Veterinary use of thermal water and mud from Lake Hévíz for equestrian injury prevention and rehabilitation

Adam Bartos,Ilona Koltay,Zsuzsanna Mando,Nikoletta Such,Zsofia Ujj,Petra Novinszky,Adel Banyai

doi:10.19040/ecocycles.v5i2.139

Abstract

Beneficial effects of thermal mud treatment in the human medical field have been known for many years. However, such treatments have never been studied and used in veterinary science. The aim of our study was to investigate how a mud treatment from Héviz Spa Lake affects the movement quality and flexibility of certain joints in horses. Wet sludge was applied on the knee, hock, elbow, shoulder, back, stifle, front and hind cannons and fetlock joints for a period of eight weeks. Our results show, that the mud treatment from Lake Héviz may have beneficial effects on the joints, and play an important role in the locomotion of horses.

Highlights

Lake Héviz is Europe's largest thermal lake - a warm water lake situated in a peat-bed
Effect of medical mud on the joints and locomotion activities of horses Medical research for humans provided evidence regarding the beneficial effects of thermal mud in the treatment of rheumatism (Gyarmati and Kulisch 2008)
The most positive results were detected directly after the treatments by the average stride length during walking, maximal flexibility of the front and hind fetlock and knee, in the case of hock we observed only a positive tendency. This is partly explicable with the beneficial effects of sulphur on the joints, which is well-known in human field (Kovács et al 2012)

Summary

Introduction

Lake Héviz is Europe's largest thermal lake - a warm water lake situated in a peat-bed. The 4.44 ha water-surface lake (Figure 1) is surrounded by a 60.5 ha nature conservation area. 1. Springs of different temperatures mix in a narrow cave and became a constant (38,5 °C) temperature stream when entering the lake. Thermal Lake and traditional human treatments are from the year 2015 part of National Heritage. The thermal water comes from an about 40 m deep situated cave (Bergmann, 2014). Effect of medical mud on the joints and locomotion activities of horses Medical research for humans provided evidence regarding the beneficial effects of thermal mud in the treatment of rheumatism (Gyarmati and Kulisch 2008). The thermal sludge product has been developed, which is successfully applied more widely, especially in the Volume 5, Issue 2 (2019)

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Conclusion