Exactly as the title says… I spoke with Pilchuk & OSU and was told general anesthesia, 3 days / 2 nights in hospital.
Pretty fair recovery time - several months. Arthroscopic, so much less invasive than it used to be.
Anybody been thru this? Advice? Experiences?
My mare didn’t have bone chips but had an OCD lesion in her fetlock. We dropped her off for surgery in the morning and picked her up the next evening. Her recovery was atypical because she had other things going on. But we had the surgery done in November and I believe if things had gone smoothly she would have been back on turnout by March, in full work by June. But her complications were not from the surgery, she just had other soundness issues. The OCD lesion was in the fetlock joint capsule causing some trouble so they did scrape away some of the arthritis while they were in there and we did a few injections of IRAP but she has had absolutely no trouble with that fetlock since then (which is good because she wants to have trouble everywhere else). We don’t even have to inject it routinely.
My mare went to WSU to have a large cartilage chip removed from her fetlock. Surgery went well but she had nerve paralysis in her front legs following surgery. The surgeon told me it happens in about 2% of horses undergoing general anesthesia but it is something to keep in mind. She was at WSU for a month but recovered without any further problems.
I’ve done chips on a couple of horses. One mare was never sound…she’d raced on her chips, and they’d worn all the way through the cartilage and she was bone on bone in a couple of places.
The other mare had far less damage but did need IRAP into the joint following surgery to really wrap up the inflammation and be pain free.
Pretty straightforward surgery/recovery. But as others have said, they don’t always know the full extent of the related damage until they get in there. Removing the chip doesn’t reverse cartilage damage that has already been done.
Different surgeons have different post-op injection protocols. Some do IRAP, some do two steroid injections, some do ProStride, some do nothing unless there is lameness.
Makes sense. OSU told me HA injections afterwards - I can’t remember ‘when’ exactly - but it was a one time type of thing not continual.
I need to see the films too. That will tell me more.
Mine had an avulsion fracture, so they removed a huge chip with a little bit of soft tissue attached. I brought him in the night before the surgery and I think I took him home the day after. The soft tissue healing was more important to the vets than the bone chip removal, in terms of after-care. He was on stall rest for a month and I don’t remember what came next, but it was several months overall of pretty strict rest of one sort or another, then I turned him out with a couple quiet horses for several months after that. He already had arthritis in the fetlock joint before we found the avulsion fracture; something pretty significant happened to that front leg and we never knew what it was.
Five years later, he’s sound for light riding, as predicted, and could probably do more than I ask of him! I had to get a different vet to help me with a hand walking program because after “rest, rest, rest” I didn’t get a whole lot of guidance about rehab.
Mine had one removed last year. The surgery went smoothly. He arrived the day prior and came home the day after. HA injection to the joint and a round of Adequan a few weeks after surgery; month of stall rest, month of hand walking, then a month of getting back up to normal flatwork. A month or so later back to jumping. The rehab was really the painful part of the whole ordeal.
Keep in mind that there’s a lot you can’t see on radiographs–Yaya’s chips looked straightforward on film, but total mess once they were actually in the joint. Barring an MRI, maybe, you’re not really going to know the state of the cartilage until you’re in there. If you’re not sure when the insult to the joint happened and caused the chips, proceed with caution. Horses with ankle chips are often fine or mostly fine until they very much are NOT fine, and IME, it’s those not fine horses that don’t have much in the way of cartilage and are never going to be fine again 
Blush’s IRAP wasn’t standard, either. We went through steroid and HA prior to that because she was just SORE. The vets couldn’t really pinpoint why. It was a very frustrating and costly several months of throwing things at the wall to see what was going to stick.
@Simkie can you be a little more descriptive? Your horse had more than one chip in one joint? Were they just ‘floating’ or stuck in place? Why did you choose to have surgery?
On one hand I have the old man, 22, who maybe needs a yearly injection because of his chip. Had it since his racing days. I think it bothers me more than him.
On the other hand, is the horse I’m wondering about. Going to see it tomorrow, owner has films. I am assuming the chips happened on the track. Horse is now 8 and has been off the track 3 1/2 years. Owner states horse is not currently bothered by the chips and video supports that. Still photos I don’t see any obvious rounding, etc., of the fetlocks.
BUT… If I like the horse, thorough PPE… owner seems insistent the chips need to be removed. So I am just a wee bit hesitant!
I want the films looked at by my vet, first, again assuming I like the horse enough to proceed. I guess I’ll just go from there.
It’s kind of sounding like not as straightforward as ‘remove chips, rehab, inject HA, good to go’.
Yaya had two chips in each front fetlock. I bought her off the track and she was sound, until she very much wasn’t. I sent her to surgery because she was lame and the vets told me it would be curative. It wasn’t. I have pictures around here somewhere…let me see if they’re online…yeah, here you go. She was never riding sound once she went lame. Not surprising, most horses (probably all) never come back from bone on bone.
Blush had a single chip on the mid sagittal ridge (IIRC) which was a weird place and not viewable on the fetlock rads I obtained before I bought her off the track (see, I learned!!) There was little damage to the cartilage and it was a bit perplexing why she was so sore following surgery. She hasn’t had problems there since the IRAP, though, so that’s a win.
Having gone through all that, I really don’t think you could give me a chip horse…at least not to ride. I sure wouldn’t spend money on one. Especially something that “needs surgery.” Who knows how much cartilage is left in there.
Chips can be very hard to remove or very easy to remove based on location. And other damage inside. I have a thread going or two about my mare I am currently dealing with. Traumatic avulsion we thought would heal in. Extremely lame. Chip migrated while on stall rest into joint. Went in with very experienced vets arthroscopic ally, could not get it out that way. End d up as an open procedure, repairing cartridge damage (was pretty minor overall) but accidental damage to the superficial digital flexor tendon during surgery we are still dealing with long recovery. If it had just been bone would have been back going in 6 months
trainer had an Ottb that had a chip from racing. Was usually sound but had occasional off days. Went in for surgery and the horse, experienced show horse now, did not take to stall rest well and ended up doing more damage to himself and was never sound again. And it was done arthroscopic ally with no operative complications.
If the owner has had the horse 3.5 years and is insisting the chips, which have been there, need to come out, I would assume the horse is lame on them at least a portion of the time and pass.
This would be a situation where I think the current owner needs to be the one responsible for removing them and seeing how that goes before trying to sell the horse as “sound but needs to have chips removed”…something seems fishy. Or at least would make me want an MRI to confirm what’s going on, but then who wants to pay for an MRI as part of a PPE? Would have to be a REALLY nice horse.
I am NOT the seller in this scenario, but I have a mare who is and has always been sound, whether in work or not and has a bone chip in her ankle. Flexes sound too. I would never know it was there, except it happened in turnout when she was two and there is a big external blemish on that leg so I x-rayed it. The surgeon told me to just leave it alone, he didn’t think it would bother her. I do really regret that now, since I’m planning to list her for sale. But since she is only green broke, and very well bred, I’m selling her as a broodmare anyway.
But my point is, there are horses who have chips who no-one ever has an issue with. My vet knows GP jumpers with chips doing their job in their teens. I think it depends on the location, etc.
Yes, @TrotTrotPumpkn , but when you list her for sale, will you say that the chips need to come out or would you disclose them and say that your surgeon said to leave them alone? I think it’s odd that the seller in this scenario is saying the horse is doing great, has been OTT for a decent amount of time, but yet it’s necessary to have the chips out and that the buyer is the one that needs to do it? If buyer’s vet thinks they should come out but seller’s vet does not, that’s also a reasonable difference in opinion. I’m thinking this horse really isn’t quite sound quite all of the time.
Totally agree.I didn’t see where the OP mentioned that part! Yikes. I had just read the first post. If the chips are asymptomatic, then unless it came up in a PPE, or during a lameness, or obvious injury, no one would know they exist. My horse will also be missing a zero from the end of her sale price, because she has that chip. I think you have to be realistic. Unless it is a youngster (or a broodmare), I am not a fan of buying a horse that isn’t in work and sound period.
I will disclose her everything, release all x-rays (including her amazing hocks, lol 
) and vet records/written reports. But even then I can’t guarantee that she will NEVER be bothered by the chip. I have no idea. I can only go by what has happened so far.
There is no way I would buy a riding horse someone was telling me had chips that need to come out.
These are the sellers exact words:
I do have some X-rays from the pre-purchase. I will have to find them. She has a couple of bone chips in her front her ankles. They haven’t been an issue but may need to be removed at some point.
I went to see the horse yesterday. Lovely. But I was very very clear that my vet needed to see the rads and advise me before anything further.
My old guy has chips. No one would know if nobody said anything. They bother me more than they bother him.
I did not feel the seller was in any way dishonest or misrepresenting the horse. The horse was bought as a step-up eventer for the daughter, but the daughter does not like the horse and picks fights with her. So Mom thought maybe she’d get back into the saddle, but it isn’t really happening, and she just wants the horse to have a nice home.
At any rate, I want to see the rads with my vet and proceed from there. Brutal truth is that in my price point it = pick your project.
And all these responses gives me a lot to think on, which is why I turned to you all!!
Ok that language seems more reasonable. Definitely have your vet and possibly a surgeon take a look at the images. There will still be a risk that the horse isn’t fine until suddenly not fine, but I suppose we all roll the dice on that given a horse’s general propensity for self destruction. It is up to you with the guidance of your vets what known risks you are willing to take.
Maybe it’s the mare picking the fights with the daughter because she’s uncomfortable? Just because an average owner doesn’t detect a limp doesn’t mean they aren’t effecting the horse…especially if somebody is selling because of erratic behavior issues which are rooted in pain more often then not. Always uncomfortable with horses being sold because " the rider doesn’t get along with them" so they’ve been sitting.
Theoretically, bone chip removal is NBD but in the real world its far more complicated and more then just the relatively simple procedure . Don’t think seller is being dishonest but think she lacks understanding and knowledge of a procedure that often finds unexpected conditions within joint and may not allow the horse to perform at the expected level. Or maybe seller is " puffing" the sale by not mentioning things or dwelling upon the fact DD cannot ride it and they haven’t done anything for 3.5 years? Not lying but 3.5 a long time to pay the freight on an a horse bought to use that just stands around.
What bothers me here is seller is insisting you need them taken out after you buy the mare. Say what? You might want to price that out with vet/surgeon and include the months of board and other costs while the horse is unuseable then add that to the purchase price for this horse. Many, if not most, who have had the surgery have had MM insurance, you don’t. Best get an estimate of all costs involved with the surgery BEFORE taking it on. If you can afford what this surgery, after care and rehab are going to cost at a minimum (assuming no complications) on top of the purchase price on a horse that has not been in steady work? Maybe put that amount towards another horse. Like buying a $2500 car knowing it needs 2k in repairs to drive, just buy a car for 4500 you can drive. Save up longer if you have to, unlike the car, the horse is not a necessity you need to risk getting financially over your head to get running.
Think it might be different if the horse was an experienced packer with a confirmed record who had been in steady work for that 3.5 years they’d had her. She may be unsuitable anyway but the chips really increase that risk to an unacceptable level, Pick a different project.
But if you insist on proceeding, please get back to us with what the films seller says they “have to find” showed and what your vet says.
Have a thought in the back of my mind the films are in the same place as all the papers, show records, FEI passports, vaccination records and Coggins certificates that many have posted on COTH a seller promised they would find and send that never showed up.
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