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water depth modifies back kinematics of horses during water treadmill exercise (Nankervis et al., 2015) Olivia

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water depth modifies back kinematics of horses during water treadmill exercise (Nankervis et al., 2015) Olivia

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-          Treadmill exercise minimises concussion on joints, provides straight line exercise without a rider while promoting flexion of distal limb joints.

-          Drag of water and buoyancy result in longer stride duration; increased swing phase, reduced stance phase, greater flexion-extension (FE) ROM of distal limb.

-          Study looked at FE ROM of 5 regions of the spine walking on treadmill at 4 water depths- hoof, metatarsophalangeal, tarsal and femoropatellar joint.

-          Hypothesised FE ROM of back would increase with higher water depths and pelvic vertical displacement would also increase with deeper water depth.

-          14 competition horses used of varying ages, weights and heights- selected from a convenient sample of client base of therapy centre at Hartpury College where horses treadmilled once a week as part of their plan. All sound and free from back pain. All acclimatised to treadmill and ridden 2-5hrs per week.

-          Cross over design utilised- carried out an exercise test, walking at 0.8m/s at 4 levels

-          7 from control to high and 7 high to control. 5 min warm up at medium before test was carried out, where it was 3 mins at each depth. Exercise test was 17 mins total. Data was recorded for 20 sec for each depth with markers on T6, T10, T13, T18, L3, L5, S3, and left and right tuber coxae.

-          Used SPSS stats, shapiro-wilks normality test, 31/64 not normal – non-parametric test ran and Mann-Whitney to see differences

-          Associations calculated using Friedman’s, post hoc of Wilcoxon’s with Bonferroni corrections

-          FE ROM; significant association between FE ROM and water depth for T10, T13, T18, L3 p<0.001. significant increases in FE ROM between control and water walking T10- p=001 (low and high) p=0.003 (medium) T13 & T18- p=0.001 (all conditions) L3 p=0.004 (low) p=0.001 (medium and high) T13 significantly greater in medium than lower p=0.004.

-          Min angular motion patterns (AMPmin)- significant association between AMPmin and water depth for T10, T13, T18 p<0.001. Post hoc showed significantly lower AMPmin during water for T10- p=0.001 (low) p=0.004 (medium) T13 p=0.002 (low) p=0.003 (medium) p=0.001 (high) T18 p=0.004 (low) p=0.001 (medium and high) T13 AMPmin significantly lower in high water opposing to low p=0.004.

-          Max angular motion pateern (AMPmax)- significant association between AMPmax and water depth for T10, T13, T18, L3, L5. Post hoc showed significantly higher AMPmax during water for T13 p=0.005 (low) T18 p=0.005 (low) p=0.002 (medium) p=0.001 (high) L3 p=0.005 (low) p=0.002 (medium) p=0.001 (high) L5 p-0.001 (low).

-          Pelvic vertical displacement; data missing one horse in high water. No significance between water depth and pelvic vertical displacement or between test types.

-          Walking in water associated with significantly greater FE ROM expect for L5 compared to control depth.

-          Higher water depths increased spinal extension. In lower depths horses head and neck lowers which causes cranial thoracic flexion

-          L3 showed increased FE ROM water due to increased flexion

-          Higher water may influence caudal thoracic and lumbar flexion due to buoyancy.

-          L5 FE ROM unaltered apart from low water which differs from results shown in other research, but camera angles were different looking at different points of the lumbosacral joint.

-          Speed used is 50% less than a natural walk pace. Cannot compare to land treadmill as speeds differed disabling comparable factors.

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A comparison of seven methods for continuous therapeutic cooling of the equine digit (van Eps and Orsini, 2016) - Megan

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A comparison of seven methods for continuous therapeutic cooling of the equine digit (van Eps and Orsini, 2016) - Megan

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Introduction;

-          Cooling of limb = limits biomechanical, histological and clinical abnormalities of experimentally induced acute laminitis

-          Digital hypothermia (cryotherapy) = interrupts inflammatory pathways and increases anti-inflammatory interleukin within the lamellar tissue

-          Cryotherapy has been associated with a decrease in laminitis incidences in horses diagnosed with colitis in a 10-year clinical case study – the cryotherapy in this case was applied using a 5-litre fluid bad secured to limb using duct tape and replenished with ice

-          Current recommendation for preventing laminitis in horses at high risk = hoof wall surface temperature maintained at 5-10 degrees Celsius for 48-72 hours or longer if risk persists

-          Oligofructose model showed hypothermia of the digit to limit or prevent lamellar failure

-          The ice water immersion bath/boot = impractical, ice needs replenishing every 1-2 hours and horse must be restrained for the duration of the time

-          No effective clinical temperature range for cryotherapy has been established but reported to be 3.5-7.1 degrees Celsius

-          Hoof temperature should be kept below 10 degrees Celsius to prevent lamellar breakdown/failure

-          Aims of the study = compare the cooling effects of different methods on the hoof and use a prototype dry-sleeve cooling device for evaluation

Materials and Methods;

-          4 healthy mature TB horses, no clinical signs or history of laminitis

-          Each horse served as its own control

-          Each horse underwent randomised treatment using each of the seven cooling devices in turn – experiments were 72 hours apart

-          Cooling device applied only to the left forelimb, the right forelimb acted as control

-          Surface temperature of the hoof wall was measured before applying the cooling device and then every hour after the device had been placed on the limb – the experiment lasted 8 hours per device

-          The seven different devices are outlined in detail in the study and for the ones requiring ice, the ice was replenished every hour for the 8-hour duration

Statistics;

-          Only descriptive statistics could be run due to having such a small sample size

-          Values expressed as medians (range) – CRITIQUE -  why did they chose to use the medians and not the means? Was that because they didn’t want to make means with only four values?

-          CRITIQUE – lack of statistics reduces the scientific efficacy of the study significantly

Results;

-          Hoof wall surface temperature decreased initially for all seven devices and then reached a steady state from 2 hours onwards

-          Median control limb = 32.3 degrees Celsius

-          Dry cooling including the foot only = 21.5 degrees Celsius

-          Dry cooling including the ice pack = 19.7 degrees Celsius

-          Dry cooling including the foot and distal limb = 19.9 degrees Celsius

-          Wet cooling including the foot and distal limb (fluid bag) = 5.2 degrees Celsius

-          Wet cooling using ice boot only foot = 2.7 degrees Celsius

-          Wet cooling using ice boot foot and distal limb = 25.7 degrees Celsius

-          CRITIQUE – found the results quite hard to follow, could have been laid out in a much simpler format, don’t think these measurements are 100% correct due to finding the results hard to interpret (my own opinion)

Discussion;

-          Used methods currently being used in clinical practise today

-          Found marked differences in hoof wall surface temperature over 8 hours

-          Cooling devices which included a proportion of the distal limb and foot = lowest temperatures

-          Wet applications (ice/water) = superior to dry skin contact (exception = the prototype)

-          Superior conduction = achieved when water is in direct contacts with the distal limb

-          Ice packs that lack continuous circulation = performed poorly

-          The prototype constantly recirculates the cooling medium around the distal limb

-          Ice boot for distal limb only was least effective (the foot wasn’t being cooled directly)

-          Surface hoof wall temperature may not directly correlate to internal hoof temperatures of the lamellar – there is research to suggest that internal and external hoof temperatures are very similar

-          Mean uncooled right hoof wall surface temperature was approximately 30 degrees Celsius (CRITIQUE - why was this an approximation? None of the other values were stated as approximate values? Could this indicate that they didn’t have all the values for the control right forelimb?) = requires a 20 degrees Celsius drop to reach the recommended temperature of 10 degrees Celsius or below to prevent lamellar failure

-          Difficulties; cooling must be continuous for a long period of time, replacing ice is labour intensive, horse to be confined/restrained

-          Most of the devices used in the present study didn’t reach distal limb temperature of 10 degrees Celsius or below

Contraindications and Limitations to Study;

-          Long periods of wet applications = local swelling, pain, blistering of skin, nerve damage and gangrene (in humans = trench foot)

-          Reason why they want to find a dry cooling system = no moisture/wet conditions, less labour intensive, accurate temperature control

-          Small sample size = no statistics
- Short testing period of 8 hours (previous literature suggests after 2-4 hours of initial cooling there is little temperature variation)

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Scott et al (2010) - the effect of water height on stride frequency, stride length and heart rate during water treadmill exercise

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Scott et al (2010) - the effect of water height on stride frequency, stride length and heart rate during water treadmill exercise

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This study looks at the stride frequency and length as well as the heart rate of horses on the treadmill. Nine naive horses were  used, none had used the treadmill before. They all had  6, 15 to 30 minute, sessions on the treadmill at walk, 6 days in a row. Stride frequency increased on the second day (although the horse was sedated on the first day, which affects that). the stride frequency decreased again on the 4th session. The stride frequency would also decrease after 5  to 10 minutes, which then was concluded that the habituation period was not over yet.
The stride frequency was slightly increased in hoof height water whereas it was slightly higher when in carpus/ulna height.
The heart rate was found to be similar in all water heights, which echoes other studies made on the heart rate in the water  treadmill.
"This study shows that water treadmill walking in carpal or ulna height water results in a lower SF and a higher SL than walking in water at hoof or PIP joint height. Water treadmill walking could be used to encourage hind limb flexion as part of a rehabilitation program without increasing the workload of the horse."