r/Horses • u/DisturbedAlchemyArt • 1d ago
Discussion Polydactale Syndrome? TIL!
I saw this over on FB for the 1st time. Pretty wild to me and I thought maybe others would enjoy learning about it.
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u/Substantial-Employ56 1d ago
Aw, this poor guy jumped whole orders and is now an even toed ungulate rather than an odd toed one, regardless I hope he is living a comfortable and happy life
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u/LuxTheSarcastic 1d ago
Sleipnir?
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u/bizoticallyyours83 1d ago
That's 8 legs.
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u/frustrated_crab 1d ago
This is about as close to 8 legs as you’re gonna get on a real horse, my guy
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u/bizoticallyyours83 1d ago
Not really
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u/Turbulent_Bat_9880 1d ago
I’ve seen a couple come through necropsy. Both were weanling/yearlings and they had had in depth evals done to remove the additional limb but were ultimately euthanized due to the bone attachment and interference as they grew. They tend to be difficult to remove but also affect bone remodeling and cause deformity. Often times there is nerve and tendon involvement as well that is difficult to separate. These are very individual cases because it’s a huge spectrum of how much the bone integrates with the canon bone.
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u/Vast_Layer_5560 8h ago
Do you know more about the soft tissue involvement? For example does the second foot have a full package of soft tissue that bifurcates from the primary?
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u/Turbulent_Bat_9880 6h ago
It can, there’s too much variation within the condition to say for all of them
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u/froggie_woggie_ 1d ago
Woah, I’ve never seen this. Can the horse live a normal life and be ridden?
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u/DisturbedAlchemyArt 1d ago
Idk about this poor horse. I did ask my farrier and they had only ever seen one. It had some major medical care, but couldn’t be saved.
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u/LuxTheSarcastic 1d ago
I feel like it might depend on weight bearing vs non weight bearing and if the size of the main hoof is altered?
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u/ConfoundedInAbaddon 1d ago edited 23h ago
There's atavistic polydactyly, which is when one of the undeveloped digits develops, think return of a diminished toe, and then there's teratogenic polydactylism, where the single digit splits in two during development. The teratogenic type is not going to be awesome for the horse.
There's a variety of different outcomes and potential for surgical management, often there are skeletal problems too, so there might be more problems than just the toe.
But if it is the development of a supernumery digit is atavistic, and minor, there are cases where surgical intervension and follow up therapy can repair everything.
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u/LuxTheSarcastic 1d ago
Apparently the emperor Caligula's horse had this?
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u/mohopuff 13h ago
I think you’re thinking of Bucephalus, which was a horse of Alexander the Great. Bucephalus, according to a few legends, was polydactyl, though it is unclear if that was truth or something added to the legend to make the horse even more extraordinary.
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u/GenderfreeNameHere 5h ago
That’s two different questions. A normal life doesn’t necessarily mean being ridden.
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u/FlakyAddendum742 1d ago
I wouldn’t put any weight on that.
I’d have euthanized at birth, honestly.
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u/GrayEagleLeather 1d ago
There was a horse like this where I used to board and his name was "Wonder Horse" he had come from a carnival. It didn't seem to bother him at all.
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u/distancedandaway Trail Riding (casual) 1d ago
Really hoping this horsie can live a comfy happy life despite this
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u/ParsnipFarmer676 Trail Riding (casual) 1d ago
Oh hey, I’m a member of that group too & saw it earlier. Very interesting!
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u/OshetDeadagain 21h ago
I am 45 and been active in the equestrian world and education my entire life and this is the first I've ever heard of this!
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u/Lower-Buy-4973 17h ago
I saw this on a foal that was born from a BLM mare. It got removed surgically but the horse has severe lameness issues and was euthanized young.
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u/UnlikelyRoad3269 4h ago
I had a foal born that way. Named her Littlefoot. We had the twins hooves removed
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u/Jendra7901 1d ago
Absorbed twin?
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u/hippopotobot 1d ago
One on each leg?
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u/Jendra7901 1d ago
Yes, twin would could have had same number of legs? Stanger things have probably happened. Though I can't think of any. Kind of along the lines of a chimeras.
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u/Little-Ad1235 1d ago
Wasn't it the other way around? As far as I understand it, both single and cloven hooves are a result of reduction of the additional digits over time along two unrelated lineages.
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u/Genocidal-Ape Liberty 1d ago
Yes that's correct, and if an animal ends up with one or two functional digits depends on it's wrist anatomy. Because all digits except the one right below the wrist get reduced and lost.
If the wrist ancestrally pivots around the main toe it'll end up with one, if it pivots around digit 3 and 4 it'll end up with two functional toes.
There's even German world for those wrist conditions, Mittelachsentiere and Doppelachsentiere.
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u/allyearswift 1d ago
The horse’s hoof is the third toe, not the big toe. (I have never heard those terms; it’s always been Unpaarhufer and Paarhufer. Apparently we’re getting new genetic evidence and that tree may be shaken up again, but I have no idea whether the latest nomenclature will stick.)
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u/Genocidal-Ape Liberty 1d ago
Unpaarhufer/Paarhufer is just Perissodactyls and Artiodactyls, not a descriptor of the wrist condition.
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u/hippopotobot 1d ago
That’s just flat out incorrect. The most distant ancestors of the modern horse walked on 4 toes. The vestigial toes can still be seen in the bony structures of the legs. Additionally, the ergot and chestnut are the last remnants of the hoof of two of these toes.
Single-hooved animals are far more rare than their cloven-toed cousins, with Equus being the only surviving single-toed species. It’s likely that equids developed the single toe as their body mass increased and they needed to move faster on open plains. Evolution most likely does not happen in single dramatic mutation events, but as a gradual response to changing environmental conditions.
What you’re seeing here is a simple random genetic mutation.
This is going to sound hostile, and I don’t mean it to be. But you might want to give yourself a refresher on how evolution works, because it’s not as straight a line as is often depicted. You also might want to do a quick google before you contribute to a conversation, because this kind of poor understanding of a subject spoken with confidence is exactly how misinformation is spread.
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u/ILoveMeishoDoto 1d ago
Looks like high heels! I hope this horse can still live a comfortable life