Sunday, April 01, 2007

Bee Venom Therapy Used to Treat Equine Arthritis

A Case Study of Bee Venom in the Treatment of Equine Arthritis of the Knee

John Drakes, Beelief Apitherapy (UK)

Presented at: 5th German Apitherapy Congress, March 23-25, 2007, Passau, Germany

The patient:

* 6 year old Shire Sports horse
* 16.2 hands tall
* Arthritis of the right front knee joint
* Kicked in the knee by another horse
* The wound healed but the joint remained painful and swollen.
* No conventional treatment was available.

The Treatment: (40 sting equivalents over 5 weeks)

* VeneX-10 V from Apitronic Services was used.
* A test injection for allergy was given.
* The area was swabbed with acetone.
* No Procaine was used for the test injection.
* 20 minutes to observe possible reaction.

First Treatment:

* The VeneX-10 V was diluted 50:50 with local anesthetic (Procaine).
* Syringe contained 1 ml of solution.
* Each 0.1 ml of solution contained 0.5 bee venom sac.
* Injected made at 10 sites around knee joint.
* Injections targeted to the bony reactions at bottom of radius bone.
* Total of 5 bee sting equivalents given.
* Injections were subcutaneous.

On the advice of Michael Simics, it was decided to alternate the knee treatments with injections into remote acupuncture points on the back….Bladder 23

Location of Bladder 23:

* The third space between the transverse vertebral process after the last rib
* 4 finger widths from the mid line
* This point is a paravertebral nerve block where nerves emerge from the spinal cord to the flank
* They govern muscle and skin sensation
* When needle hits the exact point the horse jumps a little, so then we know we are at the right depth.

Conclusions:

* 80 percent of the healing occurred at the time of the treatment.
* The final 20 percent happened several weeks later.
* Horse was able to be ridden and there was no tenderness in joint by this date.
* X-rays taken on 27/02/2007 showed several bony projections has disappeared.
* VeneX -10V was successful in treating equine osteo-arthritis of the knee joint.

Before and After Treatment:




1 comment:

Dr Stefan Stangaciu said...

Congratulation for both the author and yourself, Mr. Hooper, for your wonderful work you do in the field of Apitherapy!

Yours,
Dr. Stefan Stangaciu