Septic Synovitis and Osteomyelitis in Foals: Current Situation in a French Referral Hospital and Value of Computed Tomography for Diagnosis and Treatment

To describe cases of septic synovitis and osteomyelitis in foals younger than 6 months presented to a single hospital and their management and to report the value of computed tomography in diagnosis and management of these cases.This is a retrospective descriptive study.Sixty-five foals were included in this study. Forty-six foals (71%) survived to discharge. The presence of osteomyelitis (<i>p</i> = 0.16), umbilical infection (<i>p</i> = 0.41), or infection with <i>Rhodococcus equi</i> (<i>p</i> = 1) did not significantly influence survival. However, risk of nonsurvival was significantly increased if multiple sites were infected (<i>p</i> = 0.007; odds ratio [OR] = 5.80) or when bony lesions were present on admission radiographs (<i>p</i> = 0.03; OR = 3.47). A large proportion of the foals in this study had osteomyelitis (66%; 43/65). Computed tomography use was not significantly associated with survival (<i>p</i> = 0.27) but allowed identification of osteomyelitis lesions in 16 out of 43 cases (37.2%) where radiological findings were unremarkable.This study reports a high frequency of osteomyelitis in foals in multiple different regions of the skeleton, with or without associated synovial sepsis. The prognosis, defined as survival to discharge, for these orthopaedic infections is positive, especially if only one location is affected. Computed tomography scan allows an early diagnosis as well as detection of radiographically silent lesions and is an interesting tool in targeted treatments of these foals. Gram-positive bacterial infections were overrepresented in this study, suggesting some similarities with human paediatric orthopaedic infections.