Thermal Imaging ... What do you think? Have you had it done?

DJ

DJ

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Hello, just wondered who has had their horse thermal imaged?

Was it worth it, did you find anything, did it help out?

I`m thinking of having it done with my lad, due to various issues i`m hoping it might shed light on how he is, but just wanted to here other peoples first hand experiences of it first :)
 
daisysp8 said:
Hello, just wondered who has had their horse thermal imaged?

Was it worth it, did you find anything, did it help out?

I`m thinking of having it done with my lad, due to various issues i`m hoping it might shed light on how he is, but just wanted to here other peoples first hand experiences of it first :)
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Yup, have had it done several times with my lad, and have friends who have had it done too.

Yes, it is useful, particularly as it is holistic and therefore finding a 'start point' when you're not quite sure if/where the problem exists - horses that just aren't quite right, or are intermittently lame. It's also useful for monitoring recovery of things like tendon issues, and picking up on muscular pain/injuries. In my lad it also picked up early stage arthritis.

Different thermographers have different quality and standard of training, so look for one that is RCVS approved and works under the code of conduct. I also prefer a thermographer that writes up a report rather than just gives you the images, as if presenting it to a vet it is useful to have the report for them to diagnose from. However getting a good thermographer who writes reports up is a bit more expensive... I also query any thermographer using a 'temperature higher than' palette. Modern thermography relies on thermal pattern comparison, not absolute temperatures, so how they can use images that display only areas above a certain temperature confuses me a bit.

The cameras also pick up very slight temperature differences, so don't worry when you first see the images!! My images show which rein my lad prefers by which side he puts more weight on etc, but obviously none of that is clinically relevant.
 
Wow, that was very helpful and insightful thank you :)

It sounds as though it will be very helpful for what i`m looking at, he`s not quite right but there`s nothing actually wrong either, if that makes sense. So i`m hoping this will help give us some answers.
 
daisysp8 said:
Wow, that was very helpful and insightful thank you :)

It sounds as though it will be very helpful for what i`m looking at, he`s not quite right but there`s nothing actually wrong either, if that makes sense. So i`m hoping this will help give us some answers.
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That was the problem with mine - found him to be sore in his deep cranial pelvic muscles. Not something my vet would have gone for off the bat! For that I was really impressed with it. However it isn't a perfect diagnosis tool, so usually once it highlights where the problem is, your vet/physio/chiro can narrow things down.
 
Can be really useful, I had Caspar checked over and found a few areas of concern, but just be aware that it can only detect areas of heat relatively close to the surface - it won't pick up anything deep within the body. My vet was quite dismissive, which surprised me, it is probably worth discussing with your vet before you go ahead, to see what his/her attitude to it is.
 
Thanks again for that khalswitz :)

Jill, i have the vet coming out today anyway, so will speak with them in a bit more depth. We spoke about it a few months ago and they took bloods as he hadn`t been right, they suspected a virus maybe, but everything came back ok. His behaviour is getting worse so i need to try and get to the bottom of it, and the vets have said with no obvious signs of an illness/issue it`s hard to find a problem, he has deteriorated over the last year since his accident, so we know there is "something" wrong, but it`s just finding what that "something" is .... after the events of this weekend ,i`ve decided t split them up to keep my other one safe.
 
JillA said:
Can be really useful, I had Caspar checked over and found a few areas of concern, but just be aware that it can only detect areas of heat relatively close to the surface - it won't pick up anything deep within the body. My vet was quite dismissive, which surprised me, it is probably worth discussing with your vet before you go ahead, to see what his/her attitude to it is.
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This is true. Some vets aren't really up on modern thermography, and as it was pretty rubbish due to the lack of camera specs and lack of dependable reproducible absolute temperature results until about 7 years ago, when cameras improved dramatically and the concept of the reproducible thermal pattern emerged. A lot of vets haven't quite caught up though...
 
I've never had it done but would like to! Is it expensive?
My boss had all of her lot done recently and her young competition horse had hot spots on her spine and sacroiliac joint..she had the vet out today and sure enough she's lame right rein and has a back problem. Only slightly so it was missed but she had been bucking etc!
She's off to newmarket for the full works to see what is wrong.
 
Megibo said:
I've never had it done but would like to! Is it expensive?
My boss had all of her lot done recently and her young competition horse had hot spots on her spine and sacroiliac joint..she had the vet out today and sure enough she's lame right rein and has a back problem. Only slightly so it was missed but she had been bucking etc!
She's off to newmarket for the full works to see what is wrong.
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Depends. Some places do it for as little as £50 per horse, but that often doesn't include reports like I said. My thermographer charges £230 for a full horse scan (90 images including a saddle fit scan and a full 15 page report), but only charges £450 plus travel to come out and do six as a full day, so my friends and I gang together and book her for a full day and then it's much cheaper.
 
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