Equine Athlete: Week 1

Hello everyone! I am working with and learning from the Equine Athlete team this summer. This learning experience is one that I am very passionate about. Equine Athlete is focused mostly on the Arabian Horse industry, which I have grew up a part of. 

I am currently on the road on my way to yet another farm for prep work for the upcoming Buckeye Sweepstakes & NSHR District One Championship, on May 24^th-27^th. This first week has been amazing, we have visited 6 different farms in 6 days (in multiple different states), and looked at close to 100 horses. I have learned so much in such a short period of time. I still have a lot to learn though, I have struggled this week with determining which leg a horse is lame on, which is a huge part of this work. I spent my day off Sunday watching YouTube videos trying to train my eye. 

When we visit these farms we start off by doing a lameness examination, which consist of viewing the horse trotting on a lounge line, followed by flexions and finally palpations. If we find that the horse is lame we will treat them using a treatment that best suits that individual or do more testing in order to find the problem. The most interesting treatment that I learned about this week was IRAP joint therapy. IRAP stands for Interleukin-1 (IL-1) Receptor Antagonist Protein. IL-1 is a cytokine that is involved in the immune and inflammatory response to infections. This therapy prevents IL-1 from binding to IL-1 receptors which blocks the start of the inflammatory cascade.  In order to process IRAP you first draw blood from the horse which is then incubated for about 24 hours in a special syringe containing products that stimulate production of the antagonist protein. Next, the blood is centrifuged until the plasma is separated from the blood cells (about 10 minutes). Lastly the plasma is extracted and put into multiple syringes and stored in the freezer.   When needed it is thawed and sterilely injected into the joint. There are many benefits to using IRAP therapy over steroids such as it will not delay the healing of nearby soft tissues and does not have laminitis as a side effect.

I am super excited for the rest of the summer to be able to continue to learn more about equine sports medicine. I will be keeping you updated on all the interesting cases that we come across, so stay tuned! J

Hope everyone has a wonderful rest of your week,

Katelynn Cox