RE: [RC] question for the vets: pinfiring/freezefiring - Susan E. Garlinghouse, DVM
>1. What does
the "freeze-firing" procedure actually entail?
Cryo or used to be hot firing means causing a small pattern of
burns over an area, with the idea of causing inflammation and thereby
increasing blood flow and thus faster healing.
>2. Is there
evidence to support or disprove the claims that freeze firing actually speeds
and improves the healing process? I found anecdotal evidence >to support this, but no real research. I
found the same ratio of anecdote-to-research when I was searching for
information about pinfiring. Is it >superstition,
or does it actually promote healing?
The “real” research is that there is no increase in the
rate of actual healing (translation: does no direct good). The indirect
benefit to pin-firing is that it forces the trainer to put the horse out to a
lay-up facility to rest and heal before putting him back into training too
quickly. It’s the enforced period of rest that benefits the horse,
not the firing. But, old habits die hard in the horse world, never more
true than on the race tracks.
>3. What is the
soundness prognosis for a tendon-injured horse which has returned to soundness
(either with or without freefiring)? Is the formerly->injured tendon significantly more prone to re-injury?
Yes, regardless of whether it’s been fired or not.
Torn tendon fibers are replaced with scar tissue, which does not have the same
elasticity as the original tissue, thus is more prone to re-injury. How
prone depends on the extent of the original lesion (ie, how many fibers were
disrupted and had to be replaced with scar tissue), and how well the horse was
rehabilitated.
>4. If a horse
with "cryo marks" shows up in your vet line, are you
(intentionally or not) more likely to pull that horse for lameness?
Nope. I see lots of horses with evidence of previous
injuries that do just fine, managed intelligently. It’s how they
trot out that day that matters.
>Just for the record,
I'm not shopping for another horse. But 'satiable curtiosity is
a weakness of librarians, doncha know <G>.
