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New insights into SI joint pain
horses
The research suggests scintigraphy alone is not a reliable method of diagnosing SI joint pain.
Findings may help vets recognise clinical signs

Pioneering research by the Animal Health Trust (AHT) offers insights into the prevalence and characteristics of sacroiliac (SI) joint region pain and how it relates to lameness in horses.

This is the first large-scale study of its kind and it is hoped the findings will help vets and horse owners to recognise the clinical signs.

According to the research, the clinical signs of SI joint region pain are worse when horses are ridden. This highlights the importance of examining horses under saddle where possible to observe the severity and breadth of the clinical signs.

Another key finding was that diagnostic analgesia using a safe, non-specific nerve block could significantly reduce clinical signs.

Signs indicative of SI joint region pain were: bucking and kicking, particularly in canter; a bunny-hopping type canter; stiff, stilted canter; spontaneously breaking from canter to trot; and being reluctant to canter.

Blocking the SI joint in diagnostic investigations could offer crucial information in horses showing these signs, according to AHT.

The research also suggests scintigraphy alone is not a reliable method of diagnosing SI joint pain - just 42 per cent of the horses with a positive response to SI joint pain had abnormal radiopharmaceutical uptake.

However, researchers said the use of scintigraphy and ultrasonography in conjunction with an SI block can provide additional information in some cases.

The majority of the horses involved in the study had SI joint region pain and lameness of the hind limbs. In some horses, removing the source of pain in the lame limb resulted in a clear improvement.

However, ridden exercise highlighted the persistence of another source of pain, which in some cases was worse after eradicating the lameness.

AHT said this highlights the importance of observing ridden exercise in trot and canter when assessing lameness.

Lead author Sue Dyson added: "Assessing the effect of treatment of the SI joints is not an effective method of diagnosis; the use of nerve blocks is much more reliable."

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RCVS Knowledge appoints Veterinary Evidence editor-in-chief

News Story 1
 RCVS Knowledge has welcomed Professor Peter Cockcroft as editor-in-chief for Veterinary Evidence.

A world-renowned expert in evidence-based veterinary medicine, Prof Cockcroft will lead the strategic development and editorial quality of the open-access journal. He was previously in the role from 2017-2020.

Katie Mantell, CEO of RCVS Knowledge, said: "We are excited about the extensive knowledge of evidence-based veterinary medicine and clinical veterinary research that Peter brings, and we look forward to working with him over this next phase of the journal's development." 

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News Shorts
CVS Group hit by cyber attack

CVS Group, which owns more than 450 veterinary practices in the UK, has been hit by a cyber attack.

In a statement, the group said the incident involved unauthorised external access to a limited number of its IT systems. As soon as the attack was discovered, the group took its IT systems temporarily offline, causing 'considerable operational disruption'.

It has warned that the security steps taken and ongoing plans to move its operational systems and IT infrastructure to the Cloud are likely to have an ongoing impact over a number of weeks.

Due to the risk that personal information was accessed, CVS has informed the Information Commissioner's Office. The company is working with third party consultants to investigate the incident.