Despite their ease and speed of application, skin staples can lead to an increase in celiotomy wound complications in horses.

Ninety-five horses with sarcoids were subjected to three types of treatment: surgical excision (conventional or carbon dioxide laser), cryotherapy or local BCG vaccination. The type of treatment was selected on the basis of the size, location and clinical appearance of the tumours. The choice between conventional and laser excision was empirical. A successful outcome was obtained in 11 of 14 (79 per cent) of the horses treated by cryosurgery, 18 of 27 (67 per cent) treated by BCG vaccination, 18 of 22 (82 per cent) treated by conventional excision, and 20 of 28 (71 per cent) treated with a carbon dioxide laser. For both excision methods, rigorous measures were taken to avoid autoinoculation and to ensure a wide margin of normal skin. The probability of local recurrence after excision was significantly higher for large sarcoids and sarcoids which had previously failed to respond to treatment. In 10 of the 31 horses with remaining sarcoids, some or all of the untreated sarcoids were observed to regress spontaneously.

Findings suggested that computed tomographic-guided brain biopsy is feasible in horses and can be used to establish a diagnosis in horses with intracranial masses.

Background Dental disease is a troublesome health concern in alpacas. Specifically, the occurrence of tooth root abscesses has been described in veterinary literature. Nevertheless, no objective prevalence data are available for dental disorders in alpacas. Hypothesis/objectives To determine the prevalence of dental disorders in alpaca herds in Belgium and the Netherlands. To study the associations between the different dental disorders encountered in alpacas. Animals A total of 228 alpacas (Vicugna pacos) originating from 25 farms. Methods This is a cross‐sectional study. Dental disorders were diagnosed by dental examination of sedated animals using a dental mirror or a portable rigid oroscope. Results At the animal level, 82% (n = 187) had dental disorders of which 74.6, 41.7, and 3.9% were cheek teeth, incisor disorders, and canine disorders, respectively. At the level of the cheek teeth, diastemata (43.1%) were most common, followed by wear abnormalities (WA; 39.6%) and periodontal disease (PD; 33.3%). A significant association was detected between the presence of diastemata and PD (odds ratio [OR], 13.1; 95% confidence interval [CI], 6.6‐27.7; P < .001). Pulp exposure was significantly associated with the presence of diastemata (OR, 11.8; 95% CI, 3.8‐51.5; P < .001), PD (OR, 8.2; 95% CI, 3.1‐25.3; P < .001) and WA (OR, 2.9; 95% CI, 1.2‐7.4; P = .002). Conclusion and Clinical Importance Dental disorders are highly prevalent in alpacas in Belgium and the Netherlands. Several dental disorders in alpacas had significant associations. To prevent the development of advanced stages of dental disease, routine dental examinations are advised to allow early detection and prompt treatment.

Distal limb cast is a safe coaptation technique with increasing risk of developing sores with time. Thermography is a valuable and rapid clinical tool to monitor the development of cast sores.

In situ forming bone substitute materials are attractive candidates for filling irregularly shaped defects. In this study, a chemically modified form of the Pluronic F127 hydrogel was used. Similar to the parent form, this derivative underwent a sol-gel transition in the body and additional radical curing resulted in a stable three-dimensional network gel with a controllable degradation rate. An extra cell source of autologous bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells was mixed with the hydrogel to increase the ossification process, when implanted in noncritical size unicortical tibia defects. These cells were cultured and predifferentiated on two types of cell carrier systems, that is, gelatin CultiSpher-S microcarriers and hydroxyapatite tubular carriers. Radiographic and histological evaluation revealed that bone regeneration was comparable in the defects with the bone substitute compositions and the untreated control defects at 2 and 4 weeks postimplantation and that newly formed bone originated from the cells on the CultiSpher-S carriers. This resulted, 6 and 8 weeks postimplantation, in faster bone repair in the defects filled with the hydrogel plus CultiSpher-S carriers in comparison to the control defects. Surprisingly, there was no formation of new bone originating from the hydroxyapatite carriers. The hydrogel by itself seemed to stimulate the natural repair process.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate outcomes following treatment of sarcoids in equids and to identify risk factors for treatment failure in these patients. DESIGN Retrospective case series. ANIMALS 230 equids with 614 sarcoids. PROCEDURES Records were searched to identify equids treated for ≥ 1 sarcoid between 2008 and 2013. A standardized protocol was used to determine treatment choice (electrosurgery, electrosurgery with intralesional placement of cisplatin-containing beads, topical administration of imiquimod or acyclovir, cryosurgery, bacillus Calmette-Guerin vaccine injection, or intralesional injection of platinum-containing drugs). Data regarding animal, tumor, treatment, and outcome variables were collected. Complete tumor regression without recurrence for ≥ 6 months was considered a successful outcome. Success rates were calculated; binary logistic regression analysis was used to identify risk factors for treatment failure and to compare effects of the 2 topical treatments. A χ(2) test was used to compare effects of the number of Bacillus Calmette-Guerin vaccine or cisplatin-containing drug injections on outcome. RESULTS The overall success rate was 460 of 614 (74.9%). Electrosurgical excision resulted in the highest treatment success rate (277/319 [86.8%]); odds of treatment failure were significantly greater for intralesional injection of platinum-containing drugs, cryosurgery, and topical acyclovir treatment. Odds of treatment failure were also significantly greater for sarcoids on equids with multiple tumors than for solitary lesions, and significantly lower for sarcoids on equids that received concurrent immunostimulating treatment for another sarcoid than for those on patients that did not receive such treatment. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Selection bias for treatments was inherent to the study design; however, results may assist clinicians in selecting treatments and in determining prognosis for equids with sarcoids treated according to the described methods.

SummaryMicro-CT is a non-destructive technique for 3D tomographic investigation of an object. A 3D representation of the internal structure is calculated based on a series of X-ray radiographs taken from different angles. The spatial resolution of current laboratory-used micro-CT systems has come down over the last years from a few tens of microns to a few microns. This opens the possibility to perform histological investigations in 3D on a virtual representation of a sample, referred to as virtual 3D histology. The advantage of micro-CT based virtual histology is the immediate and automated 3D visualization of the sample without prior slicing, sample preparation like decalcification, photographing and aligning. This not only permits a drastic reduction in preparation time but also offers the possibility to easily investigate objects that are difficult to slice. This article presents results that were obtained on punch biopsies of horse skin, (dental) alveolus of ponies and chondro-osseous samples from the tarsus of foals studied with the new high resolution micro-CT set-up (HRXCT) at the Ghent University (Belgium) (www.ugct.ugent.be). This state-of-theart set-up provides a 1 micron resolution and is therefore ideally suited for a direct comparison with standard light microscopy-based histology.