Equine HBOT helps restore blood flow to tissues after colic surgery. It also reduces obstructive swelling in the intestinal tissue and improves oxygenation of the resection (after abdominal surgery to correct colon torsion, small intestine strangulation, etc.) It’s been found that many colic cases respond much better to surgery when treated with HBOT before and after surgery.
Equine HBOT can arrest laminitis in the early stages. If you can treat the horse before the structures in the foot collapse (before there is crushing of the blood vessels), it is very effective.
Equine HBOT increases blood flow to the infection site, which increases the amount of antibiotic delivery. The extra oxygen also increases the effectiveness of the antibiotic, magnifying the way it works against bacteria. High-dose oxygen tends to potentiate the effect of some antibiotics, such as sulfamethoxazole (SMZ). You are also getting 15 times the amount of oxygen to a tissue that was lacking oxygen due to infection of poor circulation. Oxygen also stimulates faster cell turnover and thus faster healing.
Internal abscesses (such as in the lungs or the abdomen) are sometimes not diagnosed early. By the time they are diagnosed, there is a thick-walled capsule of connective tissue around them that keeps antibiotics from reaching the site. This results in prolonged antibiotic treatment (often with no resolution of the abscess) at high cost to the owner, and potentially fatal consequences for the horse. HBOT helps the antibiotic get to the site and enhances its ability to fight the infection.
Major clinics have evaluated Equine HBOT for treating foals with septic joints. In 2002, all the foals which came into the clinic with septic joints went through a standard protocol using systemic antibiotics, lavage to flush the joints with antibiotics, etc. After 30 to 90 days of treatments, they took the foals which were hopeless (which would ordinarily be euthanized) and moved them to a test group. They continued to use their standard treatments, but combined them with HBOT. They had a 60% recovery rate in foals which were going to be put down.
Many injuries result in inflammation and swelling. Studies have shown that soft tissue injuries treated with Equine HBOT recover in half the time. New blood vessels form more quickly, improving blood supply to injured areas, and there is swift reduction in edema (swelling). Since oxygen is normally carried by red blood cells, any tissues with a compromised blood supply suffer from poor healing. But with HBOT, oxygen is forced into all body fluids and delivered to areas with restricted circulation.
Equine HBOT can be useful in dealing with bowed tendons, surgical repair of tendon or ligament injuries, etc. Surgical traumas (incisions) also heal faster with HBOT, as do large surface wounds and pressure sores. It decreases tissue swelling and helpssalvage damaged tissues in traumatic injury. In chronic wounds, it assists growth of new skin and stimulates collagen production.
A prominent DVM wrote an article three years ago and described how he’d treated some older stallions for laminitis and noticed an increase in fertility. After reading that, Winstar (the first thoroughbred farm in Kentucky to have an HBOT chamber) treated their stallion
A rehab clinic in the US has also treated mares that were unable to concieve. One mare went to the breeding shed 16 times in two years without becoming pregnant. After three treatments in the HBOT chamber, she was bred, and had a live, healthy foal.
Used on dummy foals, it reduces edema. The oxygen in a pressure chamber has the ability to penetrate the cerebrospinal fluid. Head and spinal trauma often create neurological damage, thought to result from swelling of these tissues within a confined space, loss of blood and oxygen supply, and the sequential effects of these factors on nervous tissue. HBOT reduces the swelling and increases the blood supply.
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