HBOT - Equines (Horses)

Equine athletes treated with hyperbaric oxygen therapy are better able to consistently compete at their full potential. Our chambers have successfully treated over two hundred horses with varying debilitating injuries. Like any medical procedure results vary, however the majority of horses showed vast improvements and accelerated healing over conventional treatment alone. 

HBOT has made possible the complete rehabilitation of horses with injuries deemed to be career ending.

The proven ability of HBOT to accelerate healing of minor wounds has consistently returned horses back to the track, saving an otherwise failed season. Re injury rates are consistently lower than without treatment.

HBOT sessions used for general preventative athletic therapy and to treat minor chronic disease and infection allow some competition horses to race with greater frequency. Horses who could previously compete only every 2-4 weekshave been able to step to the gate weekly and compete at their full potential. 

The stable with access to a hyperbaric oxygen therapy chamber has an indispensable tool to sharpen their winning edge. 

Racing taken to a higher level: 

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for horses are useed in-training thoroughbred and standardbred horses to enhance post race recovery time. By speeding the healing of injury due to the wear and tear of racing (i.e. lung and microcirculation damage), the well being of the horses with allow them to race more frequently, at higher levels. 

Commonly Treated Conditions:

HBOT is one of the most powerful tools available as an adjunctive form of therapy, and in some cases it works well as the primary therapy in horses. 

Colic and laminitis are the number one and two killers, respectively, of horses, and oxygen therapy (in conjunction with other therapies) can be very useful in treating both 

Colic: 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.

Laminitis & Navicular Syndrome: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.

Infections: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).

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy stimulates faster cell turnover and thus faster healing. Enhances their function and gives a whole combination of benefits. HBOT is an adjunctive therapy while the use of antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs and other treatments are still underway.

HBOT Kills bacteria:Most bacteria causing serious infection are anaerobic—working best in an environment without oxygen. At pressure, with oxygen at a higher level, it is alsodetrimental to aerobic bacteria. Extra oxygen also helps white blood cells function better to kill the organisms.

Abscesses: 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.

Septicemia and joint Ill in Foals: Major clinics have evaluated HBOT for treating foals with septic joints. In several clinics 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.

Soft tissue injuries: Many injuries result in inflammation and swelling. Studies have shown that soft tissue injuries treated with 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.

Injured tendons and ligaments: These conditions respond well to HBOT.  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 helps salvage damaged tissues in traumatic injury. In chronic wounds, it assists growth of new skin and stimulates collagen production.

Reproductive Problems: A prominent DVM wrote an article a few years ago and described how would treat some older stallions for laminitis and noticed an increase in fertility.

A stallion’s covers in the breeding shed had declined, but after HBOT treatments his libido increased (along with his sperm count), and the morphology (cell structure) of his semen was much improved. 

The integrity of the uterine lining is enhanced with hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

Dummy foals and other Neurological problems: 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.