Sacroiliac (SI) disease is a newly recognized condition, and veterinarians are seeing more and more performance horses with this issue. One of their major hurdles, however, is that SI disease has many clinical signs, diagnostic methods, and causes, making diagnosis challenging.
Fortunately, one veterinarian recently devised a "checklist" of six clinical indicators of SI disease. He described his research and how to identify these signs at the 2014 American Association of Equine Practitioners Convention, held Dec. 6-10 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
"In general, complaints about sacroiliac disease in horses are diverse," said presenter Rob van Wessum, DVM, MS, Cert Pract KNMvD (Equine), of Equine All-Sports Medicine Center, in Mason, Michigan. "Coming to a diagnosis can be a daunting task and often involves several diagnostic tools to exclude other sources of reduced performance."
All affected horses have one thing in common, however: compromised movement of the SI region, where the spine meets the pelvis. Over the past decade, van Wessum has identified specific signs of this gait abnormality that veterinarians can test for during lameness exams.