Equine desmitis, pelvic disease Desmitis of the wide portion of the sacroiliac ligament in horses

Case report

Abstract

Two adult horses, a male (6 years old, castrated) half-blooded Quarter Horse and a Mangalarga mare (7 years old) each showed decreased step amplitude and lameness of one of their hind limbs (right and left respectively) after working in handling cattle (both with Grade I, scale from 0 to 5). In addition, the male presented slight atrophy in the musculature of the right superficial gluteus. After clinical examination and screening with thermography (done before the animal worked, at the pen and not exposed to any heat source or solar irradiation or any product on the skin surface) no "hot spot" was found in in the right or left limb of either horse, thus raising suspicion of a "high" lesion, without neurological origin, opting for transrectal pelvic evaluation by ultrasound (6.5 MHz linear rectal transducer) in those animals. Differences were found between the left and right sides in the ligaments, in the images produced by the examination of the wide portions of the sacroiliac ligament, associated with pain on the side corresponding to the change in the image obtained. We can thus conclude, after thermography and clinical and neurological examination which excluded any injuries to the hind limbs, that the cause of lameness in these clinical cases is unilateral desmitis of the wide portions of the sacroiliac ligament, showing the importance of transrectal ultrasound evaluation in cases of pain in the limbs or even high claudication.