This article first appeared in the Spring 2026 issue of Synergy magazine

With the opening of the All Species Imaging Center last year, the UC Davis veterinary hospital is quickly establishing itself as the nation’s premier diagnostic and treatment center for equine neurological conditions. The center’s new large bore standing CT scanner, along with an MRI large enough to accommodate a horse, allow large animal clinicians and imaging specialists to capture images of additional body parts and/or capture them in a safer and quicker manner.

“With the standing CT, we no longer have any potential risks from general anesthesia when scanning a horse,” said Dr. Monica Aleman. “Even healthy horses can be injured during anesthesia recovery. We are minimizing that risk now.”

Ducky, a 6-year-old Thoroughbred gelding, recently benefitted from this advancement. His temporohyoid osteoarthropathy (THO) was discovered through a quick standing CT. This progressive disease causes bony overgrowth and fusion of the temporohyoid joint that links the skull to the hyoid bones near the jaw. This can lead to nerve damage, facial

paralysis, head tilting, balance issues, and severe head shaking. THO may be caused by infection, inflammation, trauma, or arthritis. While endoscopy has been useful for the diagnosis, a CT is needed for a definitive diagnosis.

With the standing CT, that procedure has now gone from hours under general anesthesia and a conventional CT scanner, to much less time using mild sedation and walking horses like Ducky into the standing CT. Ducky’s need for a CT was due to lameness and coordination issues, but it also discovered the unrelated THO. Thankfully, neither of the conditions currently require surgical intervention, but Aleman now has a clearer picture of his overall health and can plan accordingly should things change.

“There are so many examples of how this CT and the new MRI have completely changed the way we diagnose and treat horses with neurologic diseases and disorders,” said Aleman.

Myelograms are now faster and more accurate. These specialized imaging tests use contrast dye to detect spinal cord compression, stenosis, disc disease, foraminal stenosis, tumors, and spinal leaks. MRIs can now be utilized to scan the brain of horses to study epilepsy and other disorders. Combined with electroencephalograms to measure electrical activity in the brain, these analyses set UC Davis apart as one of the few veterinary hospitals able to complement imaging with electrodiagnostics in large animals.

Integration of this technology with the school’s Neuromuscular Disease Laboratory (NDL)—with their expertise in processing and interpretating muscle and nerve samples—adds to the clinical veterinarians’ ability to diagnose and treat patients with suspected neuromuscular disease. The NDL also collaborates with human medicine neurologists to help understand the application of human disease treatments into animals, especially important when an already discovered human disease is identified for the first time in animals.

“All of these elements showcase the uniqueness of UC Davis,” said Aleman, the first veterinarian trained and board certified worldwide in both large animal internal medicine and neurology. “There is no other veterinary hospital with our combination of diagnostic tools and imaging modalities in equine neurology.”

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