Tuesday, December 20, 2011

About Horse Arthritis

By Cornelia Haul


There are an assortment of do-it-yourself solutions or treatments you can use for your senior horse companion if he is having a lot of pain and inflammation with his arthritis. And a few of them may be accomplished at the same time frame. The thing to bear in mind is that your horse is an individual and may not take too kindly to some treatment options, and be just fine with others. Treat them appropriately and go with the flow. The best equine care is found at software veterinary.

If his joints are really swollen and painful and the Vet has suggested he be confined for a 24 hour or longer period, either use a box stall with lots of cushy hay or a small turn out pen with lots of soft grass underfoot. If your horse is herd sour and pitches a fit when out of sight of its buddy, put the buddy someplace close. The last thing you want is your sore horse to be fretting and pacing more trying to find his friend.

You can place an ice pack on the swollen joint for 5 minutes to relieve pain. After 5 minutes, remove it and then put it on again after 15 minutes. Repeat this process Three times in a row. Wrap the joint with a standing bandage to alleviate the swelling. In lowering edema, try Neo-Ice Equine bandages or an ice gel to significantly penetrate on the affected area and ease the pain.

Hand walk your horse twice a day to ease stiffness of the affected joint, if your horse can manage. To get limber, remove his bandage first and walk for about 15 minutes. After walking, you may rewrap the bandage as soon as you get back to his stall. Exercises should be gradually improved each day. As he advances, workout routines can then be done 4 times a day.

Controlled exercises like hand walking, slow trot, ponying at a walk or riding at a walk is recommended. Use in discretion as this may highly depend on what condition your horse is in. If you will find signs that the swelling is coming back then slow down.

You may slowly turn back the exercises to your normal exercise routine if there is no swelling or pain an hour after each exercise session, given you do it gradually. Call your veterinarian immediately if signs of swelling are recognized.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment