Prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of leg lameness
New imaging technologies, such as MRI, CT, digital ultrasound, and nuclear scintigraphy, have helped us understand anatomy better and improved our ability to visualize joint injury. As a result, we’re now able to utilize nonsurgical joint therapies.
Knowing how the hoof is built and what it is capable of can help you understand what it needs to stay healthy and recover if compromised.
Many horses are trained athletes that are bred and conditioned for a specific sport such as racing, jumping, western performance or dressage. While these sports are relatively safe, just like a human athlete, there is always a possibility of injury and in most cases with horses the injury tends to be lameness.
Bone chips in a horse’s movable joints can compromise the animal’s ability to perform, and, in some cases, they can even end the animal’s career. However, not all bone chips are created equal.
Having evolved to flee in an instant, horses are equipped with a “stay apparatus” that allows them to remain upright for long periods of time. But this mechanism isn’t foolproof and sometimes it causes more harm than good.
Horses that are mainly ridden on weekends require special care and training to avoid injury.
Learn how to keep splints (bony lower leg swellings) from becoming permanent blemishes or problems that interfere with a horse’s athletic career.
Learn about breakthrough treatment protocols for manage equine joint inflammation.
Lameness was an important topic at the 2008 American Association of Equine Practitioners Convention. Topics included arthritis treatments, extension tests, racetrack surfaces, navicular bursa injections, bone fragility syndrome, oral joint health supplements, nutraceuticals, sport horses, gaited horses and more.
Equine authorities began the Putting Science into Farriery session at the 2008 AAEP Convention with a discussion of the farrier/veterinarian relationship. Also addressed were the history of farriery for horses as well as topics such as foot form and function, wall separations and quarter cracks in the hoof, trimming and shoeing, hoof repair composites and adhesives, and breakover techniques.
Being able to tell the difference between a mild lameness and subtle spinal ataxia is an important, yet challenging, endeavor in equine practice. Ohio State researchers recently reported that kinetic gait analysis–the computer
When we got a call from our boarding stable, we weren’t expecting to hear the word “ataxia.”
MRI uses magnetic fields to create various types of cross-sectional and three-dimensional images.
More people today are turning to mules to take advantage of the temperament and work ethic of these horse/donkey crosses.
A new track designed specifically for detecting lameness in horses and five refurbished boxes for treating foals have been opened at the University of Melbourne’s Veterinary Clinic and Hospital based in Werribee, Australia.
Equine staff at
“With MRI we’ve found horses with coffin bone fractures that weren’t visible on X rays, but were treated like navicular horses because they blocked to the heel,” says Sarah Sampson, DVM, of Washington State University. “If these are managed like
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