Page 189 - The Veterinary Care of the Horse

– muscle strains.

– dental problems
VetBooks.ir Thermography can be useful for detecting injuries in tendons and ligaments up to two weeks

before they can be detected by clinical examination. Thus it is a very good tool for routine

screening of performance horses at risk from these injuries. It may also help localize an
injury in a horse that is not amenable to nerve blocking.

Other uses include:

• detection of areas of reduced blood supply, e.g. where there is muscle spasm with

reduced muscle activity: cooler-than-normal images are a common finding in horses with
chronic muscle pain

• seeing if a painful area has associated inflammation
• monitoring the blood supply to the horses feet

• monitoring the response of the horse to therapy, i.e. resolution of inflammation or

restoration of normal blood supply to ‘cool’ regions (Figures 5.7a and b)
• as a useful tool for checking saddle fit; when the saddle is scanned after a horse has been

ridden, the temperature gradient should be bilaterally symmetrical with no particularly

warm or cold spots.

Figure 5.7a and b Thermographic images: a) (left) this image shows abnormal cold zones (due to dysfunction of the
sympathetic nerves) over the back and hindquarters of an endurance horse that bucked when ridden in the six months prior
to the image being taken; b) (right) during treatment with acupuncture, the thermogram demonstrates significant warming
due to normalization of the sympathetic nerves and, following several treatments, the horse was ridden with no recurrence of
the bucking

The procedure