Diagnosis and Treatment of Equine Joint Disease

to reduce inflammation in the joint. It is critical to prevent the products of inflammation such as interleukin IL1 from further damaging the joint specifically the articular cartilage. Pain relief is also an important factor when looking at the treatment of joint inflammation and arthritis as this is a very debilitating and painful disease.
Nonsteroidal Antiinflammatory Drugs NSAIDs NSAIDs are antiinflammatory agents that inhibit some of the enzymes involved in the inflammatory process that cause damage to the synovial fluid collagen matrix and articular cartilage. Although NSAIDs have been shown to help manage joint inflammation care needs to be taken when using NSAIDs since negative side effects might occur.
IntraArticular Injection Joint injections allow veterinarians to administer medications directly into the joint. The most common medications administered are corticosteroids hyaluronic agents and polysulfated glycosaminoglycans PSGAG. All these medications are used to control the process of inflammation through different metabolic pathways. Other products derived from the horses own body can also be injected into the joint these include interleukin receptor antagonist protein IRAP stem cells and platelet rich plasma PRP. Research on these techniques is ongoing.