Week 9 at Stevens Equine

Hello again from South Elgin!  Well, last week was a very busy week!  We did some lameness exams, lameness progress exams, and ultrasounded some limbs, then Dr. Stevens debrided and sutured a mare’s torn nares that had been previously repaired by another vet but was infected and healing poorly.  I learned that because her alar cartilage was involved in the tear, the lack of vascularity of that tissue may prevent it from healing with complete apposition.  We should know within the next week how it will turn out.  He also removed the last abdominal bandage from a horse that had had colic surgery a month prior to that, and it was helpful to hear the continued recommendations for post-op recovery before she transitions back into work.

I also saw another horse with neck and back soreness have its cervical facets injected at C4-5, C5-6, and C6-7 and also have its epaxial musculature injected.  Those are always interesting to watch, but it is difficult holding the horse well for the cervical intra-articular injections because the neck positioning is very important and the horse’s head isn’t light by any means!  It’s really interesting to see the ultrasound-guided injections though.

Another unique case was a horse that we did a lameness exam on then examined the affected limb with ultrasound.  Dr. Stevens then found mineralization within the deep digital flexor tendon.  It was interesting to learn that due to the presence of the mineralization that it must have previously damaged the tendon and had re-injured it.  It looked unique on the ultrasound screen because the mineralization was casting a shadow, which was really interesting to see in that location.

On Saturday, we used a shockwave machine to treat some high-level performance horses that had back pain and/or were recovering from distal limb injuries.  I remember seeing it used once when I was in undergrad, but I enjoyed seeing it again then reading up on how it works and why it is used.  It is also called extracorporeal shockwave therapy, and basically the shockwave machine generates a mechanical pulse that travels into the tissue.  It is commonly used to treat orthopedic conditions in horses, and works by introducing microtrauma into the region to help promote healing by stimulating inflammatory and catabolic processes as well as angiogenesis and neurogenesis.  I also learned that horses are commonly sedated for the procedure, but these horses had had it done previously and stood well for it.  I recommend earplugs though because it’s fairly loud!

On a sad note, today was the first time that I have seen a horse euthanized.  It was a very old horse that had been suffering from severe hoof abscesses that had not responded well to treatment over the course of several weeks and had begun to deform the hoof.  There was also some separation at the white line, which suggested that the horse may have also had laminitis.  Due to the horse’s advanced age, the horse’s poor response to treatment, and a poor prognosis due to the severity of the condition, the owner elected to have her horse euthanized.  Dr. Stevens allowed me to place the IV catheter, and the procedure went quite smoothly.  Overall it was a sad day, but a great learning experience that makes me appreciate how veterinarians can provide such a service to humanely end an animal’s suffering.  I look forward to what I will continue to learn over my last few weeks here!