Skip NavigationSkip to Primary Content
Services
Wellness Care
Maintaining Optimal Wellness
It is important that your horse remain in good body condition and in good general health.
This will help him or her perform well and enjoy a good quality of life. Good preventative care can also help make your horse more resistant to contracting diseases. A comprehensive preventative care plan includes appropriate vaccinations and deworming, regular dental care, and an appropriate nutrition plan. We would like to assist you in providing the best tools and services available for the superb welfare of your horses.
Sports Medicine
Keeping Your Horse Sound
Each lameness exam is different depending on the history, presentation, and physical exam findings of the lame horse. In general, you can expect the veterinarian to palpate the horse’s body and limbs, observe the horse at a walk, trot and canter, perform limb flexions, and perform nerve and/or joint blocks.
Nerve and/or joint blocks help the veterinarian localize the source of lameness more specifically. A small amount of anesthetic is injected around a nerve or into a joint and if the lameness resolves after the anesthetic has numbed the structure, that area is localized as the cause of the lameness. If the lameness is unchanged, additional blocks are then performed to continue the investigation. Nerve blocks are performed from the bottom of the leg and proceed upward to avoid numbing too many structures at one time; this step-wise process helps localize the source of lameness more specifically. Most veterinarians work with a combination of nerve and joint blocks to work up to complex lameness cases, but this can vary depending on the case. A full lameness exam including all the necessary blocks can take from 40 min to up to several hours.