One of the nation’s first veterinarians to use arthroscopic surgery in equine practice, Joe Foerner, DVM, Dipl. ACVS, began providing surgical services to the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine on May 21. He will be performing surgeries at the university every other Friday. 

Foerner, a partner at the highly regarded Illinois Equine Hospital in Naperville, Ill., is a skilled orthopedic surgeon. He is an internationally recognized authority on equine arthroscopic surgery, and has co-authored several books about this topic. 

Arthroscopy, which involves insertion of a tiny camera and surgical instrumentation into a joint in order to diagnose or repair bone chips and other joint abnormalities, requires a long learning curve and specific skill set. It is used to diagnose or repair bone chips and other abnormalities in an equine athlete’s joints. Its major advantage is that the small incisions allow a patient to heal more quickly and return to service more rapidly.

To schedule an appointment with Foerner, horse owners can contact the UW-Madison Large Animal Hospital at 608/263-7600 (800/DVM-VMTH)