Endoscopy

Upper Airway Endoscopy is employed to assess horses’ respiratory tracts from the nasal cavities to the larynx, pharynx, guttural pouches, trachea and deeper airways in the lungs.

Our portable digital videoendoscopes help diagnosing the causes of respiratory noises arising from partial airway obstruction and which in turn lead to athletic poor performance in thoroughbred racehorses as well as eventers, show jumpers and dressage horses.

Videoendoscopy can be used to investigate conditions such as ‘Recurrent Laryngeal Neuropathy’ (RLN) which causes roaring or whistling respiratory noises due a nerve damage which triggers a laryngeal paralysis called ‘Laryngeal Hemiplegia’, ‘Dorsal Displacement of the Soft Palate’ (DDSP) which causes wind noises due to a shift of the soft palate over the epiglottis cartilage of the larynx, and ‘Epiglottis Entrapment’ in the aryepiglottic folds.

Once diagnosed, these conditions may be treated medically and surgically, and we can explain and arrange the path to treatment and recovery for your horse.

Overground Dynamic Endoscopy is an advanced diagnostic tool used to assess conditions that may be seen only during exercise or high-speed gallop. In the old days, such conditions were investigated by placing an endoscope in a horse’s upper airways while this was exercised on a treadmill.

Nowadays, Dynamic Endoscopy allows to assess a horse in its home environment and training routine and importantly, particularly for dressage and show jumping horses, with its normal head carriage position, and without the need for transport to a referral facility. OGE consists in a sophisticated flexible endoscope which is passed through the horse’s nostrils and placed to observe the throat while secured to the bridle.

The camera is connected to a processor allocated in a special numnah or in the rider’s pocket, which records a high-definition video of the throat during the exercise phase.

Exercise can be a routine ridden test on the gallops, or in the menage or show jumping arena, or even on the lunge. OGE can be used for horses of any breed, age and size and is helpful in those cases where an Upper Airway Endoscopy at rest may not be conclusive and when a rider may feel that the horse’s breathing pattern changes in specific circumstances.