Retrospective study of radiographic changes in athletic bulls with orthopedic disorders

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to demonstrate the lesions that affect athlete bulls and to correlate the disorders with weight, age, affected limb and region of the limb. The present study was accomplished using radiographic images of athletic rodeo bulls collected from the medical and surgical records of the large animal service at the veterinary hospital. Radiographic images were evaluated for 136 bulls that were taken care of at the Veterinary Hospital, ranging in age from 4 to 13 years, with an average weight of 800kg and proven prior physical activity through participation in rodeos. The chi-square or Fisher’s exact test was used to assess the association between the studied variables. It was observed that 71.6% of the bulls studied and suffering from lameness had radiographic lesions, predominantly in experienced animals. Enthesopathy in starter and experienced bulls, septic arthritis in starter bulls, and fractures and degenerative joint disease in experienced bulls were the most frequent radiographic lesions diagnosed. The region of limb where the majority of radiographic changes occurred was the digits. Risk factors and occurrence of diseases of the locomotor system in athletic bulls are similar to those in sport equines.

Shape analysis of the carpal joint in healthy and septic arthritis in newborn calves

“…The literature review revealed a scarcity of radiographic studies investigating the differences between healthy and arthritic carpal joint anatomy in veterinary medicine. Studies on arthritis in radiographs have shown various indicators, including enlargement of the joint space, swelling of the soft tissues, loss of bone characteristics that form the joint, lysis, ossification, changes in the position and shape of the bones and transformation into a cartilaginous structure (Arican et al., 2022; Cholfe et al., 2019; Yanmaz et al., 2016). In these studies, unlike previous research, shape changes were statistically examined using shape analysis techniques.…”