This is an archived Horseadvice.com Discussion. The parent article and menus are available on the navigation menu below:
HorseAdvice.com » Diseases of Horses » Lameness » Joint, Bone, Ligament Diseases » Epiphysitis, Physitis, and Physeal Dysplasia »
  Discussion on Feeding and Treatment - Epiphysitis
Author Message

Posted on Friday, Jun 8, 2001 - 2:08 pm:

I have a four month old colt that began exhibiting signs of epiphysitis at two months (hard bony areas in both back pasterns -- no problems with the front legs). My vet did radiographs to confirm the epiphysitis. He recommended that I wean the colt, monitor his exercise and put the colt on equine junior or other balanced feed for growing foals. The colt also has bermuda pasture available 24/7. I did this, and the colt is no better but no worse.

I was wondering what would be an ideal diet and exercise program for a 4 month old colt with epiphysitis in the back pasterns?? I was also wondering what types of residual effects I can expect from this?? Will his pasterns always appear abnormal, or as he grows will the bony abnormalities disappear? My vet said this is a self-limiting problem that the colt will grow out of???

Additionally, my vet said occasionally I could give the colt bute for any stiffness or soreness (colt is not lame). What, if any, treatments/medications do you think would be helpful and/or warranted?

Thanks!

Sandra

Posted on Saturday, Jun 9, 2001 - 7:57 am:

Hello Sandra,
The ideal diet is nothing special, you want a good balanced diet for this colt. See Care for Horses: Nutrition: Feeding the Growing Foal, Nutrition for Young Horses for specific suggestions.

Both the treatments and prognosis are covered in the article associated with this forum (Equine Diseases: Lameness: Diseases of Joints : Epiphysitis, Physitis, and Physeal Dysplasia), Sandra, and I know of no reason not to believe your vet.
DrO

Posted on Thursday, Sep 27, 2001 - 11:56 am:

Dr O, My 3 month old warmblood colt has developed epiphysitis in all four fetlock joints. His dam was supplemented with the correct balance of copper, zinc etc during pregnancy but would not allow the foal to share her feed and would go crazy if there was a creep feeder in the stall. Because he was only allowed to feed while the mare was eating, I started supplementing him with Buckeye Feeds Foal Aide at 1 month of age. This contains 3.2 mg copper, 9.40 mg zinc, selenium, ascorbic acid, vit a, vit d, and vit E. He was getting two doses, therefore 6.4 mg copper etc a day. When he started having problems I doubled the dose and got him up to 19 mg of copper a day etc. On the advice of vets and the nutritionists at Buckeye feed I weaned the colt, was giving him a small amount of Equine Jr ( I have to drive 2 hours to get Buckeye Feeds) Over the next three days he made marked improvement, swelling diminished and also lameness, then he obviously felt well enough to take some vigorous exercise in the pasture and lameness and swelling re-appeared. It has now been three days since he got worse again, I have him on stall rest and have started him on Buckeye feeds Gro'n win at the level the nutritionists at Buckeye recommended which is 3.5 lbs a day. This time he does not seem to be improving and I'm wondering if there is too much protein in the Gro'n win, its 32% crude protein and even though the levels of copper and zinc are wonderful, 175ppm and 375ppm respectively, and the calcium and phosphorus are in perfect balance the protein concerns me. This colt probably weighs 450 lbs at 3.5 months and grew extremely rapidly the first two months. I know that you are familiar with Purina products and I'm wondering if I should put him back on the Equine Jr. He is currently eating about 2 flakes a day of orchard grass timothy hay and has been on low doses of bute the last two days. Any advice would be appreciated.

Posted on Friday, Sep 28, 2001 - 12:44 pm:

Be sure to read the article on this condition I think you suffer from an incorrect notion: that this is a disease caused primarily by nutrition. I would be interested in how he was reintroduced to pasture.

There is not enough information in your post to evaluate the protein in the diet of you colt. Particularly the weight and nutritional parameters of your hay impact remarkably on this. That said I am not familiar with feeding a low volume concentrate with this high a protein and unless your hay is just terrible hard to figure.

You can try to micromanage the individual nutrients till HFO but any time you get weights and qualities of feed way off the time practiced norms you are asking for trouble, see Care for Horses: Nutrition: Feeding the Growing Foal, Nutrition for Young Horses.

I think it only makes sense to return to what you you were doing when he was getting well. You must discuss this change with your veterinarian and next time start exercise slower.
DrO
PS, let's complete the discussion here but you need to learn to post new questions in new discussions. See the READ THIS FIRST link beside the Add a Message Label title on the form you use to post messages.

Posted on Monday, Oct 1, 2001 - 8:56 am:

Hi, my hay would be hard to figure because no two bales seem to have the same balance of timothy to orchard grass and some of them even have a little alfalfa. The reason I introduced exercise again when he was doing well was on the advice of my vet who at at that time had not seen the colt. He said to never stall a youngster! He had only been on stall rest for two days when the vet did come and take the x-rays. I just turned him out with an older companion mare and the first couple of days he didn't do much but the third he really let loose. By that time my vet had looked at the x-rays and obviously spoken to another vet and then said to restrict his activity. The little guy is back on Equine Jr and is starting to show improvement again, today we will put him in a small round pen and see how that goes. Our ground is very hard which could of caused this problem but I also wonder if the oil that I use to mix the mares ration with (she has COPD) could of slowed absorption of some of the minerals during pregnancy? Thanks for your input, sorry my post was in the wrong place!

Posted on Tuesday, Oct 2, 2001 - 6:51 am:

No I don't think the oil is reponsible for slower mineral absorption. These are multifactorial problems that very rarely have a single cause but the article discusses our best current theories.
DrO
Home Page | Top of Page | Join Us!
Horseadvice.com is a BBB Accredited Business. Click for the BBB Business Review of this Horse Training in Stokesdale NC