Shockwave therapy for treatment of a burn injury in a horse

Summary

# Shockwave Therapy for Equine Burn Injuries: A Case Report Following a trailer fire, a horse sustained extensive thermal burns across the dorsal aspect of its trunk from withers to tail head, presenting a challenging clinical scenario that prompted exploration of novel treatment modalities. The clinical team elected to investigate extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) as a supplemental intervention, drawing on established applications within human burn medicine to potentially enhance wound healing dynamics. The horse demonstrated successful recovery from what would typically constitute a severe, potentially life-threatening injury, with no documented adverse effects attributable to the shockwave treatment. Whilst this represents a single case observation rather than controlled evidence, the outcome suggests ESWT may have therapeutic merit in stimulating tissue repair and granulation in equine thermal injuries—a mechanism thought to involve enhanced angiogenesis and inflammatory modulation. For practitioners managing extensive burn cases, this report indicates shockwave therapy warrants consideration as an adjunctive strategy alongside conventional wound management, though further investigation across multiple cases would be necessary to establish reproducibility and define optimal treatment protocols.

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Key Findings

• •A horse with extensive burn injury (withers to tail head) treated with shockwave therapy recovered successfully
• •No adverse effects were observed during shockwave therapy treatment
• •Shockwave therapy may stimulate healing in equine burn injuries based on application principles from human medicine

Conditions Studied