Please note that EQultrasound Pro treatment must be prescribed by a licensed veterinarian after a full orthopedic and neurological check.
The safety of the practitioner, patient and equipment should be considered at all times.
Although EQ Pro Therapy treatments are completely painless and horses tolerate them well without any sedation, it is very important to properly prepare equine patients for treatment, including the prevention of uncontrolled kicking, distress or pain. Most veterinarians and therapists use some form of restraint to ensure the safety of the individuals and device.
Before starting the treatment we suggest to define the area to treat. When defining the area you need to take into account the treatment duration and the extension of the area to treat. Please note that in 20 minutes you will be able to properly treat a surface area equal to a letter size piece of paper (8.5” x 11”) or A4 piece of paper. Therefore for smaller or larger areas you need to adjust treatment time accordingly.
Always clean the area to treat. Unless horse hair is very long, shaving the area to treat is not necessary.
Spread some gel specific for ultrasound use on the transducer contact surface and on the area to treat; repeat the procedure during treatment in order to help ultrasound penetration and the transducer smooth sliding on the area to treat.
Treatment is to be performed by massaging the areas to treat with the transducer in direct contact with horse hair.
During treatment it is very important to keep moving the transducer with slow and gentle linear or circular movements, while applying a constant pressure.
The transducer must be slowly and steadily moved over the area to treat in order to obtain a uniform exposure and to avoid over heating of a specific spot (a speed of 3 or 4 inches per second is recommended).
The slower you move the transducer, the deeper the ultrasound effects.
The faster you move the transducer, the more superficial the ultrasound effects.
More pressure on the transducer equals to deeper ultrasound effects.
Less pressure on the transducer equals to more superficial ultrasound effects.
The EQ Pro Therapy mobile app features a Therapeutic Effect Bar which goes from red to green: this will enable you to monitor ultrasound absorption during the treatment session and consequently adjust your transducer application (speed of movement and pressure applied) for optimized therapeutic effects.
Ultrasound treatments should always be below the pain threshold. An important task of the veterinarian or therapist is to always observe and understand the horse’s body language in order to monitor any type of discomfort and eventually lower output intensity.
Flat transducers were conceived to treat flat areas, while concave transducers were conceived to treat smaller rounded areas, since the concave shape allows better coupling on rounded surfaces. In any case you should always try to have the best possible adhesion between the transducer and the area to treat, since air does not allow ultrasound propagation: this is the reason why you need to make sure there is always gel between the transducer and horse hair.
Continuous emission transducers (Red and Yellow) were conceived to treat pathologies where the use of heat is particularly indicated, while Pulsed emission transducers (Blue, Green, Grey and White) were conceived to treat pathologies where heat is undesirable.
As a general rule, treatments of muscular pathologies should be performed on alternate days; treatments of joint pathologies should be performed either on alternate days or once every three days (depending on the type and severity of the pathology to treat); treatments of calcifications should be performed for the first week once every other day, for the second week once every three days and for the subsequent weeks once every five days.
It is important to wait between one treatment and the other to allow time for the horse body to perform its own repair processes, which have been stimulated by the ultrasound treatment. Please note that the “more is better” theory does not apply to ultrasound therapy.
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Like you said, it is important to make sure that certified veterinarians are the only people that do ultrasounds on horses because of the nature of the ultrasound. Another thing is that the ultrasound needs to not only be performed but also read and understood. With that in mind, ultrasounds can tell you how the animal’s muscles are doing, not just look to see if they are carrying a baby.