Vetnews | Julie 2024 14 « BACK TO CONTENTS to disease process of the ligament but in reality, PSD can affect the osseous origin, innervating nerve and/or the palmar/plantar fascia. PSD is a prevalent cause of lameness in athletic horses, including racehorses, English and Western performance horses. Horses can present with varying degrees of lameness and even if the lameness seems ‘acute’ in its onset, the disease is typically chronic with an insidious onset. Lameness tends to be most apparent on soft ground with the affected limb on the outside of the circle (IE a RF lameness when circling left). In cases of forelimb PSD, flexion of the digit/ distal limb tends to exacerbate the lameness while response to carpal flexion is much more variable. In cases of hindlimb PSD lameness tends to worsen with digit/ distal limb flexion and also with tarsal/ full limb flexion. Diagnostic analgesia is recommended to regionalize the lameness. To isolate PSD, various subcarpal and subtarsal diagnostic analgesia techniques exist, though none are entirely specific to the proximal suspensory ligament. Diagnostic imaging most commonly entails ultrasonography although radiographs can be helpful to assess insertional lesions such as proximal suspensory enthesopathy or suspensory branch enthesopathy, which may be associated with sesamoiditis. On ultrasound, evaluating the proximal suspensory ligament non-weight bearing is often more rewarding than traditional weightbearing evaluation. If imaging findings are not correlating to the clinical examination, more advanced imaging such as MRI may be required. Less frequently, nuclear scintigraphy can also be utilized to determine if there is a more active osseous component of the disease process. Ultimately reaching a diagnosis and characterizing the tissues involved in the disease process will help guide appropriate treatment and rehabilitation. v Stirring up hope: One Health success stories from South Africa Drienie D. (Didi) Claassen Afrivet Technical and Training Services, Pretoria, South Africa. National Rabies Advisory Group, Pretoria, South Africa South Africa is home to numerous zoonotic diseases: Rabies, Crimean Congo haemorrhagic fever, brucellosis, bovine tuberculosis, Q-fever, and psittacosis, to name a few. The veterinary Events I WVAC 2024
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