Examination of the Equine Foot

There are excellent journal articles and book chapters that describe the examination of the foot, some of which are listed as references. Reviewing them reveals that each clinician performs their examination in their own style, and they emphasize different aspects of the examination; however, they all have a method, and all describe an effective process to diagnose as effectively as possible the various conditions that affect the equine foot. This article describes the author’s approach to examination of the foot, which is a synthesis of formal education received, personal experience, and experience of others. It is a reductionist rather than procedural approach. The majority of disease processes originating in the foot that cause lameness are associated with inflammation, usually related to trauma or infection. Disease processes associated with a marked focus of inflammation, typically associated with acute onset of lameness, are most likely to be identified with a basic examination, whereas disease processes associated with subtle symptoms and longer duration may require much more extensive examination of the limb and ancillary diagnostic tests. Furthermore, even the best examination in conjunction with ancillary diagnostic tests may not always obtain a definitive diagnosis, but the information gained may suggest an approach for symptomatic treatment. The latter is particularly important when access to advanced diagnostic technology, such as magnetic resonance imaging, is limited. Therefore, the following discussion is divided into two parts, the basic examination and a more detailed examination. The detailed examination is further divided into three main sections that provide different types of information. All examinations begin by gathering the presenting complaint, signalment, and history. With most foot problems, the presenting complaint is lameness. However, presenting complaint may also be the appearance of the foot. The signalment for any horse does not give specific information about the presenting complaint, but it does contain risk factors for certain conditions, which must then be correlated with information obtained from the history and physical examination. There are three main time points of importance in history taking: the date of the examination, the date that the problem was first noticed, and the date that the owner first knew/owned the horse. The second date gives an indication of the duration of the problem, and the length of time between the second and third dates gives the clinician an indication of how much history before this problem is known; this may lead to further enquiry about this time. No two sets of questions asked during a history taking are the same, because so many questions are pred-