Whether your horse competes in FEI level dressage or national working cow horse competitions, few problems can be more worrisome as a sudden lameness of unknown origin. While a clinical exam and hoof tester application is often all that is needed to diagnose a routine sub solar abscess, many of today’s athletes are affected by more serious injuries. Often times with today’s equine athlete, multiple soft tissue conditions present affecting different limbs simultaneously, thereby confounding the diagnosis. Sequential regional anesthesia or nerve blocks and repeated gait analysis are often required to define and “un-couple” these conditions. Once localized to a region or regions, the imagining methods used today to define the cause of lameness range from digital X-ray and ultrasound to nuclear medicine, computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Unequivocally defining the exact location and nature of your horse’s lameness issues with advanced imaging techniques better enables us to design the best treatment plan and quickest return to soundness.
Check out our highlight real from a recent lameness exam Alpine Equine Lameness exam
At Alpine Equine Hospital, we are passionate about your horse’s health and helping your horse perform at its best. Subtle lameness conditions often affect sport horses and impede their performance and our efforts to properly train our beloved horses in many ways. Dr Maker has spent 30 years developing a systematic approach to the study of normal and abnormal movement and symmetry and the lameness issues affecting equine athletes. Whether your horse competes in dressage or as a reined cow horse or is enjoyed on the trails in our beautiful roaring fork valley, few problems can be more worrisome as a lameness that keeps your horse from moving freely and performing at their best.
A systematic approach to your horse’s lameness issues involves both a standing and moving exam and entails everything from evaluating conformation to palpating intricate anatomic structures to simple hoof tester application. Evaluation of the foot while standing and during the phases of movement over different footings and cambers allows us to identify subtle gait abnormalities and regionalize musculoskeletal injuries and prescribe targeted care. Our comprehensive approach may involve a rider working in a trained discipline or simply have your horse jogged in hand. In addition to regional nerve blocks, Alpine Equine uses slow motion video and the power of artificial intelligence using kinematic video analysis (SleipTM) to quantify asymmetrical movement both pre and post nerve blocks and before and after treatment and rehabilitation. This also allows us to have a cloud-based repository of your horses lameness assessments over time before, during and after show season. Having this quantitative and impartial analysis allows us to act proactively often times before subtle lameness performance issues become more serious.
So, whether diagnosing a routine sub solar abscess or bruise, or a serious orthopedic injury, our comprehensive approach allows us to best understand lameness conditions seen in today’s equine athletes even in complicated cases affecting multiple limbs simultaneously confounding the diagnosis.See more: sleip Kinematic analysis
Our systematic approach using sequential regional anesthesia when needed along with repeated AI gait analysis allows us to “un-couple” complicated conditions when present ensures appropriate effective therapy. Accurate localization of your horse’s lameness with subsequent use of advanced imaging techniques enables us to design the best state of the art treatment plans to get your horse back to feeling its best.
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