Ozone Treatment for Horses

While most people are familiar with ozone in connection with a hole in the earth's atmosphere, few realize its growing role in veterinary medicine, especially in the world of equine science. This molecule, made up of three oxygen atoms, is finding uses in the removal of sarcoids, the treatment of "bleeders" on the race track, and in the reversal of positive tests for equine infectious anemia.

  1. Ozone Creation

    • Ozone is created naturally as a result of photosynthesis.

      Ozone in the upper atmosphere is created when oxygen rises from plants as a result of photosynthesis; the UV rays from the sun then split some of these oxygen molecules, thus allowing individual atoms of oxygen to combine with O₂ molecules to form ozone O₃. While ozone in the upper atmosphere can protect the earth's surface from ultraviolet radiation, ozone at ground level is one of the irritants of smog.

    Medical Uses of Ozone

    • Despite this mixed blessing of ozone, ozone molecules have been used in medicine to disinfect wounds and treat disease for more than 150 years. As early as the late 1800s, ozone was used to purify water and to disinfect operating rooms. Most ozone used in medical treatment today is created in ozone generators that seek to duplicate its production in nature by mixing oxygen gas with a high voltage current.

    Ozone and "Bleeders"

    • Ozone is often used to treat "bleeders" when Lasix is not allowed.

      While many states and countries do allow the use of Lasix in race horses with exercise induced pulmonary hemorrhage---"bleeders," some do not. In most cases, ozone therapy has been found to reverse many of the conditions, such as bronchitis, new blood vessel growth and scar tissue that lead to this problem. Ozone has also been found effective in the treatment of respiratory diseases such as rhinopneumonitis, equine arteritis and influenza.

    Ozone Therapy for Sarcoids

    • Sarcoids, tumors found on horses, donkeys and mules, have proved difficult to treat in the past. Occurring mainly on the head, neck, limbs, and abdomen of young stock, sarcoids have been primarily treated through surgery, which can often lead to extensive scarring. However, ozone therapy has produced good results in the treatment of sarcoids as well as some squamous cell tumors found in older equines.

    Ozone Therapy for EIA

    • Ozone therapy may save horses who test positive for EIA from a life of loneliness.

      Until recently, a diagnosis of Equine Infectious Anemia (EIA) through a Coggins test was perhaps the most devastating news an owner could receive. Horses that tested positive for EIA were to be freeze branded and isolated from other horses for the rest of their lives or destroyed. However, ozone therapy has become the treatment of choice to both reverse the clinical symptoms of the disease as well as the Coggins test results. Ozone therapy is also being used to treat Potomac Horse Fever and other tick-borne diseases.