And photographs, if you have any.
Horseytalk.net Special Interview
Olivia Adams & Equiscan
Meet Olivia. Ex-Policewoman now an Endurance rider.
Olivia (Livvy) Adams is based in Somerset just outside Glastonbury
where she is renovating an old farmhouse with her partner
and two children, five dogs, two cats, and the inevitable
and much loved horses Danny and Gunner.
Livvy began riding at the age of four on a Naval Base and continued to do so until she moved to Bristol when she joined the Police Force. whereupon she bought her first pony, a 14.2hh Welsh x from a riding school that was being closed. Her pony came off the back of the Bailiffs lorry. Initially Livvy travelled an hour and a half each way to see him and care for him until securing livery ten minutes from her home. They proceeded to enjoy unaffiliated eventing until a fractured hock ended their competition days. The next horse was a kooky ex-racehorse who preferred to travel backwards, until Livvy gave her to a friend to hunt and the horse has never looked back.
At this point Livvy met and married her husband and took three years off to have her two children, and then re-trained as a book-keeper, outing herself through college and qualifying as an Accountant, running her own practise helping small businesses. However her love for animals continued unabated and when her husband issued the ultimatum of “It’s me or the dog” he was surprised and then most upset when they all upped sticks and moved out.
The abiding love of horses would not go away, and so Livvy proceeded to qualify as a practitioner in complementary medicines and treatments , all with the ultimate aim of helping horses. Wanting to combine all that she had learnt with scientific measurable results led Livvy to contact Sophie Gent after seeing an article in Your Horse magazine. Upon meeting up with and chatting to Sophie, learning about the company ethos and realising that DITI had a far greater application, Livvy decided to join the ever growing nationwide Equiscan family. She is continuing to supplement her existing skills with courses in Equine Massage and Equine Touch.
Ultimately Livvy’s ambition is to be able to offer Equine Facilitated Therapy, and help horses and humans equally combining DITI with all that she knows from her own and others experiences. In the meantime Livvy and Gunner are intending to enjoy some Endurance Riding this year, having abandoned previous attempts at performing circles in a 40m x 20m space. Getting lost in the countryside with your best friend for a few hours is far more fun.
Livvy is the latest recruit to join the Equiscan Team.
Livvy Adams started with horses.
Now she is moving on to horse owners.
She is setting up clinics in Yeovil & Wells in Somerset to provide both horse and rider with this innovative method of health care.
Livvy is a Somerset based Equine Thermographer and she provides veterinary Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging to equine professionals, trainers and horse owners.
Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging is a non-invasive diagnostic test of physiology that has evolved over the last 20 years. DITI has been recognised as a useful tool in the early identification of musculoskeletal and neurological injuries, especially non-specific (and difficult to diagnose) lameness. The ability to detect inflammatory and neurological processes at an early stage can be critical to evaluation and recovery. DITI is unique in its ability to show physiological abnormalities and can graphically display and record subjective feeling of pain by objectively displaying changes in the skins surface temperature that accompanies a state of pain.
DITI allows the examiner to visualize and quantify changes in skin surface temperature. An infrared scanning device is used to convert infrared radiation emitted from the skin surface into electrical impulses that are visualized in colour on a monitor. This visual image graphically maps the body temperature and is referred to as a thermogram.
The spectrum of colours indicate an increase or decrease in the amount of infrared radiation being emitted from the body surface. Since there is a high degree of thermal symmetry in the normal body, subtle abnormal temperature changes can be easily identified. DITI can provide information about an animal’s response to treatment as well as the effects of injury, disease or prescribed treatment.
Results are not offered immediately, but provided by the team vets and physicians that are also Board Certified Veterinary Thermologists. After studying thermograms they will provide a full report on the DITI findings, these are then passed on to your own Practitioner to aid in their diagnosis and treatment. Livvy will archive all results for later referrals and comparisons, enabling you to monitor and evaluate conditions with both soft tissue and bone. Thermal Imaging is 100% safe and completely non-invasive and images are even collected at your horses stable.
DITI works in harmony with x-rays, ultrasound and scintigraphy which are all tests of anatomy (structure) but not soft tissue. DITI is unique in its ability to show physiological abnormalities and graphically display the subjective feeling and source of pain. This can be anything from back pain, a dental infection, tendon lesions or laminitis to detecting the source of non-specific lameness.
Livvy Adams has also recently trained to provide clinical thermography to human patients.
Clinical thermographers provide specialist screening to help detect disease, musculoskeletal and neurological injuries, breast abnormalities and pain dysfunctions. Livvy is setting up clinics in Yeovil & Wells in Somerset to provide both horse and rider with this innovative method of health care. One of the major applications is breast screening, and the camera can detect abnormal cells up to eight years before they would show on a mammogram. Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging (DITI) technology is a painless, 100% safe, non-invasive, state of the art clinical test without any exposure to radiation. The thermography services are used as part of an early detection program which gives women of all ages the opportunity to increase their chances of detecting breast disease at an early stage. It is useful for women of all ages, including women who have had breast implants.
Prices start from £40.00
Contact Livvy Adams of Equiscan South West on 07980 490948 / 07851 255813 to discuss whether Thermal Imaging would be suitable for your horse
Email: equinethermalimaging@yahoo.co.uk and see www.equiscanltd.com
Ex-National Hunt jockey invents Digital Infrared Thermal
Imaging
Bella is a successful dressage horse that competes regularly.
Her owner uses Digital Infrared Thermal Imagin ing (DITI)
to monitor her lower limbs during their busy schedule.
Equiscan detected a sub clinical lesion in the right fore suspensory region. Immediately Bella was rested and monitored during rehabilitation.
Localising the issue early prevented more damage to the ligament
Jonjo was a successful eventer that injured his leg on a
cross country fence. After a week of box rest he was still
lame on his right fore. The problem was thought to be higher
up his leg. DITI localised a tendon adhesion in the lower
limb that was immediately treated with shockwave therapy.
Jonjo’s recovery was excellent with a fast diagnosis.
Joint problems can be evaluated for inflammation (arthritis) degenerative changes, and can help x-ray locate things like chip fracture and difficult to image stress fractures that may otherwise only be seen with scintigraphy (nuclear bone scan). Low grade infections are also detected with DITI.
Lameness due to pain may not be caused by any local structural
problem; we can evaluate the cause of lameness due to referred
pain syndromes such as nerve entrapment as well as other
vascular, neurological and musculoskeletal pain syndromes.
Equiscan is the only medical grade thermography company in the UK. It was established by Sophie Gent over twelve months ago at her main base in Cheshire.
Sophie trained as a certified Clinical (human) Thermographer in Cambridge, before going to Florida, USA to train as a Veterinary Thermographer. It was there that she trained with leading medical figure Dr Peter Leando, who is the developer/ inventor of medical grade systems (Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging) and one of our very own former National Hunt Jockeys.
Sophie trained for some time with Dr Leando and the Meditherm
team and with their encouragement established Equiscan here
in the UK. Equiscan has since developed into a trusted service
and has provided many horse owners and veterinary professionals
with clinical information that has aided a swift diagnosis & treatment.
Since last year the Equiscan team has now developed into
a national company acquiring new professional members to
their team. New Veterinary Thermographers are now active
in the UK, locations include: South West & South East,
Midlands, Cheshire and more recently North East England & Scotland.
<< Peter Leando during his time as a National Hunt jockey
The Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging (DITI) that Equiscan provide is also widely used in human medicine and can detect problematic abnormalities in the breast some eight to ten years before a Mammogram and is an accurate method to measure a patient’s state of pain. Sophie is also the owner of Medical Thermal Imaging (MTi) and holds regular medical clinics across the North West. The company offers a unique service that is backed by over 20 years of medical research that resulted in the camera being MHRA registered as a class one medical device and approved for human medicine.
Thermal Imaging results have historically been badly affected by accuracy and interpretation issues. Ambient room temperatures and surroundings are also critical but Equiscan is able to work in less critical protocols because the camera self-calibrates, taking the incumbent temperatures every few moments ensuring complete accuracy. The cameras also only focus on physiological function/metabolic heat. This therefore negates the possibility of Thermal Drift which can affect readings and other negating factors. Results are not offered immediately, but provided by their team vets and physicians that are also Board Certified Veterinary Thermologists. After studying thermograms they will provide a full report on the DITI findings, these are then able to be passed on to your own Practitioner to aid in their diagnosis and treatment. Equiscan archive all results for later referrals and comparisons, enabling you to monitor and evaluate conditions with both soft tissue and bone. Equiscan DITI is 100% safe and completely non-invasive and images are even collected at your horses stable!
Peter Leando during his time as a National Hunt jockey
DITI works in harmony with x-rays, ultrasound and scintigraphy which are all tests of anatomy (structure) but not soft tissue. DITI is unique in its ability to show physiological abnormalities and graphically display the subjective feeling and source of pain. This can be anything from back pain, a dental infection, tendon lesions or laminitis to detecting the source of non-specific lameness.
Equiscan will be holding veterinary conferences this autumn for Vets and other professionals to provide them with new information on DITI and the benefits of using this screening method. The Team already work with many veterinary professionals and their clients to provide them with this new innovative screening service.
www.equiscan.co.uk
info@equiscan.co.uk
"I found Equiscan DITI exceptionally useful
when trying to establish which part of my horse was in pain. It was cost
effective and provides valuable information that can aid in diagnosis and
prevention. It saved me having to go down a more invasive screening route
that may have been unnecessary. The Veterinary Thermographers at Equiscan
are very knowledgeable and helpful; DITI is an invaluable screening tool
that aids in a swift diagnosis.
Many Thanks "
Nikki Hulme, Oaktree Livery, Cheshire
"Equiscan has been an invaluable tool in identifying problems with
the horses at an affordable cost, whereby such horses may have finished their
racing careers without fully knowing what the problems were. Working alongside
our fantastic Physio, Sune du Toit, it has helped us identify problems with
certain horses which have been treated and sorted out. We will continue to
use DITI scanning as part of our training regime". Many thanks for
your excellent service"
Derek & Lindsay Shaw
www.derekshawracing.com