Stable Close Equine Practice: SHOCK WAVE THERAPY

Stable Close Equine Practice has a fully mobile Shock Wave Therapy unit allowing us to treat horses at their own yards rather than at our clinic. Although the machine is fully mobile it is no less effective than a clinic based machine. Shock Wave Therapy is becoming increasingly popular in the veterinary world following its use in the field of human medicine.

Extracorporeal Shockwave Machine

It is used to treat a variety of conditions including:

Soft tissue injuries such as flexor tendon strains, suspensory ligament sprains, annular ligament syndrome/inflammation.
Chronic orthopaedic conditions such as pain associated with arthritis e.g. spavin, caudal foot pain or navicular syndrome.
Persistent pain associated with active ‘splint’ formation and ‘sore shins’.
Musculoskeletal disorders of the back- vertebral arthrosis, dorsal spinous process impingement or ‘kissing spines’, sacroiliac strains.
A non-invasive treatment for angular limb deformities (crooked limbs) in foals.

Using shock wave therapy to treat an injured racehorse at David Phelan's pre-training yard

To see a video our mobile shock wave machine in use please click here.
(This video requires Apple Quicktime)

It is a non invasive treatment administered by a hand held probe linked to a compressor. This generates a series of ‘shock waves’ at a variable pressure and frequency depending on the injury or condition to be treated. It is a well tolerated treatment most often given as a course of 3 treatments 7 to 14 days apart.

Shock wave therapy has been shown to have several significant effects on healing of musculoskeletal tissues and has also been shown to provide potent analgesia or pain relief. This both encourages healing and provides pain relief during rehabilitation.