4. Osteoporosis

My non – horsey friend asked me once if such a problem as an osteoporosis existed in horses and ponies. Osteoporosis is the decrease of bone mineral density resulting in very fragile and prone to fractures bones. Bone density is a measurement of the level of minerals in the bones. Osteoporosis (similar to people) doesn’t have any specific symptoms because the main consequence is obviously increased risk of actual breaking a bone in a situation when a healthy, normal animal wouldn’t injured itself. Osteoporosis is usually associated with deficiency of calcium, phosphorus or vitamin D in a diet (see the article about skeletal system) but it can also be caused by poor diet in general. Osteoporosis isn’t a common disease in horses and sometimes it may be hard to prove it. However there’s a disease called osteopenia which includes lower bone density but not so low to classify it as osteoporosis. It’s more common.