Bone biopsy in the horse. 1. Method using the wing of ilium

Two hundred and five bone biopsies from the wing of ilium were taken from 52 growing and 70 older horses. The method was initially evaluated in 4 horses at post mortem and then performed in 26 horses under general anaesthesia. The technique was later developed for biopsying horses in the standing position under local anaesthesia (n = 70 adults; n = 22 foals). The core of the bone biopsy consisted of a central cancellous portion between two cortices. This type of sample allowed a complete histomorphometrical analysis. An integral part of the procedure was intravital bone labelling using fluorochromes with a known interval between labels. Potential hazards associated with the use of oxytetracycline labels included the onset of diarrhoea and laminitis in some foals. The method was simple, safe and efficient for both anaesthetised and standing horses. The only difficulties encountered were minor and were associated with blunting of the drill bit, scoring of the internal surface of the drill bit guide and occasional loss of the distal part of the biopsy core. Post operative complications included haematoma formation and skin infections. It was concluded that this technique offered a quick and effective method of collecting bone biopsies in horses, which facilitated the quantitative assessment of skeletal changes.