Pathology Flashcards
What are some possible symptoms you might find with a horse with back pain
Symptoms unspecific Reluctance to brushing, saddle, mounting, pain and general dissatisfication Weight loss, "hard to feed" Bad muscle buildup, muscles loss Lamness "cold backed" slow to warm up Skin lesions/ hair rubs
What could be some underlying reasons for back pain of the top of your head
Impropper saddle fitting
bad riding
bad shoeing and trimming ie scapula and chest will be very sore.
A general guidline for long backed horses vs short backed horses- what are the parts that generally go wrong?
Long backed horses:
More prone to muscle or ligament problems?
Short backed horses: more prone to vertebral problems?
What are some things we can pay attention to for diagnosis of non specific back pain
Spinal temperature Static palpation (bones, muscles) Motion Palpation Gait/ biomechanical Examination Lameness exam
Other type of examination you can do ie imaging
X-ray
Sonography- good diagnostic tool, you can actually image some of the facet joints (ultrasound)
Scintigraphy- shows you metabolic changes in the bone, ie healing/ inflammation in the vone. Ot spots that need clinical findings to match.
X-ray-SZfusion Elasto-sonography Thermography CT-scan(backscannotpossible?)
Xrays limited as to what you can see, Lumbars you can o nly really see the tip of the dorsal spinous process.
Name some causes of Primary back pain Etiologies
Osteologies Soft tissue injury • Supraspinous ligament Myopathies Infectious diseases Neoplasia Nervous disfunctions / neuropathies
What are some types of Osteologies that can cause Back pain
- Congenital Malformation
- Abnormal spinal curves
- vertebral fractures
- kissing spines syndrome
- Spondylosis
- Joint Pathology/ facet syndromes
- Disc protrusion/ prolaps
Congenital Malformations: Hemivertebrae, wedge shape vertebrae -often no neurological symptoms -breed disposition/ saddlebred -low back
Block vertebrae
- Congenitally fused vertebrae
- generally asymptomatic
Sacrilisation of lumbar vertebrae (Congenital or developed)
Abnormal Spinal Curves:
Ie the massive lordosis- can be congenital or achieved in geriatric horses, obsese, and poorly muscled horses
ie a big Kyphosis in Lspine
-congenital or achieved with back pain, abdominal pain, TL VSC’s, common in show jumpers
Scoliosis
-Congenital or compensatory. Foals can have an uneven growth period, but if you treat them early it may reduce the instance of kyphosis, as their lumbars often get locked up during this growth period.
Vertebral Fractires
-Traumatic -common in withers - when they flip on their back. BE CAREFUl if it is an acute injury- you may see swelling, heat, recent trauma, dont adjust- let it heal and come back.
Stress fractures Common in young race horses, if trainers start intense training too early.
Osteology- Kissing SPine Syndrome
tell me about it, and how you can keep these horses in good working order?
How is a KISS diagnosis made?
Common treatments
how you manage it chiropractically?
Common T12-T17, common in short backed horses
Etiology unknown- back injury? Occupational? congenital? secondary to spondylosis aor facet syndrome
biomechanically a ‘special’ area
How the horses is standing will influence the space betqween SP, look for degenerative changes between SP. They may build small joints between the SP.
Thickening of bone structure at outer edges of joints with sclerotic changes.
Just like people the clinical correlation to Xfindings can be differential!
Xray findings doesnt neccessarily correlate to clinical findings or behaviour change or performance affected.
To keep a horse with KS healthy, healthy back musculature and strong core, good balanced riding.
If very acute- NSAIDS, cortisol injection, acute managment, maybe Xras.
Can follow up with treatment when less acute?
Kiss diagnosis:
- Xray
- Szintigraphy
- local anaesthetic
Treatment:
- local infiltration
- systemic antiinflammatory
- surgery
- acupuncture
-Chiropractic Care!!
-adjust all VSC’s, maintain function, Increase ROM (focus dorso flexion
-increase functioning muscles, treat compensatory VSC’s
(Maintenance, management, VSC’s
encourage forward flexion ie eating hay and feed on the ground, out in pastures feeding, rather than locked up in a box. eating high hay and feed.
Osteologies- Spondylosis
What is it?
Cause
Treatment
Bony spurs (bridging) at intervertebral spaces, common accidental finding, often asymptomatic
Cause: Often hypermobility, calcification of ventral longitudinal ligamental in order to stabilize region. Why do we get hypermobility? because the muscles that are supposed to be doing 80% of the stabilisation arent working. How do we fix muscle firing?
Specfic Chiro adjustment- firing GTOS and MSC, causing increase Motor output to those muscles.
Chiro
adjust all VSCs, maintain function, increase ROM in rest ofthe spine!
Hypermobility often caused by compensation for decreased ROM in other parts of the spine.
Osteologies- Facet Syndrome
Etiology
Diagnosis
Treatment
Etiology:
• Irritation / inflammation of joint capsules
• Osteoarthritis of facet joints
• Caused by subluxations, and mechanical stress on joints
i.e. over-extension
Diagnosis:
• X-ray
• Szintigraphy • Ultrasound
Treatment: Chiro care Joint Injection Local Infiltration Systemic SAID or NSAID
Osteologies- Disc Protrusion
́Diagnosis of lumbosacral intervertebral disc disease and protrusion in a horse using ultrasonographic evaluation and
computed tomography ́ (CR Krueger, J Gold, MF Barrett… - Equine Veterinary …, 2015 - Wiley Online Library)
• QH gelding: acute hindlimb ataxia, proprioceptive deficits, and urinary and faecal incontinence
• No improvement with therapy
• Suspicion: transrectal sonography LS-disc protrusion!
Not very common if they are will likely be in cervical spine
Soft Tissue causing NS back pain
Inflammation- edemous swelling in supraspinous ligament.
Equine Myopathies:
Exercise related
Tying up
Lumbago (pain in muscles n joints in LB)
Exertional Rhabdomyolysis: too much energy for too little exercise
or Too much exercise for actual level of training
Equine Myopathies
Nutritional and or metabolic
- Vit E or Se deficiency
- Nutritional supplementation
- PolySaccharide Storage Myopathy (PSSM)
- DNA Tests available
- Dietary management
- Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS)
- Can lead to changes in muscle tone
Selenium deficiency- being careful as you can kill a horse with too much mineral.
Could recommend if very tight muscles- but perhaps check blood levels first to avoid toxicity.
Ie like diabetes in horses common in quarter horses and qarm blood- cant digest polysaccharides so there are blobs of muscle. Try not to feed carbs, instead replace with fats.
If a horse just feels really tight all the time, diet can have a big influence on this.
Neoplasia
(melanoma) in white horses
White horses likely to have these growths, can be right in spine or in meninges.
Very common peri-annaly and carotid area.
