The influence of trimming of the hoof wall on the damage of laminar tissue after loading: An in vitro study

Publication date: Available online 4 July 2019Source: The Veterinary JournalAuthor(s): S. Moeller, B. Patan-Zugaj, T. Daeullary, A. Tichy, T.F. LickaAbstractLaminitis is associated with failure of the suspensory apparatus of the distal phalanx (SADP) connecting the distal phalanx to the hoof wall. The specific aim of this study was to examine in vitro whether thinning of the hoof wall leading to increased deformability influences the damage of the laminar tissue created by loading of the hoof. Paired cadaver forelimbs from twelve horses were used. For each pair, the hoof wall from one hoof was thinned by 25%; this was ascertained by radiography. The contralateral hooves were used as controls. In a material testing machine, hooves were loaded in a proximodistal direction at 0.5 mm/s until a cut-off value of 8 kN or 14 mm was reached. Afterwards, samples of the SADP were taken for histology. Image-based evaluation of the destruction of the SADP was performed using quantitative histogram analysis. Additionally, three examiners masked to treatment (trimmed/untrimmed) qualitatively evaluated SADP destruction.During hoof loading with forces from 0.5 to 1.8 times the body mass of the donor horses, hooves with thinned hoof wall underwent significantly more deformation (P < 0.05). Quantitative histogram analysis detected a shift to higher brightness values and a higher pixel intensity in control hooves, representing disruption in the histologic analysis. Qualitative eval...
Source: The Veterinary Journal - Category: Veterinary Research Source Type: research