C. M. Colles

Navicular disease and its treatment

A SURVEY in 1962 showed that navicular disease was diagnosed as the cause of about one-third of all cases of chronic forelimb lameness in the horse. Descriptions of the disease are numerous and, in many cases, contradictory. Recently, the idea has been advanced that pain results, not from the classically described erosions of the flexor cartilage, but from ischaemia within the substance of the bone. This allows a complete reassessment of the condition to be made and opens the possibility of completely new lines of treatment. The ischaemic changes can be related to radiological changes which aids making a definite diagnosis.

Australian stringhalt in the UK

WE would like to alert colleagues to the possibility of seeing cases of so-called Australian stringhalt in the UK. We have recently diagnosed this condition in a horse that was turned out on pasture with a high density of Hypochaeris radicata (common cats ear; also widely spelt Hypochoeris radicata ). The horse initially presented …