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Posted by jcdill
on 8/9/2012, 12:03 am, in reply to "Anyone have experience with temporohyoid osteoarthropathy?"
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I had a mare who had this. She had a partial facial paralysis that came on quickly, from being mostly normal to being unable to blink one eye, drooping lip on that side, lop ear on that side - all in a few days. She was initially diagnosed (locally) as possibly having Bell's Palsy.
We were referred to UC Davis and went up there the very next morning. They did a full neurological workup, scoped her, did various tests to determine if it was West Nile or other neurological diseases, looked in her eyes and ears, and ultimately xrays confirmed temporohyoid osteoarthropathy.
I had the surgery done at Davis. The surgery was to remove a small piece of the hyoid bone, which lets the joint portion of the hyoid bone fuse with the other bones and the missing portion of the bone "acts as a joint" to let the tongue function normally. I was very happy with UC Davis, with the initial exam (conducted mostly by students with the vet assisting), with the expert exams (she was seen by their eye specialist), with the surgery and post-op care, and with the outcome. In the end she had the tinyiest bit of droop in her lip on that side, and the tinyiest bit of "lop" in the ear on that side. (The ear didn't come fully forward, it only came about 95% of the way to straight forward - I could see the difference but nobody else ever noticed.) The important thing - her eye was fine! I don't remember the name of the surgeon who did the surgery but the admitting vet was Dr. Madigan and I'm pretty sure he will remember the 18.2 hand Percheron with temporohyoid osteoarthropathy.
JC Dill Photography
San Jose & San Francisco
Horse Portraits, Horse Show Photography
www.jcdill.com
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