Treatments and Therapeutics

Shockwave therapy applies a pressure wave that is created in the same way as a supersonic boom to injured ligaments and tendons as they attach to the bone. 

We have two shockwave machines – a mobile machine and a hospital-based one. Typically, a course of three to four treatments is given for conditions such as back-related pain, suspensory ligament desmitis and collateral ligament desmopathy.

Class IV laser therapy is a veterinary-only laser treatment applied to treat inflammation of tendons, ligaments, joints and wounds in areas that are difficult to heal.

As a class IV laser, it has greater penetrative power, can reach deeper tissues and has been shown to be beneficial in treating injuries that are not responding to other forms of treatment. 

Horses will typically have between 10 and 14 treatments over the course of one to two weeks. We offer packages to perform the treatment as an inpatient and discounted rates for ongoing treatments.

Regular monitoring of injuries enables the effects of the treatment to be seen. We have used it to successfully treat tendon sheath injuries, patellar ligaments, suspensory ligament, check ligaments, collateral ligaments and neck muscular pain, amongst others. 

For more information, please speak to one of our orthopaedic specialists.

Biological therapeutics are products that are extracted from the blood or bone marrow of the horse and conditioned or upregulated to be used to inject back into areas of injury in the horse. We have the latest technology to perform and inject these therapies often under ultrasound guidance.

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is a blood based product taken from the horse’s own blood, and after being processed for 15 to 20 minutes it is injected in a concentrated form into the site of injury. 

Our onsite full service laboratory ensures that PRP is prepared in a sterile and completely safe way. This can be prepared to inject on the same day as the horse is diagnosed.

PRP can also be stored for up to one year to be used in the case of other injuries.

Interleukin-1 receptor antagonist protein is an anti-inflammatory found naturally in blood. 

Our laboratory processes the blood to massively increase the quantity of this product, so that it can be used to inject into inflamed joints. Enough IRAP is processed to be stored for three or four injections.

Stem cells can be produced from bone marrow taken from the horse’s sternum or hip region. 

This is used to treat tendon and ligament injuries, and in some cases into the joint following diagnosis of injuries.

Once the bone marrow is collected, the stem cells take around two to three weeks to culture, and then are injected under ultrasound guidance in a strictly sterile fashion.

This treatment modality for back, neck and lumbar pain uses a combination of homoeopathic and conventional medications injected in multiple sites through a specialised injector needle. 

It is often used in combination with other treatments, such as shockwave therapy and physiotherapy.

It is utilised by competition and pleasure horses prior to and during their competition and riding seasons as a very effective way of managing back pain due to muscular spasms.