A vet who saw my horse, who wasn’t NQR, used a thermal-imaging camera to locate an area of inflammation that wasn’t showing up as swollen or hot to the touch. Has anyone else had experience in watching this camera used, or using it yourself? Is it effective?
This has been a modestly controversial technique since it was championed in the civil courts by Melvin Belli, the CA King of Torts, before he died. He wanted to use it to prove the existence of pain, particularly in soft tissue injury cases. He really had very limited success.
Thermography shows areas of heat. Neither more nor less. What do these areas mean? Maybe inflammation, but maybe just a normal pattern FOR THAT HORSE (or person). Or just a transient moment of heat, not a routine showing. In that sense like are like EKGs, which show heart rhythm but don’t tell you whether or not minor deviations from standard rhythm are signs of problems or just small deviations that are normal for this person.
The USDA/APHIS has been working for a long time to develop this technique as a way of detecting soring in Walking Horses. They have not been fully successful because they don’t have a base-line scan. The technique also requires a reasonably “clean” environment to be most accurate. The horse show environment is not a laboratory environment.
Since it’s completely non-invasive I don’t see much harm in it but just how much it will add to a diagnosis is an open question.
G.
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I have a thermal imaging camera - it’s the little plug-into-your phone version of the FLIR system. I bought it because my vet has had pretty good success with her (much larger and much more expensive) FLIR. I thought it would be interesting to use to find temperature deviations in the feet (e.g. locating an abscess). But it really hasn’t been quite as cool as I thought it would be. I’ve had a couple of abscesses that didn’t show up at all on the camera, but eventually blew out right where it felt like they would. And to Guilherme’s point, it’s tough to say what’s a normal pattern for a horse and what’s important information. I have tons of really cool looking pictures, but not a whole lot of information from them.
But back to my vet’s camera - she’s used hers with much more effectiveness than mine. I think it comes down to the fact that a) it’s a much larger system and much more sensitive than mine, and b) she’s using it in conjunction with her knowledge of the horse’s body, and is much more sensitive to what might mean something when she sees temperature deviations.
Anyone use FLIR for saddle fit? I’ve heard it done before, but not terribly interested in bringing someone out specifically for this, and worried about upsell of getting something done to fix what may be just a potential normal variant of heat patterns. I was thinking of renting one to check my new saddle for drastically uneven heat spots, more out of curiosity and to take pictures over time to compare.
I tried to use mine for saddle fit but it wasn’t super helpful. I think for the price, I might have someone who is trained to use the Pliance Pressure System instead. I, personally, prefer data when making decisions instead of objective opinions.
I have never felt like it was useful for saddle fitting. To many variables and you really need a controlled environment. I would also think your saddle pad would affect the results.
My equine body worker had one attached to her cellphone. If you held your hand on the horse’s flank for minute and took it off, you could then see the imprint of where your hand had been on the screen.
That was kind of cool but suggests the complexity of using this to diagnose. Horse might be warmer or cooler on one side because of a draft in the barn, even.
The body worker also signed up for a more sophisticated system that was also supposed to offer consultation and diagnosis but grew disenchanted with the service and perhaps competence of the company she was dealing with.
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Several years ago, TheHorse.com had an article on a study about thermal cameras and horses. You may be able to find it in their archives. I recall one big caveat was that the results were very susceptible to drafts and breezes.
My trainer recently got one for her phone. She was able to use it to see some heat around one hoof when a horse was slightly off. There are some big caveats to use - mostly that the horse should be kept in shade for a reasonable length of time before analyzing. When the horse was initially brought into the shaded cross ties from pasture, his one front leg looked significantly warmer than other front and hinds, which all have socks. The one dark leg stood out dramatically until he had a chance to equilibrate in the shade.
I’ve also heard that dirt, coat conditioners and even fly spray may shift the readings as well.
All that said, I would really like to try it to look at saddle fit, the use of different types of boots, etc.
We had a saddle fitter checking saddle fit with her thermo camera. The most interesting part was the picture it took of my daughter who was standing behind the horse. You can see only my daughter’s head behind the horse. Daugjter’s right eye area is bright red while the rest of her face has no color. The right eye and neck area are where she has nerve damage and pain from an injury that happened to her neck a year and a half ago. The neurologist has said that this injury can take 5 years to repair and she receives periodic nerve blocks to manage the pain. Interesting.
