Researchers found that, in a pony with nutritional secondary hyperparathyroidism (NSH), which causes bone to deform as it loses calcium, a bisphosphonate combined with a balanced diet seemed to alleviate clinical signs of disease. | Photo: Anne M. Eberhardt/The Horse

Ponies suffering from a rare disfiguring bone disease—nutritional secondary hyperparathyroidism, or NSH—could find relief in a new treatment plan recently tested by Italian researchers.

Nutritional secondary hyperparathyroidism’s effects, caused by dietary imbalances, appear to be offset by bisphosphonates, researchers found in a recent study; these medications work to rebuild bone density, especially when the bone is losing calcium. Bisphosphonates are used to treat osteoporosis and Paget’s disease in humans, and two products gained U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to treat clinical signs associated with navicular syndrome in horses.

With equine NSH, which causes bone to deform as it loses calcium, a bisphosphonate called tiludronate combined with a balanced diet seems to improve clinical signs of disease, said Luca Lacitignola, DVM, PhD, an associate professor of veterinary radiology at the Universita degli Studi di Bari “Aldo Moro,” in Valenzano, Italy