Happy Independence Day! We were off for the fourth of July on Thursday and it was a nice break to have during the week. While no appointments were scheduled, the doctor’s will see emergencies on holidays if the need should arise.
This week we worked up many lameness cases. Lameness can arise for various reasons and the source of the lameness can be anywhere from a horses’ hooves all the way up to its shoulders and neck. Two helpful tricks for detecting lameness in a horse include:
front leg lameness - watch for a head bob! When the horse’s head is down, that means it is shifting most of its weight on to the “sound,” i.e. good leg.
hind leg lameness - watch for a hip hike! This tends to be a little trickier than watching for a head bob but typically the side of the hip that is hiked higher than the normal plane of the hip will point you towards the lame leg.
Practice (and lovely doctors who tell you if your guess was right or not) is key!
Additionally, we saw a horse that presented with an ethmoid hematoma. Ethmoid hematomas occur in nasal passages as well as paranasal sinuses of horses. While ethmoid hematomas are not neoplastic, they have the potential to become large masses and can lead to reduced airflow. Clinically, you would most likely see intermittent blood coming out of one nostril. In this case, formalin was injected into the mass in order to cause it to regress.
Case Highlight: Bone chip + subchondral bone injury
Bone chips, or osteochondral fragments, are thought to occur from trauma due to hyperextension. They are quite literally pieces of bone that have chipped off from the originating bone and can potentially lead to osteoarthritis and/or other problems. On the other hand, injury to the subchondral bone, or “bone bruising,” can put horses at a higher risk for fractures. In this case, a screw was placed in order to prevent a potential fracture while the chip was removed arthroscopically.
Cheers to the smell of hay, summer nights, barbecues, and strolls on the beach.
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