Page 84 - May 2021

VETERINARY VIEWS
Horses use muscle memory when they begin exercise and that memory is not always the best. Re-injury occurs when horses return to doing the same old thing that created injury in the first place.
relaxes muscle spasms. Increased temperature in cartilage, tendons and ligaments improves extensibility to regain normal length with stretching exercises – this manages pain and restricted range of motion.
When used in a “pulsed” setting that disperses heat, therapeutic ultrasound increases intracellular calcium and cell membrane per- meability, stimulates mast cell degranulation, and increases responsiveness of macrophages (white blood cells) – this can accelerate wound healing. Beneficial pulsed responses are not based on heat accumulation in the tissues but are in response to kinetic energy from sound waves that activate metabolic activity in the cells. This device also enhances delivery of topical medications through skin.
Therapeutic ultrasound can be applied in conjunction with other treatment modalities such as ultrasound with electrical stimulation to treat tendonitis, with laser to treat tension bands in muscle, and with manual or active stretching to increase range of motion in a joint.
While therapeutic ultrasound can be used safely at any stage of recovery from injury
or surgery, a knowledgeable equine therapist is the necessary ingredient to ensure safe
and effective treatment since many setting options affect output intensity and depth of energy penetration.
FUNCTIONAL ELECTRICAL STIMULATION
Functional electrical stimulation (FES) is another treatment modality for equine injury. When a muscle is injured from trauma or
overuse, it will “flat line” in a contracted state – this protects against further injury. However, unused muscle loses strength and/or flexibility. FES sends a computerized signal that mim-
ics the motor-neuron response to restart the contraction/relaxation cycle.
FES therapy is beneficial for controlled muscular and tendon movement without the trauma of normal exercise. FES treats the cause of the problem, not just the symptom, and can be used early in the rehab process. It minimizes fibrosis, improves tissue reorganization, and re-educates muscle memory. Research has dem- onstrated simultaneous recruitment of motor units of small and large muscle fibers, which is beneficial by activating all muscle fiber types early in a rehab program, with greater strength gain in a shorter period of time.
Horses use muscle memory when they begin exercise and that memory is not always the best. Re-injury occurs when horses return to doing the same old thing that created injury in the first place. FES mobilizes antagonist and agonist muscles, reducing compensatory problems typical of rehab.
FES can have a role in injury prevention. Despite warm up, a horse may guard certain muscles. FES stimulates all targeted muscles, even those a horse doesn’t want to or can’t use due to spasticity or disuse. FES also has the ability to produce bilateral, symmetrical contrac- tions, such as in top line muscles along the spine.
FES can manage osteoarthritis by reliev- ing secondary pain and discomfort. A horse tends to resist use of an arthritic joint, which
then stiffens, with a vicious circle of decline. In addition, other muscles and joints are overused to compensate for arthritic pain. Asymmetrical muscle development causes uneven pressures within the joint – FES improves symmetrical muscle use. Improved range of motion with FES eases movement with greater comfort. Advice for arthritis management is for the horse to “keep moving” and FES is one way to help this happen.
IN SUMMARY
Musculoskeletal injuries abound in the ath- letic horse yet there are strategic ways to man- age such injuries other than simply confining a horse and waiting it out. The most important determinant in reducing relapses is to develop fitness of the entire animal. It is not just the individual injured area that needs rehabilitation – structures that support it all have to work in conjunction. Consult with your veterinarian about various therapeutic modalities available for rehabilitation to return a horse to maximum performance as soon as possible.
Functional Electric Stimulation therapy is beneficial for controlled muscular and tendon movement without the trauma of normal exercise. It minimizes fibrosis, improves tissue reorganization, and re-educates muscle memory.
Equine practitioners have found Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy to be rewarding for treating osteomyelitis (bone infection), cellulitis, extensive wounds, hypoxic brain injuries, and following colic surgery of colon torsion with poor intestinal perfusion.
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