Joint Lubrication and Injury Response (AAEP 2011)

Treatment goals should be to aid in performance without eliminating the joint’s natural response to injury.
Share
Favorite
Close

No account yet? Register

ADVERTISEMENT

A horse’s athletic success depends on the health of his joints, and veterinarians are continually studying up on how best to maintain athletic joints and manage injury. During a presentation at the 2011 American Association of Equine Practitioners convention, held Nov. 18-22 in San Antonio, Texas, Larry Bramlage DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVS, an equine surgeon at Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital, in Lexington, Ky., gave veterinarians an "introduction to joint therapy." He described the lubrication mechanisms within the joint and the natural responses of the joint to injury.

Bramlage pointed out that when a joint is damaged, veterinarians see typical and consistent signs: a lame horse and a distended joint with increased amount of watery joint fluid. While the human impulse is to "fix" these types of signs, Bramlage pointed out that these very clinical signs are "a superficial part of the joint’s response to insult."

The interior of the joint consists of the articular cartilage, which covers the bone ends, and the synovium that lines the inside of the joint capsule. Both cartilage and synovium are bathed in joint fluid, but they are lubricated by different means and have different responses to insult.

Bramlage referenced a study evaluating pain within the joint in which examiners found that while pulling on the synovium itself was excruciating, cartilage has no nerve endings and cartilage stimulation is not painful

Create a free account with TheHorse.com to view this content.

TheHorse.com is home to thousands of free articles about horse health care. In order to access some of our exclusive free content, you must be signed into TheHorse.com.

Start your free account today!

Already have an account?
and continue reading.

Share

Written by:

Christy Corp-Minamiji, DVM, practices large animal medicine in Northern California, with particular interests in equine wound management and geriatric equine care. She and her husband have three children, and she writes fiction and creative nonfiction in her spare time.

Related Articles

Stay on top of the most recent Horse Health news with

FREE weekly newsletters from TheHorse.com

Sponsored Content

Weekly Poll

sponsored by:

Where do you primarily feed your horse?
313 votes · 313 answers

Readers’ Most Popular

Sign In

Don’t have an account? Register for a FREE account here.

Need to update your account?

You need to be logged in to fill out this form

Create a free account with TheHorse.com!