Computed tomography of nuchal ligament and semispinalis capitis tendon avulsions in a foal

Summary Head trauma is a common injury in young horses. This case report describes a 10-week-old Thoroughbred foal with an open wound following trauma to the poll region, showing abnormal head carriage and depression. A computed tomography (CT) study was performed under general anaesthetic (GA). This identified a complete avulsion of the nuchal ligament (NL) and partial avulsions of the left and right semispinalis capitis (SS) tendons. Following diagnosis and conservative treatment the foal made a good recovery and 18 months later the filly had no detectable neurological or physical abnormalities. Computed tomography enabled an accurate and rapid diagnosis of a novel injury.