Poor Performance Investigations

Equine poor performance has been an area of much interest over the last decade with numerous new investigations and diagnoses being unravelled. Routinely we think of poor performance in equine when we think of racehorses because these horses are being pushed to their athletic limits and only then do we see specific diseases limit their performance.

This service is now being utilised in many other working horses (trekking ponies, endurance horses, dressage, 3-day eventers, etc.) Our clinic has the modern technology and experienced resources (consulting diploma holders in equine internal medicine, soft tissue and orthopaedics) to carry out these investigations to suit your needs and performance level.

Some common causes of Equine Poor Performance:

Respiratory disease - (laryngeal paralysis, dorsal displacement of the soft palate DDSP, respiratory airway obstruction, inflammatory airway disease)

Orthopaedic disease – (musculoskeletal – including numerous soft tissue injuries, bone disease, joint disease)

Metabolic disease – (including various equine muscle diseases and hormonal diseases)

Cardiovascular disease – (arrhythmias, murmurs) equine exhaustion syndrome, electrolyte imbalances, gastric ulceration, chronic viral infections.

Some less common causes of Equine poor Performance:

Reproductive abnormalities, impringing dorsal spinous processes, various neoplatic diseases (lymphoma), inflammatory bowel diseases, renal disease, infectious diseases and chronic infections.

Various technology used during poor performance examinations at our equine clinic:

Thorough (repeated) clinical exams, radiography, ultrasonography (soft tissue, abdomen, thoracic, rectal), full blood profiles, ECG (resting/exercise), gastroscopy, endoscopy, muscle biopsy and surgical techniques (general anaesthetic for arthroscopy or exploratory laparotomy.)