I am considering purchase of a 6 month old warmblood colt. I will be doing a prepurchase exam, no flexions, but I’m not sure about radiographs. I understand its to look for OCD, but most articles I have read say that they can resolve by themselves, so is there a point in doing them now? If no clinical signs suggesting any issues? I’ve asked a number of vets and the recommendation ranges from 10 to 30+ xrays.
Personally, I would, but not because I’d expect to find every possible thing. It’s more that I’d want to rule out any congenital deformities - like bipartite navicular. Recognize that even if you get a full set and it’s clean, OCD may develop later.
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Xray now. A 6 month old could already have all sorts of terrible (or totally fixable) issues to be found on xray. Then, do as the TB breeding farms do, and xray again at 1 or 2. This is an important step that I see a lot of people miss. At 4 they go to resale the horse and are totally shocked by something on xray. Possibly something they could have fixed had they known about it.
You don’t have to take all of the views. Back and neck don’t make much sense for a weanling, but all 4 views of the feet, at least 2 shots of each ankle (lateral and DP), 2 or 3 shots of each hock, and at least 2 views of each stifle will give you a good idea of what’s going on. And, if something odd is seen on one view, you can always add more views of that particular joint to get more info.
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