Thermal imaging - opinions?

[stencilface]

Hi, My horse has been on/off lame for a month now. I have had the vet out twice, he has been shod (so checked by farrier) and have also had the chiro give him the once over to check its not his back - which it not.

He has a lameness in his near hind, which is fully weight bearing on, and nigh on sound in walk - its only in trot you can tell tbh. He is (slowly) improving I think - and the vet had noticed the improvement on his second visit. Our current management is 24/7 turnout in a 2 acre paddock with his buddies as agreed with the vet - I worry he would jump out of a smaller, solitary paddock, and think that box rest - and subsequent turning out would make him loopy, and more likely to re-injure it.

I am off on hols in 2 weeks, and if he is not better by the time I return then I will be taking him to rainbow vets in malton to get bone scans/whatever scans are best to do for him - I have not yet looked into this fully, and have no experience of it before. I was considering getting out someone to thermal image him in the next couple of weeks though, as we might be able to pinpoint where the problem is, and afaik - its not that expensive to do.

http://www.peter-richmond.com/thermal imaging.html

Any thoughts or opinions?

 

[ihatework]

It's a useful tool but not the be all and end all.
There is huge room for error as just varying ambient temperature can be enough to give false readings.
It will only give you a generalised area of heat so if you are going in blind it could serve as a useful starting point, it is by no means a diagnostic.
As you have a lame horse and know which leg he is lame on I'm not sure this will give you any added benefit?

 

[stencilface]

Hmm, ok. I was hoping it might be able to help point out where the problem is, as other than knowing its in his leg, we really have no idea where it is!

 

[bounce]

I would say that as you know already it is in the leg then xrays and scans would be the best way to go. Thermal imaging will not in my opinion pinpoint anything other than that leg may be warmer than the other. You would still have to take scans or xrays afterwards to get to the cause of the problem.