How Does Equine Cryotherapy Work?

Horses are not unlike little kids in their propensity to bump, scrape, or cause swelling on their limbs. Luckily, horse owners have a treatment within easy reach that is inexpensive and non-invasive. What is this magic, you may ask? The garden hose!  

Equine cryotherapy, or “cold therapy,” can be one of the most beneficial early treatments you can do for your horse.  

What Is Equine Cryotherapy?

Equine cryotherapy involves using cold temperatures to reduce inflammation in targeted areas on a horse’s body. Reducing inflammation through cold therapy will reduce pain and speed healing.  

There are several ways that cooling can be achieved, from the tried-and-true horse standing in a bucket of ice water to the newer hand-held cryotherapy devices.  

Types of Cold Therapy for Horses

• Cold hosing uses a continuous flow of cold water over an area to cool it. Anyone can do this, as long as you are not limited by the size of your well, or have city water restrictions.  

  • You may be limited by the season, as this may not be possible during the winter in cold climates.  

• Ice baths work by placing one or more of a horse’s limbs in an icy water bucket. You will use/waste less water with this method, but will need a horse that will stand perfectly still in order to not spill the bucket.  

  You can use a large bucket like the Tuff Stuff Super Duty Round Tub.

Some products are specifically designed to make equine cryotherapy a breeze, and can target different parts of your horse. 

• Ice boots/wraps are made to specifically hold ice or an ice pack onto a certain limb or joint. This helps to cool multiple areas at once and you do not need to use running water.  

  Ice Horse carries an array of cryotherapy products including horse hoof boots and horse leg wraps. 

Target your horse’s hocks with the Tough1 Cooling Horse Hock Wraps. 

• Hand-held cryotherapy devices use liquid co2 to provide a stream of cold air that cools the targeted area. This is a several thousand-dollar investment and would require some training to use.  

• Cryochambers are specialized sub-zero-temperature cold rooms that will cool the horse’s entire body, except for the head. These are mainly used at large rehab or training facilities after a workout to reduce post-exercise inflammation.   

• Cold water spas are a cold water bath where all of the horse’s limbs, but not the entire body, are submerged.  Water can be swirled around to provide a massage effect.  Some rehab facilities, such as Burke Equine, run by Dr. Stowe Burke, have found that having horses move in an AquaPacer with cold water is more effective in reducing swelling than standing still in a spa.  These sessions are done once daily for 10-15 minutes in 35-degree water.   

Benefits of Cold Therapy for Horses

Cold therapy can be beneficial for both acute (sudden) and chronic injuries in horses. It is most effective in the early stages of new injuries, but it is also useful after exercise to reduce pain and inflammation of chronic conditions. 

You can try cryotherapy for the following conditions: 

• Laminitis 

• Strains 

• Joint effusion (fluid/swelling in a joint space) 

• Muscle soreness or lameness 

• Cellulitis 

• Arthritis 

How Does Cryotherapy for Horses Work?

Cryotherapy works by cooling the tissues, which constricts blood vessels. Constricting blood vessels reduces blood flow, which allows for less heat and inflammation. It also reduces pain by numbing the area.  

Once the cold therapy stops, the tissues will gradually become warm again. As this happens, blood flow will improve, which can help to speed up healing.  

The benefits of cold therapy can be achieved in 20 minutes. The number of times per day the 20 minutes of cooling is applied depends on the injury being treated.  

Laminitic horses are the only exception, when cold therapy is applied for 24 to 48 hours straight with no warming of tissues in-between. Allowing heat and inflammation to return will cause more damage to the lamina in laminitis cases. 

Horses receiving cold therapy for an acute injury may have cold therapy prescribed two to three times per day. Post-exercise cryotherapy can be used as a preventative for inflammation during one 20-minute session per day.  

Horses are much less prone to side effects of prolonged cold therapy, such as frostbite, compared to humans. However, care needs to be taken so you don’t overdo it. Tissues can still be damaged by excessive cold therapy, resulting in the opposite effect of what you are trying to achieve for your horse.  

How To Choose the Best Cold Therapy for Your Horse

When choosing a cold therapy product for your horse, you first need to determine what area you need to cool and if it is just one area or multiple areas. 

Consider the length of time you need to cool the area. For example, cold hosing and ice buckets are better for 20-minute stretches of cooling, versus ice wraps where the ice can be changed every few hours to achieve cooling for 12–24 hours.   

Cryotherapy Devices and Surgery  

More intense cold therapy can be used for more intense and deeper injuries. This can be more easily achieved through a specialist trained in using cryotherapy devices.  

The one type of “cryo” treatment that is limited to veterinarians is cryosurgery. This involves using hand-held cryosurgery devices for cryosurgical removal of small masses with extreme cold.  

Remember, cold therapy is beneficial in the very early stages of almost any injury to reduce inflammation, swelling, and pain. However, additional problems may need to be addressed, such as: 

• Suturing a laceration 

• Applying a bandage 

• Cleaning/flushing a puncture wound 

Additionally, some areas of heat and swelling on a horse may not be due to inflammation but may be an infection requiring antibiotics. If this is the case, your horse should be seen by your veterinarian.  

Any limb that has moderate to severe swelling, a break in the skin, or where the horse is lame, should be seen by your veterinarian.  

Does Cryotherapy Require Special Training?

Cryotherapy does not require special training if you are administering it to your own horse through simple methods such as cold hosing.  

Equine professionals who offer cryotherapy as a service to horse owners and operate a hand-held cryotherapy device that freezes to subzero temperatures have special training. These devices provide cold therapy much more quickly and at a much colder temperature than you achieve with simply ice. 

Companies that sell cryotherapy devices also offer training packages that will give a certificate of completion at the end of the course.  

The learning curve can be much steeper for these devices than learning how to use an ice wrap. In addition to operating the device, you would need to know handling of co liquid co2, where to get it, and how to safely load it into the device.  

Contact the sales representative of the company you are looking to purchase a cryotherapy device from in order to find out what type of training courses they offer for their equipment.