Specializing in the care and treatment of pleasure and performance horses
I seem to be seeing more and more articles and press releases talking about the amount of money that people are spending on their animals. Most of these are along the lines of, "Gee, I can't believe what people are spending on their animals, they must really care about their animals." I'm not sure that all of this is such a good thing, however. I mean, it's probably great for some veterinarians, and pharmaceutical … [Read more...]
It was a bit less than two decades ago that "shock waves" were introduced into veterinary medicine as a treatment for orthopedic injuries. By application of a simple non-invasive probe, horses could be treated for a variety of injuries and conditions causing lameness, including, but not necessarily limited to, arthritis, back pain, tendon injuries, skin wounds, and navicular syndrome (and, presumably, indigestion and … [Read more...]
About three decades ago (as I recall), it was noticed that some Peruvian Paso horses were starting to break down, especially in their hind limbs. As the horses got older their fetlocks began to sink into the ground. Ultimately, the horses became unusable, and many had to be euthanized. The condition was given a name - Degenerative Suspensory Ligament Disease (DSLD) - and a new disease was born. Since that time, … [Read more...]
It would be really nice if every time you called your veterinarian out for a lameness exam, it ended along the lines of, "Well, there you go. We've found out exactly what the problem is, and now we'll just fix things up and your horse will be as good as new!" By the way, I also think it would be nice if chocolate cake weren't fattening; if the Arabs and the Israelis would spend their apparently boundless energies … [Read more...]
There's yet another new entry into the lameness treatment field. This one is a preparation that's made from the horse's own blood (as is IRAP), and, like most things, it comes with a lot of "promise" but very little in the way of good evidence. It's the latest thing: it has been performed a good bit in human athletes, too. It is known as Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP). Platelets are the cells that help plug up … [Read more...]
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