Horses with Extensive Sidebone Have an Increased Risk of Injury

Imagine that after a thorough prepurchase examination, your veterinarian turns to you and says the horse has sidebone, meaning his lateral and medial cartilages of the foot that have “ossified,” or hardened into bone. What should you do?
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Imagine that after a thorough prepurchase examination, your veterinarian turns to you and says the horse has sidebone, meaning his lateral and medial cartilages of the foot that have "ossified," or hardened into bone. What should you do?

If the condition is extensive enough, you should carefully consider this horse's future and be aware that he is at-risk for collateral ligament, distal interphalangeal (coffin) joint, and distal phalanx (pedal bone) injury, says Sue Dyson, MA, VetMB, PhD, DEO, FRCVS, head of clinical orthopaedics at the Animal Health Trust in Newmarket, England.

"The cartilages play an important role in providing support to the foot, dissipating the forces of the foot's impact with the ground, and appear to play an important hemodynamic (flow of blood) role in the foot," explained Dyson. "While several studies have suggested that ossification of the cartilages is associated with injuries to other structures in the foot, large studies were needed to see if this association was real."

Dyson and her research team examined 462 horses to determine the frequency of ossification of the cartilages and to see whether there was an association between sidebones and injury to other structures in the foot

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Written by:

Stacey Oke, MSc, DVM, is a practicing veterinarian and freelance medical writer and editor. She is interested in both large and small animals, as well as complementary and alternative medicine. Since 2005, she’s worked as a research consultant for nutritional supplement companies, assisted physicians and veterinarians in publishing research articles and textbooks, and written for a number of educational magazines and websites.

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