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  Discussion on OCD surgery, no lameness but bog spavin remains?
Author Message
Member:
cathyb1

Posted on Thursday, Mar 27, 2008 - 4:28 am:

Dear Dr. O
I have a 2 yo Hanoverian gelding that had surgery to repair fairly bad OCD lesions on the right talus of the near hock a year ago. This horse had never, and has never, been lame; however, he had (and still has) a large bog spavin . Recently he was xrayed, and the xrays of the hock joint were completely clear. He continues to go sound, and yet the bog spavin remains. It has been there since the surgery, and comes and goes – well, never completely goes, but is sometimes quite noticeable, and as big as an egg, and sometimes flatter. There is no one thing that I could point at and say, it swelled up after he did this or that.
Is there a possibility that there is a lesion within the joint that can’t be seen on an xray? Is there any way of examining the fluid from within the swelling to see if there is still inflammatory reactions? And if there is no other OCD lesions, would the large swelling of the joint capsule be likely to cause problems, besides cosmetically?
My vet (who has dealt with many of these) was not much concerned, other than saying we could drain it and inject it with hyaluronic acid.
The horse has never been lame. He is not overly stoic – if he is yarded on gravel, he gets footsore, and hobbles about. Yet never any lameness in the affected leg. I broke him in recently – very easy, he is a delightful horse – and all the work very easy, nothing to stress legs or joints, never more than 5 minutes on the lunge and 10 minutes of quiet walking and trotting on the sand arena. If anything, the bog spavin was smaller after work.
What do you think, and has anyone else had a similar experience?
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Thursday, Mar 27, 2008 - 9:46 am:

Hello Cathy, we had a extensive bog spavin section in the article on hock disease and I decided to pull this out and expand the topic into its own article. You will find it at Diseases of Horses » Lameness » Diseases of the Upper Rear Limb » Tibiotarsal Synovitis: Bog Spavin. It answers your questions above but if you have more post them there.
DrO
Member:
caymie

Posted on Friday, Mar 28, 2008 - 9:59 am:

Hi Cathy,
My Holsteiner had OCD surgery in both his hocks and stifles at age five (he was one month short of turning five.) He had the Bog Spavin prior to the surgery and has had it ever since. The surgeon said it would never completely go away as the joint capsule had been stretched (at least I think that's what he told me, it has been eight years since then.) It has never and most likely will never affect his soundness as he has never been lame in his upper hock joints. It's just a cosmetic issue. We did try injecting it with HA and a bit of steroid a couple of years ago, but the swelling returned. I would just keep an eye on it since he did have an OCD lesion there and surgery, but I wouldn't worry too much about it.
I was just thankful that we caught the OCD in time.
Mary
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