Comparison of owner-reported health problems with veterinary assessment of geriatric horses in the United Kingdom.

The research article shows that horse owners often underestimate or misreport the health issues of their geriatric horses, and this discrepancy was revealed by comparing owner-reported conditions with the diagnoses made by veterinarians.

Methodology

• The study involved 200 horses above the age of 15, randomly chosen based on responses received from a cross-sectional postal survey.
• These horses then underwent clinical examinations by veterinarians within two months of the survey responses being received.
• The researchers examined the extent to which the health problems reported by owners matched the actual health conditions diagnosed by the veterinarians during the clinical examinations.

Findings

• The study found significant discrepancies between owner-reported diseases and the actual health conditions of the geriatric horses. In many cases, health problems were present but had gone unreported by the owners.
• For instance, dental abnormalities were prevalent in almost 95.4% of the horses but only reported by 24.5% of the owners.
• Similarly, 20% of the horses had cardiac murmurs, but only 0.5% of the owners had reported this issue. Lameness was seen in 50% of the horses but reported by only 23% of the owners, and hoof abnormalities, which were detected in 80% of the horses, were reported by only 27% of the owners.

Overall Agreement Between Owners and Veterinarians

• The agreement between owner-reported diseases and the actual clinical findings was quite low in the case of respiratory diseases, body condition score and coat abnormalities, with Kappa values of 0.02-0.2, 0.24, and 0.42 respectively.
• In the case of osteoarthritis, reporting was slightly more accurate, with the owner-reported condition matching the reductions in the range of motion (ROM) in the horse’s tarsal and metacarpophalangeal joints.

Conclusion and Recommendations

• The research concluded that the low prevalence and relatively poor agreement of owner-reported conditions suggests an under-recognition, or inaccurate reporting of health problems by the owners of geriatric horses.
• This could potentially result in a delay in the horses receiving necessary veterinary treatment.
• The researchers recommend increased involvement of veterinarians and improved education of horse owners to facilitate earlier identification of diseases, particularly those that are not readily detectable by owners, ensuring better management of health and welfare issues in geriatric horses.