Hello! Long time lurker first time posting. Just got x rays of my hunters feet for shoeing purposes vet will go over next time she’s out but sent in the meantime. Can anyone give me a basic gist of what I’m looking at to entertain my own curiosity?
Signed admittedly and shamefully clueless
I am not educated enough to tell you anything meaningful about these, but I can tell you that when I’m looking at x-rays and waiting on a vet’s interpretation, I google “normal horse (insert body part here) x-rays.” Then I compare those against the ones I’m looking at. Of course the random ones on the internet aren’t always “normal” or even without any glaring faults, but I do like comparing them. For instance, to the uneducated, this x-ray looks pretty normal:
But when you compare against a normal X-ray, you realize that this is abnormal:
How old is the horse? I see nothing damning on these. Angles are slightly positive (you want the heel a few degrees higher than the toe) and some minor remodeling.
I marked this up for you very quickly. P2 has remodeling (arthritis or ringbone) at P1 and P3. P3 has a small amount of remodeling at the very top. Both are minor and probably age appropriate.
I did a terrible job marking the angles on my phone but your vet may want the heel a little higher on this foot (compare to the other side). They will not be level side to side and really shouldn’t be.
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Also I agree that familiarizing yourself with rads and what is normal is helpful. Maybe search for other threads with imaging on CotH?
The second lateral is a bit too oblique to measure properly.
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He is 11 this year - thank you SO much
Ok thanks so much for the feedback!
agree. That’s not a useful rad at this angle and I’d ask for that to be retaken.
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