San Luis Rey Equine Hospital’s sports medicine team combine extensive specialized training and personal experience to become part of your equine athlete’s support team. As riders themselves, they know first hand the time, effort, and training entailed to prepare an equine athlete for a successful career and what is required to keep that horse competitive. At SLREH, it is our goal to enhance performance horse management by offering services required to minimize injury, optimize performance, provide diagnostics and the latest advances in injury treatment and rehabilitation.
SLREH is available to provide interactive services for you in whichever manner best suits your needs, from supporting your referring veterinarian, to providing consultations, to developing full partnerships as part of your sport horse’s support team. We offer clinical evaluation of lameness, pre-purchase examinations, and comprehensive poor performance evaluations at all levels and disciplines from racehorses, to eventing, endurance, dressage, hunter/jumpers, to gaited horses and rodeo competitors. Together with your team we will work to optimize your goals and your horse’s level of performance.
- Pre-purchase Examinations
- Lameness Examinations
- Rehabilitation Consultations
- Shockwave
- IRAP
- PRP
- Stem Cells
Our expertise covers all levels and disciplines, and is carried out by experienced veterinarians providing you with comprehensive evaluations. We offer expert rehabilitation plans for patients with performance issues, injuries, or those recovering from surgery.
PRE-PURCHASE EXAMINATION
Evaluation prior to purchasing provides a ‘snapshot’ on the day of presentation by examining for clinical signs of disease, injury, lameness, or physical abnormalities. Pre-purchase examinations often include further diagnostic imaging such as endoscopy, radiographs, and diagnostic ultrasound.
LAMENESS EXAM
San Luis Rey Equine Hospital lameness service has advanced training in lameness diagnostics, offering basic or in-depth evaluation of horses with any variety of orthopedic, soft tissue disorders, or spinal disorders.
In-depth lameness evaluations may require hospitalization of the horse to permit a thorough examination, nerve or joint blocks, followed by diagnostic imaging.
ULTRASOUND GUIDED TREATMENTS
A precision technique designed to deliver treatment directly to the site. This is especially helpful for back, sacroiliac, neck or hip injections. Ultrasound guided injections are also utilized for delivery of PRP or Stem cells into specific localized sites in tendons, ligaments, and bone lesions. SLREH also has the ability to offer CT guided injections for bone cyst lesions etc.
POOR PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
Poor performance in the equine athlete often requires a detailed examination covering a broad range of body systems including respiratory, cardiac, musculoskeletal, neurological, and metabolic causes. These challenging cases may require hospitalization of the horse in order to complete in-depth evaluation of the body systems.
Common issues associated with poor performance include lameness, cervical neck pain, back pain, ‘kissing spine’ lesions, gastric ulceration, muscle disorders, and metabolic issues.
NEUROLOGICAL EXAMINATION
Equine patients may present for a neurological evaluation or it may become an extended aspect of a lameness or poor performance examination.
San Luis Rey Equine Hospital is renowned for its clinician’s abilities in neurological examinations. Patients with neurological issues often require further diagnostic testing such as spinal taps, muscle biopsies or diagnostic imaging ranging from radiographs and nuclear scintigraphy to myelograms.
ACUPUNCTURE
Acupuncture is recognized by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) as a scientifically valid and useful treatment modality. Here at SLREH acupuncture is most commonly used to enhance the performance of the equine athlete. Acupuncture is a very effective modality for relieving musculoskeletal pain, back or cervical pain or tension, and referred pain from lameness. It is an excellent diagnostic tool and often used in conjunction with traditional methods to diagnose difficult lameness or poor performance issues.
Acupuncture is a safe and versatile technique that offers a good alternative or adjunct therapy to traditional western veterinary medicine. Our specially trained and certified acupuncturist inserts needles at specific points on the body, where there are increased nerve endings, blood vessels, and lymphatics to help alleviate pain and target specific conditions. Needles placed at these specific points stimulate the nerve which sends signals to the brain to modulate the pain response or to send different hormones or neurotransmitters to the body. Acupuncture is also often used here on our hospitalized patients with colic symptoms, as well as patients with nerve trauma or as an adjunct therapy to modulate pain. Acupuncture can also be very effective for gastrointestinal motility and pain, respiratory issues, metabolic disease, neurologic disorders, behavior issues, or reproductive problems.
To read more about acupuncture, click the link to review our FAQ page.
