Equine Bone Fragility Disorder Reported in California

Veterinary researchers at the University of California, Davis, are working to classify a newly observed bone fragility disorder that might prove to be the culprit behind some cases of intermittent chronic lameness that have no other explanation.

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Veterinary researchers at the University of California, Davis, are working to classify an observed bone fragility disorder that might prove to be the culprit behind some cases of intermittent chronic lameness that have no other explanation.

After an extensive review of medical records from horses examined at the university’s Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital between June 1980 and June 2006, researchers found 16 horses with lameness that could not be pinpointed. All 16 horses showed multiple sites of increased radiopharmaceutical uptake (or "hot spots") on scintigraphic images, which indicates increased bone activity (such as bone remodeling or healing after a fracture).

"The horses all have similar clinical symptoms and present with what we think are differing stages of the same disease," said Jonathan Anderson, BVM&S, resident in equine surgery at the hospital and lead author on the study. "It appears that the disease becomes clinically evident as a chronic low-grade lameness that progresses to involve other legs, or deformity of flat bones of the appendicular skeleton…including lordosis (swayback) and extreme scapular bowing (when the scapula, or shoulder blade, arcs out from the horse’s body)."

Horse with lordosis and scapular bowing

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