ArcEquine and arthritis

SEL

SEL

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I did a fair amount of searching on here last night and there is a great thread from a few years back in which everyone is very positive about Arc Equine. Are people still using their units and still find them useful?

I'm particularly interested if anyone has had a success story relating to making a horse with arthritis more comfortable.
 
SEL said:
I did a fair amount of searching on here last night and there is a great thread from a few years back in which everyone is very positive about Arc Equine. Are people still using their units and still find them useful?

I'm particularly interested if anyone has had a success story relating to making a horse with arthritis more comfortable.
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Not sure on arthritis but people on the PSD group rave about them!
 
I might go and ask there! What is the name of the FB group? I just did a search on PSD and came up with some odd groups that are definitely not the horsey ones! :D

ETA - found it... :-)
 
The Facebook PSD discussion group seems to have a lot of users, many of which seem to be quite positive about it. My sceptical side though thinks that those who found no particular effect would be less vocal about it, and also how would you know if gradual/mild improvement has anything to do with ARC (vs. simply time, change in weather/temperature etc.).

One thing that has put me off the idea of trying an ARC for mild PSD is that I simply can't see how to use it, in practical terms, on my pony which has a) about and inch of coat on his legs, b) lives out 24/7 and c) whom I see for a couple of hours per day, during which I want to do something with him. I can't imagine the machine would make any good contact through all that coat, and I imagine it wouldn't hold up very well during turnout. Apart from not being there to put it on/take it off at recommended intervals (programme runs for three hours).

Given that one recommendation for arthritic horses is to keep moving (i.e. live out 24/7 if at all possible), I wonder how one would go about using the ARC, in practical terms.
 
supsup said:
The Facebook PSD discussion group seems to have a lot of users, many of which seem to be quite positive about it. My sceptical side though thinks that those who found no particular effect would be less vocal about it, and also how would you know if gradual/mild improvement has anything to do with ARC (vs. simply time, change in weather/temperature etc.).

One thing that has put me off the idea of trying an ARC for mild PSD is that I simply can't see how to use it, in practical terms, on my pony which has a) about and inch of coat on his legs, b) lives out 24/7 and c) whom I see for a couple of hours per day, during which I want to do something with him. I can't imagine the machine would make any good contact through all that coat, and I imagine it wouldn't hold up very well during turnout. Apart from not being there to put it on/take it off at recommended intervals (programme runs for three hours).

Given that one recommendation for arthritic horses is to keep moving (i.e. live out 24/7 if at all possible), I wonder how one would go about using the ARC, in practical terms.
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You've summarised my concerns there. My 2 are actually in at night as the fields are struggling with the weather (current field is hard to distinguish from the pond next door its got that bad), so I suspect it will be end of April before overnight turnout is allowed - which would give me time to put it on my mare overnight and see results if I'm going to get them.

But I really want the 'warts and all' stories before I make up my mind. Its even the money really, just the ongoing despair of trying something new and it not working.
 
SEL said:
You've summarised my concerns there. My 2 are actually in at night as the fields are struggling with the weather (current field is hard to distinguish from the pond next door its got that bad), so I suspect it will be end of April before overnight turnout is allowed - which would give me time to put it on my mare overnight and see results if I'm going to get them.

But I really want the 'warts and all' stories before I make up my mind. Its even the money really, just the ongoing despair of trying something new and it not working.
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I feel your pain on the spending of money to make things better but not working, I have taken the approach of just not doing that any more haha I see no difference on or off any of the things he has been on so going to trial not using anything and save myself around £300 a month! I know there are agents on the FB page who have various discount codes so you can save £50 or around that if that helps (not that I am advocating buying one, just letting you know what I have seen!)
 
SEL said:
just the ongoing despair of trying something new and it not working.
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I totally understand this.

I have an Arc. I originally had version 1, then took up the offer to trade it in against version 2. I've had a lot of success over the years using mine on various equines and humans. Especially when vets have been less than helpful. FWIW I don't think there's anyway that it can cure arthritis but I do think it can ease discomfort.

I don't know if it is still an option but there was a time when you could hire them. If that's an option you could try a couple of weeks which in my experience would be long enough to see the start of any improvement.
 
I actually did quite a bit of reading up on microcurrents as well. There is some evidence it has some effect. But if you really dig into the references, you'll find that in some cases (e.g. those specific to tendons/ligaments, and in animals), the microcurrent was administered via a contact implanted into the animal, not stuck onto the outside, for example. Do those results, even if they show the microcurrent helped, really mean you get the same beneficial effect if you attach the thing via contacts on top of coat, and for a ligament encased between cannon/splint bones (PSD)? I don't know! And there's a huge variety of "settings" for the microcurrent (strength etc.) in the research papers, with little consensus on what the "right" amount is.
I actually bought two "painmaster" microcurrent sets off amazon (£33 for two), and tested them on myself (have cartilage damage in knee). Can't say I noticed much of a difference, even worn 23/7 for a week. I actually bought these with the idea that I might try putting them on my horse. The things are really small and light, and I figured might stay on ok with some sort of bandage over. Never got around to this part (sent horse away for the winter in the end), but given the price differential, you could buy painmasters for over half a year of continuous use! I'm sure ARC would argue theirs is the much more sophisticated product, but given the uncertainty over current settings etc., I figured it would be a pretty cheap and do-able experiment to try the painmasters for a while. One thing I don't know is how well you could get the painmaster patches to stick to the coat over time.
Got the idea from here: http://www.therapyproducts.net/articles/AboutMCTPatch.php
 
I think you would struggle to use it even if your horses are in at night - it has to put on clean & most importantly dry legs! So you might be at a loss there :(

I do rate the ARC but its hard to rate its effectiveness unless you are riding & can feel a difference in the horse from lame to say not lame - which is what happened to me. My horse did get a sensitivity on his legs to the ARC which left him with white scars all over his legs but at the same time it brought him sound at 19, when vets had written him off. I got another wonderful 5 years with him before he finally retired to the field & I did use it on him again to less success but I think at that stage he was beyond it.
 
Mine never made it to the horse as I could never figure out a 3 hour window in which to use it. I used it on me a lot. I did notice some minor effects but its difficult to know how much of that is a placebo effect. I do genuinely believe it helped me though , if only to a small degree. For soft tissue damage I wouldnt hesitate to use it again. Arthritis I'm not so sure about. It cant hurt, but in your case isnt going to bring the dramatic difference you are looking for.
 
I used to have one but sold it on (after much experimentation by myself and friends on various horses and ourselves), and only ever used it on one mildly arthritic horse. I would say that I'm fairly certain it has some positive effect on soft tissue niggles, but never made much of a noticeable difference on the more catastrophic type of injury. So if I had to describe it I would say that it had some therapeutic effect.

I've experienced a much more noticeable effect from physio treatment, physical physio therapy exercise and kinesiology
 
Can anybody tell me in great detail, without using pseudobabble exactly how these units are supposed to work and where the peer reviewed evidence is published?
 
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