The past couple of weeks have been very busy and full of traveling. Before we went to the Buckeye horse show in Ohio we had a surgery day. Dr. Hill is a part of MESA, which is a group of equine practitioners who come together to consult on cases and perform elective surgeries. That day there were three surgeries, a cryptorchid, a neurectomy, and a bone chip removal. I was helping Dr. Hill with some other cases so the only surgery I watched was the neurectomy, where they remove a portion of nerve that supplies sensation to the foot. This surgery is elective for horses that have navicular disease, and is intended to make the horse more comfortable allowing it to continue competing. That day we also did some work with stem cells and platelet rich plasma (PRP); they used x-rays to ensure the PRP and stem cells were being injected where they were needed. The PRP and stem cells are used to treat damaged tendons and ligaments. In order to obtain the stem cells Dr. Hill first had to liposuction some fat from the horses tail head. The fat is then processed down until the stem cells are derived out of it. Surgery day was interesting, and it was fun to see some different cases. That day they also removed a tumor from a horses mouth; the tumor ended up being a sarcoma. The following day we left for the Buckeye, where we stayed for six days. It was the first Arabian horse show I have ever been to, and it was really cool to see all the farms we had been to in the weeks before all in one place. At the show we worked up a few lamenesses, but most of what we did was shock wave treatments and muscle injections. There are rules as to the timing of treatments relative to when the horse shows, so most of the treatments we did at the show were minimally invasive. We also couldn't treat the horses until after they had been worked for the day, so we had a lot of down time in the middle of the day and got to watch some classes. One night there was a corgi that got bit by another dog, and the owners asked Dr. Hill to look at the wound. It ended up being something different and exciting, and Dr. Hill sutured the wound closed. The show was a lot of fun, but also a lot of long days and hard work. We then were in Michigan this past week, but the days did not get any shorter. This week had a lot of re-checks to see how horses he had previously treated were doing; this is when Dr. Hill helped the owners decide how to proceed with the horses training. We went up to Traverse City one day to get some hunter jumpers ready for their show season, and that was a very long day filled with a lot of driving. We had a pretty easy day on Friday though with only a few re-checks and a gastroscopy. We used a scope to look inside the horse's stomach in order to look for ulcers. Our week was not over on Friday though. There was an Arabian horse show at MSU this past weekend where we worked on a few horses. Thanks for reading, sorry for the long post!
Dr. Hill using liposuction to get fat from the tail head.
The fat obtained, from which the stem cells were derived.
Taking x-rays to ensure the needle is inserted in the lateral collateral ligament.
The sarcoma from the horse's mouth.
Two of the riders all dressed up for their classes.
Jenn, an extern, on one of our breaks watching some classes.
The corgi Dr. Hill stitched up.
Pyloric ulcers from the gastroscopy.
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