Equine foot and skeleton Flashcards
DDx for acute, severe unilateral lameness to foot
Subsolar abscess
Solar bruise
Pedal bone fracture
Aetiology of solar bruise
Blunt trauma to solar surface during locomotion causes haemorrhage into sensitive tissues –> get inflammation inside non-compliant keratinised hoof
So focal increase in pressure and extreme lameness
Risk factors for solar bruises
Uneven or highly concussive surfaces
Barefoot
hacking
Flat floor and low heel conformation e.g in racing TBs
What are corns
Focal bruising at seat of corm; affects shod horses
What is the most common cause of acute severe lameness
Subsolar abscess
Where do subsolar abscesses form
Between senstivie and non-sensitive tissue e.g at white line, seat of corn, frog
How to treat a subsolar abscess
Use paring knife to achieve drainage
Or if can’t do this, place foot poultice to soften sole to help achieve drainage later
How to initially manage acute unilateral lameness vs more mild or multi-limb lameness
Acute unilat: manage as subsolar abscess; bruises will just resolve quickly without pus draining
Mild/multi-limb: box rest and NSAIDs; if just burising will resolve quickly
What is the gold standard imaging method for looking at how FB in good sits within soft tissues
MRI
What is a ketaoma
Space occupying tumour that grows from the coronary band, down hoof wall and exits at white line
Painful as it causes abscesses
If we see recurrent abscesses at the same place in same foot, what should we be suspicious about
keratoma
How do pedal bone fractures present adn change
Presents intially like foot abscess; acute unilat lameness
But improvement is much slower than with abscess
How to diagnose navicular disease
= MRI diagnosis as are looking for inflammation
How to diagnose ossified collateral cartilages
Many sound horses have large ossification of side bones
So need MRI diagnosis to see inflammation here
How might soft tissue issues in the foot present (rather than classic acute severe lameness)
Bilateral insidious progressive lameness
What soft tissue ligament is often positive to distal limb flexion (NB: other aren’t)
Collateral ligaments
What bony changes might we see with collateral ligament disease
Ossified collateral cartilages
Enthesiopathy; bone remodelling at insertion site
How owuld we have to prepare the foot for transcuneal ultrasound
OVernight soaking
Whatis the most common soft tissue injury of the foot
DDFT pathology
Where do we tent to see DDFT pathology and why
Where it changes direction e.g at fetlock, around navicular bone
Because it is less elastic here due to need to resist compression
How can core lesions of tendons e.g DDFT progress
Can propagate proximally/distally over time
So we could do neurectomy to make horse comfortable but if it then propagated above this, would see sudden lameness again
How do sagittal splits of DDFT present, progress and where
Severe lameness but variable over time related to whether split pulled apart
Often at level of navicular
Propagate proximally/distally with time, especially after a neurectomy
Can lead to adhesion formation and burtisi because they involve the tendon surface
How does dorsal border fibrillation in DDFT present!
Cronic low grade degenerative lameness
Get fibrillation of fibres on the dorsal border where they are closely assocaited with the navicular bone
–> Often causes bursitis and adhesion formation
How can we treat DDFT and what structure do we made us of
Focus on navicular bursa to devilver treatment, accessed via tendon sheath
Intrabursal corticosteroids
Navicular bursoscopy for lesions that communication with bursa to break down adhesions and debride fibrillated tissues
Why is it good to debride away fibrillated tissues via navicular bursoscopy
These tissues are drivers of snyovitis
Which lesions is it especially indicated to do navicular busoscopy
Sagittal splits and dorsal fibrillation since these communicate with bursa
What happens if the heel is lower than it should be (we want 5* uphill angle)
Get stressing and increasing loading of the palmar soft tissues
What issues does poor latero-medial foot ballance cause
Increased loading of collateral ligaments, navicular suspensory ligament