The benefits of regular laser therapy for hock osteoarthritis.

The tarsus (hock) joint is one of the most common joints to be diagnosed with osteoarthritis (OA) in horses such as bone spavin and osteochondritis dissecans. Repetitive loading of the tarsus causes chronic joint inflammation which overtime leads to the degeneration of cartilage and eventually bone.

Contributing factors throught to increase likelihood of hock OA includes disciplines which require a lot of hindlimb power such as racing, showjumping and advanced dressage as well as poor confirmation which causes uneven loading distribution within joint including sickle and cow hocked. Your horses exercise regime may also quicken joint degeneration such as exercising your horse consistently on hard surfaces as well as lunging on circles regular as this causes alterations in the joint angle trajectory withe ground leading to abnormal load distribution.

Laser has proven highly effective in the management of OA in humans and in more recent years has also proven its effectiveness within animals too.

Benefits of laser therapy:

• Reduced lameness scores or completely solved lameness.

• Reduces pain.

• Improves joint flexion.