The Horse:Your Guide To Equine Health Care provides monthly equine health care information to horse owners, breeders, veterinarians, barn/farm managers, trainer/riding instructors, and others involved in the hands-on care of the horse.
Issue link: https://thehorse.epubxp.com/i/899161
46 TheHorse.com THE HORSE December 2017 I t's frustrating when a horse comes up lame. Missed training, competitions, and, simply, time in the saddle can be disappointing and expensive. Regard- less of the cause, rehabilitation—starting from time of diagnosis and continuing to return to normal work—is key. "For me, the entire rehab process is considered physical therapy," says Carrie Schlachter, VMD, Dipl. ACVSMR, medi- cal director at Circle Oak Equine, a lame- ness, sports medicine, and rehabilitation practice in Petaluma, California. In the first installment of this two-part series, which ran in the October issue, we looked at restoring the upper body to normal function after injury. Now we'll focus on limb issues, from therapies to back-to-work schedules. But First, Prevention Methods The best-case scenario, of course, is to prevent injuries from occurring in the first place. "Just like a human athlete, the horse has to be properly conditioned," says Stephen Denton, DVM, owner of Abingdon Equine Veterinary Services, in Virginia, and provider of sports medicine and lameness services through Perfor- mance Equine Vets, in Aiken, South Caro- lina. "The muscles need to be strength- ened properly. A lot of our injuries occur when the muscles fatigue—the ligaments and tendons get weaker and then are prone to joint injury and tendon/ligament injury from there." To that end, Denton recommends own- ers perform exercises to build the horse's core, working on different surfaces, cross-training, and keeping the horse in a regular exercise program. "For prevention, trainers and own- ers need to keep fitness in mind—not only muscular and cardiovascular but hoof, ligament, tendon, and bone," says Schlachter. "Most horses that participate in any sort of speed event should be able to trot 20 minutes uninterrupted, which is approximately 4 miles." Denton says this preparation, which he calls "prehabilitation," starts early in life. "Prevention of joint, tendon, and liga- ment injuries actually begins with foals," he says. "We've done enough studies to know if they are not moderately exercised and are stalled all the time, their cartilage thickness and tendon/ligament strength is not as good as it would be if they had had a lot of exercise and turnout when they were young. I make sure my clients with youngsters have them get proper exercise from Day 1." Find Your Baseline Establishing a baseline when the horse is sound and in work, as well as when sidelined with an injury, is essential to good management, says Denton, who uses a field-based lameness measurement system for this purpose. "It will pick up a lameness before you can see it," he says. The measurements serve as a starting point for treatment and rehabilitation. "This way I can follow through with objective data," he says. "With a baseline, you can go back to see exactly how much improvement there is." A soundness evaluation before show season starts is also useful. "If you catch something and treat it early, you have Be proactive when it comes to catching soft tissue injuries, evaluating your horse for heat and swelling on a regular basis. SPORTS MEDICINE NATALIE DEFEE MENDIK, MA TheHorse.com/Sports-Medicine The Road to Recovery, Part 2 How to rehabilitate a horse recovering from a lower-limb injury BIANCA MCCARTY