Fractures of the equine carpus: A report on 57 cases

Abstract

Extract In recent years there has been an increasing awareness that carpal fractures are an important cause of lameness in fast-gaited horses. From both America ( Park et al, 1970 Adams, O. R. 1966. Lameness in Horses, Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger. [Google Scholar] ; Thrall et al., 1971 Backer, J. W. 1969. Current status of arthrotomy of carpal and fetlock joints. Auburn vet., 25: 108–113. [Google Scholar] ), and Australia ( Larsen and Dixon, 1970 Dixon, R. T. 1969. Radiography of the equine carpus. Aust. vet. J., 45: 171–174. [Google Scholar] ) observations on series of carpal fractures have been published and these indicate that the condition is confined mainly to the racing animal. The purpose of this paper is to present a series of 57 cases of fractures involving the carpal joint that have occurred under New Zealand racing conditions and to compare them inter alia with previous reports from other countries.