Hawkedon Equine Clinic in Suffolk is well equipped and designed to deal with lameness examinations and treatments.
On site vets provide 24-hour cover and our experienced staff will look after your horse and give it the very best care while it is at the clinic.
Lameness Examinations and Treatments
- Examinations at the clinic on hard and soft surfaces
- X-ray
- Ultrasound
- Nerve blocks
- Joint injections
- Shockwave treatments and stem cell treatment
Digital X-Rays
Fast, high quality pictures. Our x-ray system is digital and very high resolution. It provides the high-quality pictures we need for diagnosis. Being digital we can easily adjust the image on computer to get the very best pictures.
We have a mobile unit for on yard radiography for cases that cannot travel such as laminitis or suspect fractures.
We can also take high quality radiographs of horses for purchase or for insurance. Pictures can be stored and copied onto disk for use by your farrier, for pre purchase examination, for your own interest or sent to specialists for second opinions.
Trot up areas and ménage for lameness and respiratory examinations
Lameness examinations often require horses to be exercised or ridden and trotted on different surfaces and we have these facilities at the clinic. For respiratory or cardiac (heart) cases we often want to exercise your horse, sometimes with a radio-endoscope or ECG machine attached. Our ménage allows us to exercise stabled horses that require it.
Ultrasound
We have a very high-quality ultrasound machine with three probes which we use to scan many of the structures involved in lameness. Pictures are stored on to disk and we can give you copies. The stored pictures are used to monitor how treatment is going. Our ultrasound machine is used very frequently in our lameness examinations.
Nerve Blocks
Because horses cannot talk it is sometimes difficult on examination to know exactly where a lameness is on the leg. With a knowledge of anatomy, we can place local anaesthesia over the nerves in the limb - a nerve block - to numb the area where the lameness is suspected to be. If the lameness improves once the nerve block has had time to work, then we know where the pain is on the leg and can then take radiographs or scan the area. We also use nerve blocks prior to surgical treatments of areas of the limb or for pain relief.
Joint Injections
Our vets are experienced and trained to inject all the joints accessible in horses and ponies. We inject joints to localise the site of a lameness or pain and also to administer medication into a joint. Medications used not only include steroids (cortisone) but also medications mad from your horses own blood cells such as IRAP or PRPP, these are newer and effective joint medications.
Shockwave and Stem Cell Treatments
Shockwave therapy is useful for certain conditions where tissues need to be stimulated to repair. A probe applies high intensity shock waves to the tissues. We use it for suspected ligament problems, and some back problems. Stem cells are very 'young' cells taken from the bone marrow. They are cultured and replace onto damaged tendinous or ligamentous structures, commonly the superficial digital tendon. This new treatment has shown to give the best results for tendon repair and our vets have been trained to give your horse this treatment.
Referrals
Much as we would like to, there are certain things we cannot offer at our clinic. These include surgery, MRI Computed Tomography (CT) and Scintigraphy. We work closely with the equine hospitals in Newmarket for referral for these services or for second opinions from specialists.