Veterinary Technology: 21st Century Health

Today’s veterinary tech equipment allows rapid responses for improved horse care

by Ron Colton, DVM, Evergreen Equine Veterinary Practice, www.evergreenequinevet.com

Imagine you find your horse with a nail in his foot. You call your veterinarian. She is on the way and has told you to leave the nail in place. She wants to take an x-ray to determine the exact location of the nail and whether it has damaged any vital structures. Only then will she remove the nail and begin therapy. It’s 1999, so she will have to drive back to the clinic to develop and review the films, which hopefully are of good quality, and then drive back to your farm to provide care. Cross your fingers traffic isn’t bad.

Fast forward to the same scenario today: your vet arrives with portable x-ray equipment and is able to see the digital image of your horse’s foot and the nail in a matter of seconds. If a second opinion is needed, the images are sent directly from the portable to a vet hospital via a wireless Internet card. Important information is acquired and analyzed quickly. Treatment is started in minutes instead of hours, with no risk of traffic delays. This is just one of many newer technologies that have brought considerable advantages to equine medicine...

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