Arcequine for prevention

[Austen123]

Hi All,

I’m thinking about purchasing an Arcequine for my eventer . I have heard really good things about it , but only for horses that have had pre existing injuries . Does anyone have any reviews or thoughts on using it for maintenance/preventative? What program and how often should it be used ?

 

[ester]

I've seen several horses scarred by it, which was a bit gutting for the person who was using it as a preventative rather than on an actual injury.

 

[starfish8]

My vet x-rayed one once, and in his words 'the circuit board can't do more than power the LEDs'... interesting, I thought!

 

[sport horse]

I have been using one for quite a few years. A pure scientist will tell you 'there is no evidence' that it works. Anyone who uses one on their horses or themselves will tell you it does work. I have used on a tendon injury and my vet said it was a waste of time. On the 6 week rescan the same vet said there was no reason why the injury had healed so much in that time! I have recently used it on a horse with a stress fracture of the proximal canon bone and ligament damage. MRI results were so poor that the horse was pretty much written off from any future sport career. Second MRI after 5 months showed an amazing improvement and we have now talk of horse returning to the sport in January. Same vet and I said I had been using the Arc daily - that produced a wry smile!

I have never heard of it being able to scar - was it fastened too tight and like a too tight bandage caused skin damage? The only other possibility is that the horse was allergic to the scan gel used to attach the pads.

 

[ester]

I'm not sure why they scarred, it was after the gel reaction issues that had been flagged up with arc previously. Three different users and all sensible v experienced horse people so if they were all doing it wrong there must be an instructions issue.

There is some evidence in people I think but not horses from a healing POV, they keep saying they have some and we keep waiting .

 

[milliepops]

iirc in at least one case Arc paid for the hospitalisation etc required by the affected horse, which kind of suggests it may have been something other than user error.

 

[SEL]

They can definitely leave white marks on the legs where the gel / contact pads go - luckily my mare is an appaloosa with the odd white spot on her leg already, but she has 4 new ones (2 on each foreleg) after 3 weeks of arc use. I'm not sure whether its a reaction to the gel or the contact pads.

She's a bit too b******d for anything like that to matter, but if I had a horse with dark legs that I wanted to show then I would have been gutted.

They've been pulled up by the advertising standards agency for making claims that are not supported for use in horses. They do have approval for human use, so worth reading those studies first or leasing one to see if you want to spend the money. They aren't a miracle cure, but I do think it helped mine with her leg injury - although she is a walking vets bill so I'd struggle to give you concrete evidence!

 

[ester]

Their approval is as a medical device, it doesn't relate to efficacy just safety/consistency of product ie you have quality protocols in place.
They seem to suggest/don't mind if people think it means full clinical trials though

 

[FestiveFuzz]

The ludicrous claims they made without having full knowledge of my mare's injuries/vet history (acute tear to DDFT and SDFT damage) and the way they tried to discredit not only my vet but also Europe's leading specialist in soft tissue injuries made me incredibly wary.

 

[Scarlett]

I avoided buying one as I was a massive sceptic, then it ended up being the last thing I could try on my 20yo TB with numerous issues in his backend and who we were planning to PTS after vets had ran out of things to try and he was unsound on bute. A friend was selling one after her horse was pts and gave us it to try.

We changed nothing else, and have changed nothing since, and horse is now sounder than he was 5 years ago. Hasn't had bute since, is in regular work, galloped and plunged sideways round a sponsored ride a few weeks ago, is jumping again, has been xc schooling and is moving well enough on the flat that he could go to dressage, something we couldn't have tried the last few years due to a mechanical issue with his stifle that left him dragging that leg along.

I'm still sceptical but I cannot deny there's been a massive improvement. It has left some white marks on his legs, tbh I hate showing so I really couldn't care less about this.

I'm not sure how it would work for maintenance, if the horse has nothing wrong I'm not sure it would do anything but they do give instructions for it. We use it almost every day now swapping between programs 1 and 4 as a maintenance program on the horse mentioned above.

 

[Red-1]

I have used one on myself and Jay Man (horse) and in my case the vet (senior partner in major Vet Hosp) said he could not comment on this device in particular, but the science was sound. Jay's suspensory did heal quicker than expected.

He started to get markes on his legs, but I just swapped from leg to leg and didn't leave it on longer than the treatment time. I also used Aloe Vera gel instead of the gel provided.

OH's knee was better when he was being treated.

On a personal level, if it is loose so not firmly on the skin, it can be uncomfortable (very strong tingle). So, defo does more then merely power the LEDs!


ETA - OH has just commented that if you put it on dry (no gel) it is uncomfortable too. Or with simply not enough gel.

Also, I would never use just for prevention, too much faff and expense if it is damaged.