Shock Wave Therapy - anyone had it done?

[chl]

Has anyone had Shock Wave Therapy for their horse? What for, and was it any good?

 

[Rowreach]

My 14yo ISH has had SW therapy on both hocks, the first one in the spring, the other one a couple of months ago. Since treating hocks with SW is not as tried and tested as other areas, my wonderful vet did me a bit of a deal on the price, but I would happily pay double (don't tell him I said so

) because the result has been fantastic

I was at my wits end with conventional treatment - medicating the joints gave us a couple of months at best, and bute goes straight to his gums and makes him like riding a wall

and bute substitutes had no effect whatsoever. We were a very unhappy horse/owner combination, but now he isn't on anything and is as happy as Larry

The vet reckons the effects of the SW should give us 18 months - 2 years, and then we will probably repeat.

Some horses can find SW a bit painful, and will usually have to be sedated (mine was only mildly sedated for the first hock, didn't bother for the 2nd one he was so

)

So my experience was good

 

[chl]

Glad to hear it has worked for you! Can you tell me what the problem was in his hocks? I need to get my head around what it can do as I am seeing the vet at the end of this week to discuss options for my horse.

 

[merlinsquest]

Merlin had shockwave for his arthritic fetlock, but he also had tildren and irap, magnetic boots, joint medication and joint suppliment .... all within days of each other!!!!

Oh yes, guess that bill???

So not sure if it worked or not

 

[chl]

Sounds expensive!

I am getting the impression that it is a treatment for arthritis. Can it be used to deal with calcified soft tissue to stop it going any further?

 

[Rowreach]

Yes mine was bone spavin/arthritis in hocks, but SW is often used as a treatment for soft tissue damage (used a lot in racehorses/tendon injuries) and for milder cases of IDSP - like many other therapies the idea is that it speeds up rates of healing.

I am lucky in that Irish vets do not appear to charge so much as UK ones

 

[Mavis Cluttergusset]

My last horse had several sessions of SWT for suspensory damage, ultrasound scans seemed to show that it was working, but I never got to find out how well it worked as he had other more serious problems. I have read that SWT has an analgesic effect though, so the horse appears to be sound but this wears off after a period of time. Im not sure how true this is?

 

[star]

my old one had it for PSD in his hindleg and it worked really well. he hasn't had another problem with that leg in 6yrs. he also had it for annular ligament desmitis and it didn't work for that.

 

[glamourpuss]

I have had shock wave therapy on myself!! When I'm in marathon training I sometimes get a Iliotibial band syndrome and it it the only thing that works on it for me

 

[KIMBY]

My mare had sw for collateral ligament damage did not cause her any pain was very good at every treatment but sadly it did not help her situation.

 

[dozzie]

Mine is undergoing it at the moment for hind suspensories. So cant comment on effectiveness.

 

[RLD]

My horse had shockwave therapy for a suspensory injury. He is retired now (due to the injury) so whilst there was no miraculous recovery back to work he did recovered enough to be field sound which to be honest was the most we could realistically hope for.

It is hard to say how much the treatment worked as he also had 3 months box rest so maybe he would have made some recovery without it but it definitely didn't do any harm.

 

[Dopeonarope]

My horse had SWT for on the patella ligament following an injury last year (3 sessions). He came back sound.

 

[Amaretto]

My horse had it for PSD alongside controlled exercise, box-rest, a-cell treatment and a course of cartrophen. He came completely sound.

So not sure if it was the shockwave or a combination of the above that worked.

 

[Alibear]

My horse is about to under go a course for back problems and I have seen it be effective in this situation before. Fingers crossed hey.

 

[chl]

Thanks everybody - I feel better able to talk to the vet and am certainly finding out a lot about what can go wrong with horses!

As well as the OCD in my horse's hock he has a problem in his pastern - probably ligament damage and probably caused by the OCD going undetected for so long. He has never been lame with the OCD but has never really performed consistently. As no vet could ever confirm there was a problem I started to think it was me and not the horse that had the problem - just shows you should rely on your instincts. Maybe we could have done more for him if I had not taken no for an answer.

 

[Ludi-doodi]

I'm just bringing my boy back into work following hind suspensory damage and he had 4 SWT sessions. This along with adequan injections and 13 weeks box rest (did include in hand walking) seems to have done the trick and he was signed off two weeks ago as totally sound.