Participants needed to help validate a questionnaire for monitoring chronic pain in horses
Osteoarthritis — the most common type of arthritis in horses is a frequent cause of chronic pain in horses but is an underdiagnosed and undertreated disease. This happens, not because people are neglecting their animals, but because many horse owners and caregivers are not familiar with the signs of chronic pain in equines. To help humans recognise and monitor signs of chronic arthritis pain in their horses, a short, 15-item questionnaire based on behavioural signs has been developed and is now being validated.
The project is looking for participants who have horses with vet-diagnosed osteoarthritis to fill out the questionnaire twice, with a two-day interval in between to provide data for the validation process. The total time commitment is approximately 1 hour and is done online. If you have a horse who qualifies and would like to participate, please contact Diane Howard, PhD, MSc, at dianehowardct@gmail.com/
This work is being sponsored by the University of Edinburgh and Utrecht University and is funded by the Morris Animal Foundation. A press release about the project is available here.
They have also recorded a podcast about evaluating and managing chronic pain in horses – listen here.
The team are hoping for participants from both the amateur and professional horse worlds to support with this project to promote equine welfare.
This is what Sue had to say: “Osteoarthritis in horses is a nasty disease. and I hope there is so much more research and resulting options for these amazing equines that suffer in silence, in pain.”
If you have a horse who qualifies and you would like to participate, please contact Diane Howard, PhD, MSc, at dianehowardct@gmail.com/
