Veterinary

Figure 1. Conformation can be assessed by viewing the horse from the side with the metatarsus perpendicular to the ground. This horse has long toe, low-heel conformation with a broken-back hoof-pastern axis (red line).

Therapeutic farriery of the hind feet for horses with hindlimb orthopaedic injuries

Low-heel hind foot conformation has become prevalent and can be recognised in several ways. When viewed from the side, with the third metatarsal vertically orientated, the digit will have a BB-HPA...

Diarrhoea in foals

Foal heat diarrhoea is a self-limiting condition that occurs in 75-80% of foals, aged between 5 and 15 days. Diarrhoea is usually transient, lasting 3–4 days, and foals typically remain bright and...

Figure 2. Rhodococcus equi-associated acute uveitis in a foal. Marked aqueous flare and hypopyon with feint corneal oedema. The condition was bilateral and appeared to be only mildly painful, as is often the case.

Immune-mediated disorders of the eye: part two – equine recurrent uveitis

All equine practitioners will be familiar with ERU as it is the most common cause of blindness in horses worldwide (Gilger and Hollingsworth, 2017). While it is agreed to be an immune-mediated...

Figure 2. Photograph of a horse with hindlimb digital flexor tendon sheath effusion. Note the ‘notch’ created by the constrictive plantar annular ligament (green arrow), resulting in effusion bulging proximal and distal to this level.

Diagnosis of digital flexor tendon sheath conditions in the horse

The digital flexor tendon sheath (DFTS) is a synovial cavity occupying the distal third of the palmar metacarpus/plantar metatarsus and the palmar/plantar pastern, to the level of the middle phalanx....

Potential effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on horse behaviour in the UK between March and October 2020

When horses are handled by nervous humans their heart rate increases (Keeling et al, 2009). Horses also react differently to odours from nervous humans, they touch people more and spend more time with...

Figure 2. Dynamic mobilisation exercises: A Chin to knee; B Chin between fetlocks; C Chin to girth;and, D Chin to stifle. The horse is motivated, by using food bait, to move through a range of motion that results in cervical and thoracolumbar flexion (images A and B) and lateral flexion (images C and D). The intervertebral angles have been described by Clayton et al (2010 and 2012) and the effect on spinal muscle cross-sectional area by Stubb et al (2011) and de Oliveira et al (2015).

Physiotherapy for neck pain in the horse

Physiotherapy helps restore movement and function when an individual is affected by injury, illness or disability (Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP), 2020), with treatments structured around...

Figure 6. Vinyl polysiloxane in a 310/311 diastema.

Cheek teeth diastemata

There are two different types of diastemata classified. The first is a ‘valve’ type, where the gap at the occlusal surface is narrower than that at the level of the gum. This type is more likely to...

Figure 1. These foals are both demonstrating common neurological clinical signs: abnormal tongue position and poor suck reflex (a) and pronounced head tilt (b).

Neonatal maladjustment syndrome in foals

Historically, the syndrome has been attributed to hypoxic–ischaemic injury at foaling and the condition is seen in foals that have experienced a prolonged delivery as a result of dystocia or premature...

Figure 3. Chronic deep/mid-stromal immune-mediated keratopathy. Diffuse corneal oedema with grey cellular infiltration and stromal lacunae of green/orange tinged fluid.

Immune-mediated disorders of the equine eye: part 1 – the cornea

The immune-mediated keratopathies (IMMKs) are a group of poorly defined, non-ulcerative, inflammatory disorders of the cornea, where the aetiopathogenesis involves an abnormal, typically upregulated...

Figure 1. ‘Patient side’ preparation of platelet-rich plasma using a filtration system. PRP can be seen in the top syringe.

Platelet-rich plasma in the treatment of equine orthopaedic disease

Platelets consist of alpha granules, which contain a multitude of growth factors and cytokines that are released at sites of vascular injury to direct and promote healing (Pochini et al, 2016). Growth...

Figure 2. Horse working in a Pessoa training aid.

Equine training aids: can they really improve performance?

To be able to evaluate the impact of a training aid on a horse, we first need to define what constitutes a training aid and to understand the principles of training and rehabilitation, which underpin...

Figure 1. Aged pony with marked hypertrichosis, consistent with advanced pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction, which is a common comorbidity in older animals affected by other chronic conditions.

Assessing quality of life in older horses

Quality of life assessment is well established in human medicine, with a large number of published generic and disease-specific measurement scales (Bowling, 2001). For example, different QoL...