Going to see the surgeon: osteochondritis ( anyone have experience with this?)

[alixb]

I'm taking Sunny for an appointment with a surgeon next week. She has osteochondritis dissecan in her hock. The surgery is arthroscopic & very expensive.
If you have any experience with this, can you let me know. Poor Sunny. She is a blood donor at the Vet hospital we are going to so maybe they'll give us a good deal. LOL

[windycanyon]

No experience though I didn't think it tended to be a particularly successful surgery. I could be mistaken. I can ask around if you'd like.

[alixb]

yes; I would love to find out the success rate. I'd be pretty upset to spend $5000.00 & she doesn't get better ( although I know there is no guarantee)

[Annette47]

No experience though I didn't think it tended to be a particularly successful surgery. I could be mistaken. I can ask around if you'd like.

This was my impression too, although I don’t know *that* much about it ...

[outrag]

I have experience with the human kind as I had OCD on the talar dome in my left ankle. It's basically a pothole in the cartilage going through to the bone (with some level of bone necrosis sometimes). The typical surgery is arthroscopic microfracture, where they cut out the damaged area and poke holes in the bone to generate blood flow. This then fills in the pothole with a scar tissue substance (not true cartilage).

It's a very mixed bag of results on the human side. There are more advanced surgeries now where they fill the hole with donor cartilage, etc.

For your dog, if it's just a flap of cartilage that's getting caught and causing discomfort, trimming that out may be helpful. Sometimes cleaning out the joint of crap and inflammation via a scope can be helpful, but it's usually a temp measure. Maybe you could get more specifics on what the surgery entails, what the success rate is, what conservative measures you could try first, etc.

Good luck.

Bob

[windycanyon]

yes; I would love to find out the success rate. I'd be pretty upset to spend $5000.00 & she doesn't get better ( although I know there is no guarantee)

I remember chatting w/one of my vets years ago who had a mixed bag of issues that came up in one of her lab litters. She said because most of the OCD in hocks came w/ arthritic/ osteophytes, going in to remove that just provided temporary relief. If like Bob said, it was something simple like a flap (joint mouse) w/o further DJD, that's a different story but I don't *think* that's how OCD in hocks normally manifests itself. Any chance you can get a 2nd opinion? I know your vet care up there is horribly high based on what some of my BC owners have said. If I can remember, I'll be spending a little time this weekend w/ another of my favorite vets at the dog show. He's our dog show vet so will likely be camped out at our obedience ring both mornings.

[JenC]

Dani who used to be on this board had a boy who had that problem. If Nicole stops by, she might recall some details about what they went through.

I always thought OCD was a cartilage flap. I imagine they cut it out and the immediate pain is gone. There probably is still future arthritis to contend with due to lack of cartilage, but supplements can help.

[windycanyon]

So this is what my vet told me today about hock OCD (had time to ask since he had to verify Kanzi's status of being in season for our obed refund and we had a little walk to my rig!). If caught early and it's just a flap, surgery is usualy quite successful. If arthritic changes have developed, it's less successful. Makes sense. Hopefully Sunny's condition is not advanced that far.