Stifle OCD in baby :(

[Furst_Edition_Farm]

Equs - Please, don’t think I was pointing any fingers. I meant it when i said I know how difficult this situation is. I truly understand your pain. When my guy was first clinically lame we drained over 75 cc’s of fluid off his stifle - and probably left another 30 or more in there. (I wouldn’t let anybody get very aggressive with the joint. Nothing went in, and no more came out. Once there was the slightest resistance to the syringe being aspirated we stopped draining) I mostly tapped it to be sure there was no infection - after that I was downright obstinate about any needles coming near him! He also has some nasty cartilage flaps, and the ultrasound truly is more terrifying than the rads b/c that soft tissue is so apparent. There is NO easy choice, I was just hoping to show that there was another option in some cases. I hope as the days go on, your choices become easier and more obvious.

Jenny - Continued jingles for Ruffi’s stifle and Courdoroy’s knee! It’s never dull, is it! Please, keep us up to date on the opinion from the surgeon.

Slew - I am so sorry for your experience. Losing them never gets easy, no matter if it is your first or hundred and first. Again, I hope you did not take my comments as finger pointing in your direction.

I have to admit, hearing all of these stories on top of what I see at work often makes me wonder how any foal makes it to adulthood unscathed!

[jennywho]

Had a bit of a meltdown this morning. I am having such a hard time watching ruf struggle and struggle to get up. Today was the first time I was right there when she got p and it was obvious that she is very very painful. Finally got through to my vet that we needed to do something and got an appointment at WSU for Wednesday. Anyone have any better ideas for the immediate time being than equioxx for pain management? Would surpass help? I am not all that familiar with it.

[not_again]

Sorry you and your youngster are going through this. The only thing I have heard about, from a local race horse vet, is combining treatment with adequan with stints in the hyperbaric chamber. It was very successful for the only one I know who tried it.

[jennywho]

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[Iron_Horse_Farm]

I have only seen a couple that have ever been bad enough to put down. 1 of them was operated on twice and then thrown out - hoping to at least make her sound enough to be a broodie. Last I knew, the mare was doing lower level hunters as a 5 or 6 yr old.

When you’re in the clinic, we have to give you the worst case scenario to CMA, but in reality I havent seen many that don’t recover.

[jennywho]

well marestare showed me that Ruffi was spending a significant amount of time (average 8 hours - struggling often to get up) down at night and despite my wishes to not have to do surgery at this point I had a feeling it might not be an option when we left for WSU today.

She has TWO lesions on the injured stifle. I had two separate vets in KY that are friends with my boss and nationally recognized look at her new rads and both concluded that she had basically zero chance without surgery. The biggest fear is that she will injure herself trying to get up or like today, get wound up and fall.

Anyhow, she will have surgery tomorrow with a 65% chance of full recovery and use of the joint. I will continue with the OCD and adequan therapy if we get that far.

Hopefully it’s not even worse when Dr. S gets in there tomorrow.

Thanks again everyone.

[Furst_Edition_Farm]

Jenny, Jingles for you and Ruffi for an easy surgery, an uneventful recovery from anesthesia and a happy, healthy filly after some recuperation and post-op healing!

[copper_bay_farm]

Good luck to your baby today. Sending healing wishes for a fast and complete recovery!

[jennywho]

Thanks for the good wishes.

The surgery went well today, as expected there were two very large lesions. The good news is that they are in a good location (on the outside of the
ridges), which improves the chances of recovery.

The kind of bad news is that the lesions were very large and vet said he would have given me much lower odds if he had known how big they were. He was not surprised after getting in there, that she was as painful as she was. Actually said she must be pretty tough to appear as sound as she did even at the walk.

I did leave her OCD pellets with her at the clinic. Will check in with them next week, otherwise no news is good news.

[fibbermaggee]

Wow Jennywho. I just want you to know how much I respect you for doing all you can to help this filly. I don’t know that I would have gone to the lengths. I so hope this turns out well for you:)

[Laurierace]

Jingles for a complete recovery. One of the best horses I ever trained had OCD lesions removed from both stifles as a yearling and never took a single bad step behind in her career.

[gubbyz]

Wishing you the best with your filly!

[Edgewood]

Best of luck on your filly’s full recovery!

[Iron_Horse_Farm]

@fibbermaggee;6118063

Wow Jennywho. I just want you to know how much I respect you for doing all you can to help this filly. I don’t know that I would have gone to the lengths. I so hope this turns out well for you:)

Fibber - Im not trying to slam you, but I don’t see the “great lenghts”. A one sided OCD sx is about $1400-$1700 here locally with a huge chance of success. They are done every day.

Again, not minimizing how much Jenny cares for her filly, just that I would put that much effort and $$ into any of mine and kinda feel like it comes with the territory when you breed. If it’s fixable we try to do it.

Am I the one who is off base? I don’t know, but I certainly figure, from the time that I pay that stud fee, that if it takes another $1500 to save my baby, then I’m getting out the checkbook.

[Perfect_Pony]

Good thoughts to you! fwiw, my mare had a huge lesion and she was nearly 7 years old, the surgery was very successful.

Here is a copy of the xray, it left a big hole in her stifle, you would never know she had OCD or the surgery if you looked at the joint now, and it totally transformed her comfort and willingness under saddle afterwards
http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2381316840104500765JveaXi

[Kyzteke]

@jennywho;6117970

Thanks for the good wishes.

The surgery went well today, as expected there were two very large lesions. The good news is that they are in a good location (on the outside of the
ridges), which improves the chances of recovery.

The kind of bad news is that the lesions were very large and vet said he would have given me much lower odds if he had known how big they were. He was not surprised after getting in there, that she was as painful as she was. Actually said she must be pretty tough to appear as sound as she did even at the walk.

I did leave her OCD pellets with her at the clinic. Will check in with them next week, otherwise no news is good news.

Sorry to hear about this, but as others have stated, the surgery has a great success rate.

$1500 is not a large amount to spend on horsie health care – so I hope it turns out to be worth it for you!

[jennywho]

Thank you all so much for the good wishes. Ruffi came home today.

It will be interesting to see the final bill, I was quoted $2600. Whatever it is, if she grows up to be the type of filly I think she is, it will all be worth it. If not, at least we tried.

I am going to put part of the surgeon’s report in here, just in case someone else finds themselves in a similar situation.

Arthroscopic surgery was performed on 2/2/12. At surgery, no abnormalities were observed on the medial condyle of the femur. There was a large flap of articular cartilage displaced from the lateral trochlear ridge. There was also an area of folded abnormal loose cartilage observed on the medial trochlear ridge. These areas of abnormal cartilage were debrided and the abnormal cartilage was removed.
The prognosis for this horse is fairly good with the typical response to the surgery, 70% chance for returning to complete soundness.

She has 30 days total of stall rest ahead of her and then an additional 90 days in a 30x30 pen.

I went to the dollar store today and they had carrot shaped/colored wiffle bats. Of course she had to have one, she’s also got a piece of lead rope, mirror (unbreakable), gallon jug, jolly ball, lickit and a good supply of rutabagas as well as a plan to rotate buddies in the barn.

[genevieveg17]

Continued jingles for a complete recovery.
I love her new toy assortment!

[Kyzteke]

Sounds like you really dote on that filly – lucky gal! Just remember, horses with OCD surgery have won the KY Derby!

I would keep her on a joint supplement the remainder of her days, myself.

Is the vet recommending any follow-up Aquadun shots or anything?

[lolita1]

Best wishes on a really speedy healing and an end to your worry.