Initial experiences with extracorporeal shock wave therapy for treatment of bone spavin in horses – part II

Abstract

SummaryExtracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) has grown from the original use of treating urinary calculi into a mechanism to treat some specific orthopaedic diseases of humans and animals. This paper describes a group of horses with bone spavin treated with ESWT. Horses were treated with a high energy focused shock wave machine. Horses were examined for lameness pre-treatment and 12 weeks post-treatment. There was a decrease in the lameness of 80% (59/74) of the horses treated. ESWT provides a viable noninvasive mechanism of treating refractory bone spavin in the horse.