Sports Medicine
Experienced, Large Animal Veterinarian
Knowledgeable, Experienced, Passionate. Discover the Best Equine Veterinary Services in the Lowcountry.
Fostering the physiological, medical and rehabilitation needs of your equine athlete.
Lameness & Soundness Examinations
Joint Therapy
- - Intra-Articular Injections
- Request This Treatment
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- - IRAP: Interleukin-1 Receptor Atagonist Protein
Equine athletes are susceptible to musculoskeletal injuries and osteoarthritis or degenerative joint disease. Clinical signs include lameness, joint swelling and inflammation. These signs are a result of cartilage damage within the joint and inflammation of the joint lining or synovitis.
IRAP therapy, or Interleukin-1 Receptor Antagonist Protein, is a novel approach in treating osteoarthritis (OA) in horses. It's especially helpful in reducing joint inflammation and preventing continued degeneration and progression of osteoarthritis. The procedure begins with drawing blood from the horse that will be treated with IRAP. The blood-filled syringe is specially prepared with glass beads that stimulate production of the antagonist protein and an anticoagulant. The blood is harvested, incubated and centrifuged to separate the serum (abundant with IRAP) from the blood.
Typically, IRAP treatments are performed once a week for three weeks, and usually after that time, the horse can return to normal work.
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- ProStride
Pro-Stride APS is a proprietary system whose output produces a concentrated solution of cells, platelets, growth factors, and anti-inflammatory proteins. A Natural, Drug-Free Treatment for Joint Pain & Arthritis.
Carter Veterinary Services is excited to introduce the latest in regenerative medicine treatment called Pro-Stride. It is an Autologous Protein Solution (APS) and the most advanced treatment available on the farm in a single visit. It is a centrifuged solution of your own horses’ blood that provides all the important healing factors which are immediately administered in a super concentrated joint injection. It is a very portable system and allows our veterinarians to provide advanced treatment for arthritis on your farm in one visit. Studies have demonstrated pain relief for up to one year with just one treatment. This natural, steroid-free treatment avoids any unwanted side-effects associated with traditional steroid joint injections. There is no drug withholding times for competitors at the FEI and USEF levels. It is also safe for use in young horses; and Cushings, Laminitis/Founder and Insulin Resistant (IR) horses.
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A new point of attack for equine osteoarthritis, NOLTREX®VET is a 100% synthetic hydrogel (polyacrylamide) for intra-articular injection for joint pain management. It addresses a root cause of joint pain by reducing friction.
Regenerative Therapy
- Stem Cell Therapy
If your horse has arthritis, a tendon injury, or a ligament injury then you should consider Stem Cell Therapy.
Stem cell therapy is designed to regenerate injured or damaged tissues through the use of stem cells derived from the horse’s own body. The stem cells can be collected from the horse's bone marrow. Stem cells are injected directly into the site that requires treatment.
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- PRP: Platelet Rich Plasma
Heal wounds faster, minimize scars, reduce inflammation, treat arthritis, tendonitis, and ligament injuries.
PRP, which stands for platelet-rich plasma, is created from your horse’s blood right here in our lab. A sample of blood is drawn and spun in a special centrifuge to separate the plasma and platelets from the red blood cells and most of the white blood cells. The plasma is then concentrated so it contains higher-than-normal blood levels of platelets. Carter Veterinary Services can have it ready for injection into the injury the same day, often in less than an hour.
PRP is used for tendon and ligament healing and granulation of tissue defects. Normal PRP therapy is recommended for both recent tendon and ligament injuries as well as injuries that have not healed using traditional rest and controlled exercise. PRP can also be used for horses withsevere joint disease that are no longer responding to traditional joint therapy (injection with hyaluronic acid and corticosteroids).
Class IV Laser Therapy
Laser therapy accelerates the body's natural healing process through photobiomodulation. Laser therapy effectively treats chronic conditions, acute conditions, and post-surgical pain and inflammation.
Extracorpeal Shockwave
An emerging new technology for treating musculoskeletal problems, soft-tissue injuries and bone injuries in horses.
Shockwave is a non-invasive therapy used to stimulate healing and restore the horse to a level of sound, useful activity without recurrence of disease. From outside the body (extracorporeal), the machine generates high-intensity shock or pressure waves, which pulse to a specific site within the injured tissue.
It stimulates and accelerates the healing process, essentially combining an immediate analgesic effect with a reduction in inflammation, neovascularization in soft tissue and osteogenesis in bone.