EQUUS Pop Quiz: Equine Medical Terms

Know your equine medical terms! Test your knowledge on the equestrian lexicon with a few questions from EQUUS magazine.

From Pavlovian responses to the Rorschach test, scientific, mathematical and medical terminology abounds with proper names identifying the originating geniuses. The equestrian lexicon isn’t quite so free with naming honors, and some eponyms familiar to horsemen are actually extended from human medicine.

What are the proper names associated with the following equine medical terms, and which two are horse specific?

1. the laboratory blood test used to detect antibodies against the equine infectious anemia (EIA) virus

2. the stained vertical furrow on mature horses’ upper corner incisors used as an age determinant due to its predictable time of appearance, recession and disappearance.

3. a syndrome, usually of aged horses, caused by excessive hormone production by the cortex of the adrenal glands, with signs including long hair, thin skin, fragile bones, lack of energy, weakness and sweating.

4. a dense, multilayered, full-leg bandage incorporating splints used as a temporary restraint and support for a seriously injured limb.

Answers 1. Coggins test. In 1970, Leroy Coggins, DVM, developed a blood test to identify horses infected with EIA. Two years later, the U.S. Department of Agriculture began using the test and mandating that imported horses be tested. Today, more than 1 million Coggins tests are run annually in state EIA-control programs.

2. Galvayne’s groove. Sydney Galvayne traveled Europe in the 1880s making money by determining the age of sales horses by the appearance of their teeth. His system became the basis for aging horses for the next 100 years.

3. Cushing’s syndrome. Harvey Williams Cushing, MD, a Boston surgeon, identified this disorder of the adrenal glands in people in the early 1900s. The term was first applied to a comparable condition in horses in the 1960s.

4. Robert Jones bandage. Robert Jones, MD, a field surgeon in World War I, developed this stabilization technique for the limbs of soldiers wounded in battle. The bulky bandage is applied on horses with severe leg injuries to the knee or hock region to minimize further damage to the limb until veterinary care is available.

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