Incidence of limb pathologies from horses attended at the Veterinary Hospital of College of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science - UNESP -Botucatu: retrospective study (1991-1993)

Abstract

The purpose of this work was to establish the incidence of main limb pathologies from horses attended at the Veterinary Hospital of College of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science at UNESP-Botucatu-SP - Brazil, from 1991 to 1993. Four hundred seventy five promptuaries were checked and the frequency distribution study of following variables was done: age, sex, breed, diseases duration, affected limbs, main pathologies, diagnostic methods and treatments. Horses up to two years old were the most affected (44,4%). Male (49,1%) and female (50,9%) were similarly affected. Nearly half of the animals (49,5%) had lesions for more than 7 days, 16% had for 1 day and 22,5% of the pronptuaries didn't have any information about the disease duration. Each limb showed similar frequency of pathologies varying from 18,3 to 20,8%. However, in pairs, the forelimbs (62,7%) were more affected than the hindlimbs (37,3%). Wounds (22,1%) and fractures (15,4%) were the most frequent pathologies. The clinical examination was the mostly used diagnostic method(59,7%)being followed by the clinical examination with X-ray examination (38,7%). Surgery was carried out in 18,5% of the cases and bandage in 12,4%.