets (a supplement specifically designed for horses with OCD). Are there any other therapies that could be helpful to her? What about shock wave therapy? Or those machines that people can rent? Or does anyone have any other ideas?

[NorCalDressage]

Is the OCD a chip/fragment or a lesion in the bone?

[Diamondindykin]

A good friend of mine has a reining mare with an OCD lesion in her shoulder. It only seems to bother her when she in show condition. The first year it was diagnosed they injected the joint (I am not sure with what). It worked great for 8 months and then she went lame again. They injected it again and it didn’t improve at all. They decided to put her on Equioxx to get her through fair. The next thing they are going to try is IRAP. If this doesn’t work they will retire her.

Good luck with your filly!

[Parrotnutz]

[QUOTE=About Time;5048148]
A little background. Now yearling filly was kicked in her left shoulder as a foal. Her owner at the time recognized the hemotoma on her shoulder but filly was sound and was fine in the following months so she was sold. Over time, lameness developed. New owner had complete workup done. Found OCD in the site of injured shoulder and vets said it was from when she was kicked as a foal. Other joints were xrayed to confirm no other OCD in them. So they feel the OCD is from the kick only and not a growth-related problem.

Filly is currently lame. Vets feel she should improve slightly with time but the site is in a place where surgery is not an option. They feel she should be able to be a broodmare someday but there’s a small chance she could end up being ok to be ridden. Only time will tell that.

I am now purchasing her as a broodmare a great price. She is very sweet, has wonderful conformation and am told had movement to die for before all this happened. The people I am buying her from are friends and I totally trust what they tell me. I am happy to do all for my new filly that I can. I am wondering if anyone has any experience with this. She is on OCD pellets (a supplement specifically designed for horses with OCD). Are there any other therapies that could be helpful to her? What about shock wave therapy? Or those machines that people can rent? Or does anyone have any other ideas?[/QUOTE]

You may want to contact Dr. Patty Doyle at Mid Atlantic Equine in Ringoes, NJ. She has written papers on Shoulder OCD and also operated on my Gelding when she found his shoulder lesion. He is now a retired/lawn ornament who gets ridden by his new home once in a while. His lesion was very small and in the joint so because of insurance we felt it was worth a chance to see if we could prevent anymore unsoundness, as over time most do get worse. Surgery was a complete success but the horse was lamer 8 months later so he was turned out for the past year, but is not sound to be a perfomance horse
Patty can help educate you on what you may face depending on where the lesion is…but from all I experienced and from others I know porgnosis for a sound horse is not good. IRAP therapy was done on my boy.

[About_Time1]

Thank you so much. I will look into IRAP and contact the vet you mention. Sounds like she has seen quite a few cases if she has written papers on it. This is very helpful. I really don’t expect this filly to ever be sound but I still want to try everything I can for her. I don’t want to just turn her out and let her be and miss a chance to have been able to help her. She is such a sweetheart and really deserves a great home and if being a mommy is her only job, then it is. I am satisfied I am not reproducing a hereditary unsoundness…just an injury gone bad. Any other additional advice would be very appreciated.

[Parrotnutz]

[QUOTE=About Time;5048731]
Thank you so much. I will look into IRAP and contact the vet you mention. Sounds like she has seen quite a few cases if she has written papers on it. This is very helpful. I really don’t expect this filly to ever be sound but I still want to try everything I can for her. I don’t want to just turn her out and let her be and miss a chance to have been able to help her. She is such a sweetheart and really deserves a great home and if being a mommy is her only job, then it is. I am satisfied I am not reproducing a hereditary unsoundness…just an injury gone bad. Any other additional advice would be very appreciated.[/QUOTE]

Patty is one of the nicest vets I have ever worked with! Tell her Adriane and Pippin was the horse she operated on. She was pretty upset when his results were not good…but I have not checked in on him in a little while <kinda don’t want to know>. Hard for me to know how sound he has become because he doesn’t work very much which is a good thing for him!

[Laurierace]

I have only seen shoulder OCD once and it was not a happy ending. The shoulder is unlike any other joint as its basically held together with muscle. The filly I knew was a very growthy weanling. She was almost 15.2 at 8 months old. They tried injecting and stall resting but she was put down when they could not control her extreme pain. She was lame in the stall so certainly not even remotely pasture sound. I would pass.

[About_Time1]

Yeah I actually already purchased her. I watched her trot and canter around a field before I took her home. They said she’s so much better than she was a few weeks ago when she couldn’t even bare weight on it for long. I am usually very hesitant about these sorts of deals but she found a way into my heart. All I can say is that I will do my best with her and see what happens.

[Fharoah]

I know of one that got diagnosed at three lameness showed at the walk. The horse had surgery at WSU and came sound now at seven is getting stiff and the owner may start on legend or adequan.

[About_Time1]

Does anyone know what sort of diet a horse with an OCD should be on? Now that I own her, she’s getting all the grass hay she will eat and the grain is triple crown complete which I believe is about 11% protein and 10% fat.

[Diamondindykin]

I don’t think that it matters what diet she is on as long as she stays somewhat lean. Lots of weight would put more strain on the shoulder.

Honestly I would never breed her :no: The added weight might hurt her more and I would hate to get in the middle of the pregnancy and figure that out. It would be very unfortune for the mare:(

[Fharoah]

At age one I would really get a second or third opinion on if surgery could possibly be an option as maybe she could still make a full recovery. I aslo would not breed her as it is possible the OCD could be passed on.

[About_Time1]

I was thinking about getting a second opinion about surgery. Have had two vets tell me she would be fine to be bred. Also if you’ll read back through my original post, you will see I had said she developed the OCD a few months after being kicked and vets highly suspect this is the reason for the OCD development. Especially since numerous other joints were checked and had no OCD. If it turns out she can’t be bred I guess I’m in big trouble because that’s what I just bought her for. Of course I would not breed her if the vets thought she’d pass it on. I do try to be responsible.

[Diamondindykin]

I don’t think the issue (at least for me) is that she might pass the OCD on but what will the toll be on HER physically The added weight of pregnancy is probably going to hurt her but the fact is you will not know until she is pregnant. So what if she gets midway through her pregnancy or farther and the weight is making her suffer? You can’t abort, you can’t give pain meds so she would have to suffer until she gives birth. IMHO it is a very risky gamble and not fair to her…if it doesn’t bother her then great but if it does she is the one to suffer

I hope that you can get a second opinion on the surgery. How much is the surgery? Is it cheap enough to take the risk?

[Laurierace]

Ok I missed the part that you already bought her. In that case I would put her on a pretty big dose of OCD pellets. Not Cal Density. No idea if it really does anything but it always makes me feel like I am doing “something” when I give it in situations like that. I have only used it on one horse and an inoperable bone cyst did go away but there is no way to tell of the pellets or the time alone did the trick.
Since she is young I think you will have your verdict on the success or failure of this venture long before you have to worry about the weight of a pregnancy. She is either going to be ok or she won’t.

[About_Time1]

Thank you guys. I will definately take my time with her and try to figure out what she will be able to handle before I breed her. I will get a second opinion on the xrays and see what can be done to make her most comfortable. That is why I most wanted to pick your brains…to see if you guys have had any successes with various treatments.

I don’t think I said before that she is on OCD pellets and the woman I bought her from said that she had made vast improvement since being started on it. She’s been on it now for almost a month.

I’ve only had her for 3 days now. I turned her out for a little bit yesterday and she is careful with that shoulder for sure but very active. She plays and bucks around just fine so far but I guess only time will tell.

[About_Time1]

An update. I had a second set of x-rays (this time digital) taken of her shoulder and she does have a rather large OCD lesion. My vet took the x-rays and sent them to Cornell University to be evaluated. I was originally told this was in a location that made it inoperable but Cornell feels that it does need surgery or she will develop arthritis in the near future and pain will increase. Her prognosis with surgery is much better than without. Apparently, there is a vet there who is quite skilled at these difficult arthroscopic surgeries. I think I am going to go ahead and have the surgery done because I think the alternative for her is to have more pain that will build over time without it.

[Stacie]

Are you going to go for the surgery right away or wait and see if the nutritional changes make a difference?

Good luck!

[About_Time1]

I am told that the sooner the surgery is done, the better chance for a good outcome so I won’t wait it out to see what the nutritional changes can do for her. Her surgery is scheduled for the 18th. I was assured that without the surgery, she will develop arthritis at a young age and the prognosis will not be as good. I guess I just have to trust what Cornell says. I hear the surgeon who will be working on her is one of the best. I hope that’s true.

[Impressive_Star]

I know this is an old post, but curious what we’re the results of the surgery? Did she come sound?