ESW Shock Wave Therapy

[Roger Rittenhouse-vmaxept <roger@vmaxept.com>]

Hi, I posted this email to, Tom Ivers and  his science network and have
not received any response from him  yet.  Therefore I decided to post to
this list.  

Tom 
Since I am not on your list, I thought I would pass this on to you to
ask the list.

My horse has  a very bad case of sidebones, both front, worse on the out
side FL and inside FR. This is sort of like he is standing sideways on a
hill.
Horse is 9 yr old about 1000 pnd with size 1 foot - and straight side
walls, that is not a nice round foot. Grows toe very fast.
I bought him with the condition. I failed to get X-RAYS etc.
Horse has done about 400 miles (50 Mile Endurance) Shod by Jay Perry.

Spoke with Dr Ken Marcelles DVM (GA).

He suggested the ESW - extracorporeal shock wave therapy - might work
for sidebones.
I have read all the reports from AESM and Journal of Equine Vet Sci.

Is there any possibility this protocol will help to reduce the size of
the sidebones or help repair the fractures. 
He currently lame with a cracked tip of the FL sidebone.

Is there any other protocol or treatment that will render this horse
sound for endurance.?
rr


I offer a little background into the problems with Omni.  I have been
working with a problem with the side bones for the past three years. 
Other than corrective shoeing by J. Perry and our regular shoer, we have
not been able to obtain acceptable results with  the side bone damage. 
As many of you know I addressed this issue before, I purchased him this
way without a pre-purchase exam, my error, anyway he came with side
bones that were excessive. 
As we all know side bones are basically an uncorrectable problem.  This
problem is basically caused by improper shoeing.
I am looking for advice and information about this shock wave therapy 
method of treatment.  I am a member of AESM and I have read many
articles on this subject.  At this time there's no proven evidence that
this treatment will aid in the repair of side bones.
Shock wave therapy is the use of high power sound waves focused at the
bone deposit.  This therapy is a method used in the human field to crush
renal stones, called lythotripsy. It breaks up the deposits by inducing
small micro-fractures, the body then absorbs the deposits.

At the current time it appears that if this treatment does not work, we
may not be able to keep  Omni sound. After a trip to UT, and a series of
additional x-rays, it was determined that the side bones on his left
front were cracked or fractured a second time.  It is assumed this
occurred at the national championship or shortly thereafter.  It is the
opinion of the vets at UT, that he will always have problems with the
side bones.
I am not really sure what I will do with him, I hope to try this shock
wave therapy and decide after that.  If all goes well I will hopefully
obtained the use of the machine sometime in December.

I have also been advised that the use of high power lasers may also help
to correct this situation.  Does anyone have any insight or information
about the use of lasers on side of?

The disappointing thing about all this, is we have been able to correct
his hock  problems, that is the DJD, with the use of injectable
glucosamine and Adequan.  As well as corrective shoeing behind by
elevating the heels by two degrees.  He now passes the flexion tests and
the x-rays show considerable improvement of joint decay.  There has
actually been noticeable improvement of the bone structure within the
hock at M3 M4.
As they  indicated he now has a hundred mile hind end  a 75 mile front
right and 25 mile front left.  They really do not expect him to do well
in any additional endurance events.
Thanks for any input or advice when this problem.
Roger R.