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Sports Medicine / Lameness

Southern Equine Service provides full lameness exams and cutting edge treatments for our patients. All the doctors understand the need for a complete clinical lameness exam to diagnosis the lameness. We also use regional anesthesia (blocking) to pinpoint the location of the lameness. We see horses of all different degrees of lameness and base our exam on how lame the horse is. We often do lameness exam on sound working competition horses to make sure they are as sound as they could be or to find any weakness they are developing. Once we pinpoint the location of the lameness we use one of our diagnostic imaging modalities to diagnose the cause for the lameness. Once we have a diagnosis, we come up with treatment options and assist the owner in making the best treatment decision for his/her situation and horse.

IRAP(Interleukin-1 Receptor Antagonist Protein): IRAP is ACS(autologous-conditioned serum) and is harvested from the horse's own blood. IRAP is used to treat osteoarthritis and other inflammatory conditions in the joint. IL-1 (interleukin 1) is a cytokine and an inflammatory mediator and binds to the membrane on cartilage in joints and starts the inflammation cascade leading to inflammation, joint pain, and cartilage destruction. IL-1Ra (interleukin-1 receptor antagonist protein) attaches to the receptor on the cartilage membrane blocking IL-1 from binding and causing inflammation in the joint. IRAP takes the horse's own blood and processes it in a way that the amount of IL-1Ra is amplified in the serum. The serum is frozen and can be injected into the horse's joint at anytime. From one blood pull on a horse we get about 20mLs of IRAP serum to inject into joints. For osteoarthritis cases we recommend a series of IRAP to be injected once weekly for 3 weeks.

PRP (Platelet Rich Plasma): PRP is derived from the horse's own blood. We pull a 60mL of blood from the horse and run it through our Magellan PRP machine and we get a solution of concentrated platelets which release growth factors that accelerate regeneration of injured tissues by enhancing fibroblastic events involved in tissue healing. PRP can be injected into tendon and ligament lesions. Recent research has been focused on injecting PRP into joints. We also can process bone marrow through our Magellan PRP machine to get bone marrow concentrate which we can then inject into tendon and ligament lesions. We have found PRP/bone marrow concentrate to be effective at treating SDF (superficial digital flexor), DDF(deep digital flexor), check ligament and suspensory ligament injuries.

Extracorporeal Shockwave therapy: Shockwaves are high energy acoustic waves with high amplitude. Shockwave increases blood supply to affected areas and promotes linear pattern of healing in tendons and ligaments. It also decreases pain via incomplete analgesia. We find it most effective when we combine shockwave therapy with other treatments such as PRP. Common injuries treated successfully with extracorporeal shockwave: tendonitis, muscle strains, chronic wounds, ringbone, suspensory desmitis, kissing spine, navicular pain, and tendon avulsions. Our shockwave therapy usually consists of 3 treatments 2 weeks apart.

Email:
contact@southernequineservice.com

Office Hours: 9am-5pm Monday thru Friday

Emergency Hours: 24 hours 7 days a week (803) 644-1544 ext. 1 to get doctor on call's cell #

Map & Directions:

1258 Banks Mill Rd.
Aiken, SC 29803

Tel: 803.644.1544
Fax: 803.644.1599