Equine Lameness Exam – A Necessary Part Of Performance Horse Care
Your equine athlete is our priority, and our focus is performance horse medicine. If your horse stops performing at a level requisite of your sport, we will find the problem in a process we call a lameness exam. This evaluation will lead us to a suitable treatment that will enable your horse to perform.
We use a variety of techniques in our Lameness Exam to identify the source of the condition. Techniques include:
- A Complete Physical Exam
- Palpation all pertinent musculoskeletal structures for pain, heat, or swelling Pressure points on the fore and rear limbs facilitate location of abnormalities
- Flexion Tests
- Regional Anesthesia – Joint and Nerve blocks
- Digital Radiography
- Digital Ultrasound
- Clinical Pathology – Laboratories that help us further isolate the source of lameness
A performance limiting lameness cannot be effectively treated without a specific diagnosis. While some sources of lameness, such as a foot abscess/heel pain/or hock arthritis (spavin) are common and more easily diagnosed, lameness resulting from soft tissue injuries can be more subtle and manifest as poor performance or reluctance to perform specific movements.
Lameness is complex, requiring a complex methodical analysis to flush out the root of the problem. As part of a complete lameness exam, we will first take a detailed medical and athletic history of your horse. Then, we will perform a complete visual appraisal at rest and on the move.