Like humans, horses can suffer from injuries and conditions that affect their physical performance and ability to perform daily tasks.
Common equine conditions and injuries include:
- Arthritis;
- Splints;
- Bucked Shins;
- Ringbone;
- Neck, back, and joint pain;
- Ligament, tendon, and muscle strains;
- And more.
Although there exist several ways to treat equine conditions such as steroids, surgery, and shoeing, many treatment methods are invasive, take a long time, and don’t always provide a long-term solution.
Over the years, extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) emerged for treating musculoskeletal issues, soft tissue conditions, and bone injuries in horses. Shockwave therapy is a non-invasive treatment method that doesn’t require drugs or extensive measures to treat the horses.
Whether you are a racehorse trainer or someone who takes care of horses in stables, shockwave therapy is one ideal treatment method for equine injuries.
How Does Shockwave Therapy for Equine Health Work?
Shockwave therapy uses sound waves higher than ultrasound waves to penetrate deep into the horse’s body and compresses the denser body tissues such as ligaments, tendons, and bones. The sound waves distort the deeper body tissues to massage them at the cellular level.
This treatment stimulates the growth of new blood vessels in the tissues of horses, and the deep tissue massage effect provides pain control while healing the horse’s injury site.
Where’s the Evidence?
Although there aren’t as many studies on shockwave therapy for equine therapy, there is still research done to prove the effectiveness of shockwave therapy for treating equine conditions and injuries.
In a two-phased study conducted by Dr. Angela MacKay, a clinical associate in equine field service at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, she looked at shockwave therapy as a treatment for lameness caused by caudal heel pain in horses.
Caudal heel pain refers to pain in the heel region of the horse from the navicular bone and the surrounding area of soft tissues, ligaments, tendons, joints, and structures that assist with movement.
In the first phase, 65 out of 144 practitioners frequently used shockwave therapy for ligament-related injuries.
In the second phase, 30 client-owned horses were separated into two groups. One group received shockwave therapy every two weeks for six weeks, and the other group received no treatment.
When the horses were evaluated, the treatment group showed significant improvement in single-leg forelimb lameness following the treatment.
A shockwave therapy machine from Shockwave Canada is the perfect machine to treat equine health for the long-term physical improvement of horses without compromising their comfort. Learn more about our affordable shockwave therapy options to help you and your animals.
Contact us today to request a demo by calling 1 (888) 741-SHOC(7462) or visiting https://shockwavecanada.com/.
