Presented by: Karen Gellman, DVM

Equine Complex Vertebral Malformation (ECVM) is a congenital syndrome in domestic horses whose prevalence has been increasingly recognized in many horse breeds over the past 20 years. It is likely the underlying cause of most C5-C7 facet arthritis in horses, as well as many other neuro-musculo-skeletal problems, severe undiagnosable pain, behavior issues and training difficulties. It’s likely most equine vets have been seeing cases for years, but did not appreciate the underlying malformations that cause lower cervical pathology because until recently, it was only diagnosed post-mortem, and most necropsies do not go sufficiently deep to find the anomalies on the axial spine itself.

Learning Objectives:

1. What is ECVM?
2. What is its clinical significance?
3. How can you diagnose and treat it?
4. How can you prevent it?