Equine Back Disorders: A comparative study between palpation and radiographic findings

Abstract

The reason for performing this study was to investigate relationship between presence or absence of clinical signs of back problems with radiological findings and also to determine the prevalence of concurrent osseous pathology. Forty-four horses underwent clinical and radiological investigation of thoracolumbar spine. Results were recorded. Statistical analysis was performed to determine relationships between age, gender, work discipline, clinical and radiological features. The most common pathological finding was kissing spines syndrome. There was significant association between age, gender and work discipline and prevalence of pathological and radiological findings. X-rays revealed that horses with clinical signs of back problems were more likely to have osseous changes. Radiological examination should be always critically interpreted in a connection to the clinical sings in order to establish a diagnosis of a patient.