Undergraduate Honors Thesis Projects

Date of Award

2020

Document Type

Honors Project

Department

Equine Science

Advisor

Dr. Sheri Birmingham

First Committee Member

Dr. Sheri Birmingham

Second Committee Member

Steffanie Burk

Third Committee Member

John Tansey

Keywords

Equine, Complementary and Alternative Veterinary Medicine, Whole-Body Vibration, Thermography

Subject Categories

Higher Education | Large or Food Animal and Equine Medicine

Abstract

Modern horses are sophisticated athletes, which puts them at a high risk for injury. One therapy now being utilized is whole-body vibration. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of whole-body vibration on the distal forelimb and the back of the healthy horse using thermography.

Data were collected over a 30-day period. Test horses stood on the vibration plate (n=10) 3 days a week for 30-minute sessions with the plate vibrating at 30-40 Hz. The control horses (n=10) received no treatment during the study. Baseline thermographic images were taken for all horses, and post treatment images were taken for the test horses. Images were taken of the proximal aspect of the distal forelimb and the longissimus dorsi muscle over the thoracolumbar spine. Mean surface temperature of test horses before and after treatment were compared using a dependent t-test with a significance level of P

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