What to get films on for a PPE?

[DraftHorsePower]

Vetting opinions needed!

I am looking at a prospect.... and I want to get some xrays as his sire (who I own but is pending sale) has 3 cysts in his stifle (he's a fabulous jumper so the new owners are opting for surgery before it becomes a problem). Now I guess first off, I should ask, are those the kind of things that are likely to be genetic? The prospect is 4 years old. I think I definitely want to get films of the stifle but what is another common location for cysts? Hocks?

I have limited funding for the vet ($500) so I can't really afford to go all out and get films of everything, so trying to choose locations wisely.

What would you do?

[twofatponies]

Personally I would base additional x-rays on how the horse looks in the PPE and on his conformation. If he shows some slightly incorrect movement or flexes a bit oddly, maybe do more on that leg. If he's built very downhill or has, say, straight pasterns in front or something, check the front feet. If he has signs of an old injury on a certain leg, maybe xray that one.

I have a mare with cysts in both stifles (didn't show up or bother her til age 14 or so). I didn't xray much when I bought her (at age 10), as she was not showing any signs of problems and I had known her for several years.

When I bought my second horse, I knew she had worked very hard, been badly shod, and she had scars on several legs, so we xrayed everything top to bottom just to be sure.

I do know one other horse that had cysts in his stifles at age 5, and had the surgery, and is doing fine now, jumping even.

[onelanerode]

I did front feet and hocks. At the time I wondered if it was overkill, since the horse in question wasn't that expensive, but I'm now glad I did them, feet especially. After some truly crappy farrier work, it was nice to have a basis for comparison so we could see that things were improving despite that setback.

But definitely let the PPE guide your inclinations as it progresses. You may decide there's just no reason to do one area but you really want to do another area that you thought you wouldn't because the horse jogged funny or something.

[kahjul]

I didn't PP my girl, she was too young and had nothing done with her, it didn't seem worth it to me at the time. As a 4 yo, however, I had my vet do some 'baseline' xrays so we would have comparison films if something ever came up. The vet recommended both front feet (navicular, ringbone, etc) I think we got 3 shots of each foot, we also got hocks and stifles (2 shots each) and added the left front cannon bone as there was something funny below it on the hoof xray. No problems were found, but I'm glad I have those to compare to as she ages and continues to work hard.

[JWB]

Ugh - Tough call. I'd do front feet, hocks and stifles - however ask your vet to only take one or two views of each. My vet quoted me $35 per shot and I still ended up with a $900 PPE just x-raying those three joints.

I didn't expect to find anything (and I didn't) but it's nice to have the films on file (on CD-ROM) for comparison down the road.