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TheHorse.com THE HORSE September 2015
injury," says García-López, because "the
prognosis and treatment are very differ-
ent than they were 10 years ago."
Horse owners will be glad to know that
MRI of the equine foot no longer auto-
matically requires "laying the horse down"
under general anesthesia. Diamond's deep
digital flexor tendon lesion was diagnosed
via standing MRI, an outpatient proce-
dure that required only sedation and a
same-day round-trip to the clinic.
Many Causes, Many Treatment
Options
Once your veterinarian has come to
a definitive diagnosis for your horse's
foot-pain condition, it's time to select the
treatment regimen that offers the best
chance for recovery.
For some tendon and ligament injuries,
the modalities of choice are regenerative:
injections of platelet-rich plasma (PRP)
into the lesion, possibly combined with
stem cell therapy. The horse serves as his
own blood and bone-marrow donor for
these procedures; in Diamond's case—she
received both PRP and stem cells—an
outpatient visit to the clinic for harvesting
was followed by a return outpatient visit
for the injections a few weeks later, after
the stem cells had been grown. The think-
ing is that these substances might help
spur the healing process, although rest
remains necessary.
For lamenesses involving the navicular
bursa, García-López is bullish about na-
vicular bursoscopy, a surgical procedure
in which the practitioner debrides the le-
sions and adhesions. He says bursoscopy
"has better numbers" over other therapies
in terms of healing, when used alone, but
"it's still not known whether other thera-
pies will enhance its effects."
Veterinarians often combine treatment
modalities when tackling chronic foot
pain. García-López and Snyder some-
times use extracorporeal shock wave
therapy (ESWT) in conjunction with other
treatments, for example. With ESWT, vet-
erinarians use a probe to deliver pressure
waves to the injury site with the hope of
stimulating bone growth or tissue healing.
MRI is a diagnostic asset that has allowed vet-
erinarians to discover many causes of foot pain.
KEVIN
THOMPSON/THE
HORSE
PHOTOS
STEP BY STEP