can vertabrates get scoliosis?

Question

vertabrates are animals with spines and bones.
i'm wondering if it is possible for any animal with a spine to get scoliosis.

Answer 1

Great question! Let's hope a zoologist or orthopedist answers this one.

I'm totally NOT a vertebrate biologist or physician....But here is my guesstimate of the question.

Other animals can have spinal problems.

I had a swaybacked cat when I was a girl. It didn't affect his health, he just looked strange.

Dogs with dwarfism (Corgis and daschunds) will have spinal problems.

But my guess is that wild animals with spinal problems would not survive, and the reason people and the dog breeds I mentioned do is because of human medical intervention.

Answer 2

Since scoliosis is the curvature of the spine...Only vertebrates can get scoliosis. And yes any vertebrate can get scoliosis. One of the ways to test toxins is to see the survival rate and health rate of fish embryo when immersed in small amounts of the toxin. The survivors must be watched for scoliosis. Many will have it if the toxin concentration is too high.

In the wild virtually all the animals with scoliosis would be killed off like mentioned before.

Answer 3

LoL...lots of funny answers...

Well, yes..any vertebrates get scoliosis. As a matter of fact, researchers use chicken to study scoliosis as it is easy to cause scoliosis in chickens by altering certain genes or hormones...

Also, St. Justine hospital based in Montreal, Canada is currently conducting human trial for blood test for scoliosis after having done successful animal trial with lab mice..

Answer 4

While I have only heard of humans getting scoliosis, since just about everything's vertebrae are roughly shaped the same, I would say that although most likely rare, animals, just like people, can get scoliosis.

Answer 5

Yes. Any creature with a spine and that gene or health problem could develop scoliosis.

Answer 6

Yes