Monday, February 18, 2019
Andrew Fiske-Jackson, RCVS and European Specialist in Equine Surgery, talks to us about the developments in equine orthopaedics...
The future of equine orthopaedics is changing. Objective gait analysis is being embraced by large swathes of the profession and we’re now seeing what it can offer with assessment of back movement.
Indeed, it’s use to detect lameness has been challenged with many saying it misses the nuances of lameness detection. But all it’s doing is measuring asymmetry, and it does that with more accuracy and sensitivity than is possible with the human eye. So, when we’re looking at back movement wouldn’t it be helpful to be able to quantify it?
Evidence shows that back pain reduces back movement, so if the pain is removed movement should increase. This is something we can work with to establish whether a horse has back pain.
No-one is suggesting a “sit in your office while the machine you’re your lameness assessment’ approach, it is simply a non-biased measuring tool.
At the Royal Veterinary College, we are building this into our diagnostic work-up of back pain horses. After all, if you don’t try you’ll never know how much it could tell us.
Be guided through the diagnosis and therapy of back problems...
Andrew Fiske-Jackson will be joining other expert speakers on the 18 May to run our upcoming CPD course The Equine Back. The course will give highly practical guidance and tips on how to examine, image and treat horses presenting with back pain.
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