An extracorporeal shock wave therapy device sounds high-tech, and it is. Based on the same technology that is used in human medicine to break up kidney stones, shock wave therapy is being defined, and refined, for use in treating various injuries in horses.

UC Davis boasts the only high-powered ultrasound guided shock wave device in the United States that can be used in the standing horse, said Jack Snyder, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVS. This significantly reduces the risk of the procedure since the horse does not have to be anesthetized. Other devices use different sources to generate the shock wave, and they either have less power or generate the shock by a “spark plug-like effect” so that they are loud enough that the horse has to be anesthetized to undergo treatment. The Storz system uses an electromagnetic generated spark that is very powerful and quiet, said Snyder. He added that because of the high power of this device, manufactured by Karl Storz Lithotripsy, “We are able to apply therapy as deep as five centimeters under the skin’s surface.

“The bottom line with shock wave therapy is that we are seeing pain relief and promoting faster and better healing,” added Snyder.

While UC Davis has treated about 100 horses since acquiring its machine in September of 1999, a similar unit in Germany has been used on more than 1,000 horses. The researchers at Davis are finding the same results that the Germans report