> I fear that my horse has developed, though not yet diagnosed as
> osteochondrosis at the stifle. I've been wondering who else has
> this problem and what the treatment might be?
Oh my, are you sure? It's an interesting condition but very difficult to
be sure of the causes. As I recall from years past there really isn't a
so-called known cause. Unless more current work might have dug something
up. Again are you sure? Who diagnosed this? It tends to manifest itself
in different joints in many different species. In horses though you'll
find it, when rasing it's ugly head in the stifle, at the medial femoral
condyle or on one of the ridges of the femoral trochelea. Even when being
dealt with by an outstanding vet, like a Gary Gordon, who's very
experienced in OCS\OCH generally speaking it'll take radiographs to id it
for certain.
More likely your problem is possibly simple stifle lameness caused by a
combination of, shall we say, less then perfect conformation and
undercontioning. Then again there is possiblity of Wobblers, but we
don't even want to go there now. That would be the absolute worst case
scenario.
If you're making a home-brewed diagnosis I would definately prod you to
consult a lameness vet. The greater probabilty is so-called stifle lameness,
caused by the formerly mentioned scenarios or even infectious arthritis.
if that's the case you'll have to consider retiring the animal from
athletics, but a consultation you'll have to make with your doc.
Sometimes called loose stifle or loose patella you can check it by
watching the horse walk out and observe the patella region. The large
quads will look obviously loose or flabby. If this is the case you can
generally "cure" it with slow easy conditioning. If not it's often a
simple procedure for your vet with a local and a couple of snips snips.
If your're finding the horse is "locking" at the stifle it can get much
worse as the ligament becomes abnormally streched each time the incident
occurs. Good Luck.
t
Tommy Crockett <tomydore@goblin.punk.net>
Los Osos, California 93402-2715
"it won't matter what you're saying when
the damage has all been done"
Mary Chapin Carpenter