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Equine sports medicine and rehabilitation
The practice of equine sports medicine and rehabilitation aims at “promoting expertise in the structural, physiological, medical and surgical needs of athletic animals and the restoration of normal form and function after injury or illness.”
Here at RVC Equine, our teams support your horse's well-being by taking a multidisciplinary approach to equine health. Accurate diagnosis, appropriate selection of treatment modalities and regular therapy and treatment assessment responses work hand in hand for optimum outcomes.
At RVC Equine we offer expertise and services in
Our equine hospital team also includes qualified equine acupuncturists and a certified equine rehabilitation practitioner.
In addition to traditional equine referral centre services, we also offer
Acupuncture:
Insertion of small needles through acupoints to stimulate peripheral and central nervous system effects. Acupuncture also acts through connective tissue and fascial mechanism.
Acupuncture is best used for
- pain control
- reduction of oedema
- muscle spasm reduction
- vasodilation
- scar tissue reduction
- neuronal regeneration
- management of the sports horse due its compliance with prohibited substance policies
Equine stem cell therapies:
There is a regenerative therapy laboratory on site, which allow us to process bone marrow aspirate for culture of stem cells. After cultivation, these stem cells can be injected in tendinous lesions for example, in order to try to enhance the healing process.
Mesotherapy:
This involves the use of multiple intradermal injections of a mixture of compounds in minute doses. It was developed to manage painful medical conditions and its main indication in equine practice are for treatment of back and neck pain.
Overground endoscopy:
Certain upper airways pathology can be a limiting factor to performance: this modality allows us to diagnose upper airways pathology in a more dynamic setting. It is particularly useful for diagnosing displacement of the soft palate or dynamic laryngeal collapse.
C1 equine nerve grafts:
This is one of the newest techniques to treat laryngeal nerve paralysis, a common condition impairing laryngeal function in horses. By grafting the C1 nerve into the crico-arytenoid muscle, we attempt to restore abduction of the paralyzed equine arytenoid cartilage. RVC Equine is currently the only establishment in the UK which offers this treatment.
Sensor Evaluation for Lameness:
Sensors are available to objectively evaluate lameness.
