The Equine Lymphatic System & Equine Manual Lymph Drainage
This week I attended a CPD course with Racheal Maxwell of Animal Botanicals at Jo Rose Therapies & Training on Lymphatics.
I have been interested to gain some more in depth knowledge of the Equine Lymphatic System and how as a therapist I can help horses with lymphatic issues or edema.
Lymphatic issues are so common in horses, we often see complaints such as:
Cutaneous Lymphangitis (both infectious & non infectious) - which is essentially lymph fluid leaking out through the skin
Chronic Progressive Lymphedema (also known as CPL)
Lymphadenopathy (enlarged swelling)
Lymphoma (particularly in grey horses)
Bacterial infections (such as Strangles, Staphylococcus, Strep, Cellulitis)
Viral Infections (such as Equine Flu)
Lymphatic Pooling (where the Lymph fluid settles in certain areas of the body) can also be caused by:
Mites
Bites
Aged & Degenerative conditions
Trauma & Injury
Emotional Trauma
Stable dwelling & confinement
Common areas in the horse’s body for Lymph pooling include:
The Parotid Glands (commonly known as the grass glands) - these are on the jaw line just below the ear
The inside of the Mandible (jaw line)
The chin
Along the Sternum of the horse, between the front legs and under the abdominals - often known as a Ventral Edema
The Sheath area in stallions/geldings
The lower limb - more often seen in the hind limbs
I often come across some of these issues when I am out treating horses. And I already had a basic understanding of the Lymphatic system and how to massage towards the heart to help drain Lymph fluid from my original practitioner training with Centaur Equine Massage Training. However, as with everything I do when it comes to treating horses I wanted to have further in depth knowledge of what the Lymphatic system is, why and how it can become compromised and how I can help horses with these issues from a more intuitive and knowledge based perspective, as well as having the ability to explain the how & why to my clients so they can also understand what is going on with their horses.
Prior to the course day Racheal provided us as participants with handouts by email. This gave me the opportunity to read through them before hand and start to get an idea of what we would be covering on the day. The course notes were in depth and very interesting, reading them got me even more excited for the hands on day.
The day was Equine & Canine based which was cool as it also meant I got to take one of my dogs with me for the day. Elsie Nugget came along. It was lovely to have her with me for the 1hr30min drive and also really great that she was going to be there to have some therapy as she has had a few health issues in the last 3 years and I felt her system could definitely do with a little help.
This is the third course I have done now that has been Equine & Canine combined. I have never thought about working with dogs before, but doing these courses has opened my eyes to how receptive dogs are to therapy and I do feel more open to considering Canine therapy at some point in the future.
But for now my focus remains purely on the horses and learning as much as I can about and for them.
The day started with some theory. I will share with you some of the key points I learnt.
Every single thing a body does (including processing food, moving, breathing, emotional trauma, protein synthesis) leaves a waste product in the body that needs to be eliminated
These waste products can be found in the Interstitial Fluid (also known as the Intercellular Space) which is the liquid like substance that is found between each of the tissues, vessels, cells & organs in the body
As well as transporting waste products, this fluid also provides cells with nutrition, salts, vitamins, acids & sugars
The Interstitial Fluid makes up around 40% of the water content of the body, if it is healthy the waste in the fluid can flow easily into the lymphatic system ready for elimination from the body. This is one of the reasons it is important for the body to be well hydrated
If the horse gets ill or dehydrated or the fluid is not watery and flowing easily the waste products can get stuck within the tissue, vessels or Intercellular Space and not flow into and through the Lymphatic system effectively, this may cause pooling, lymphoedema or infection
The Lymphatic System runs synonymously with the Cardiovascular System and covers the whole body both superficial and deep
Unlike the Cardiovascular System, the Lymphatic System is a one way system, directing the Lymph Fluid to the Liver & Kidneys ready for the waste to be eliminated
When delivering an Equine Lymphatic Treatment, working towards the heart means you are working towards 2 vessels known as the Thoracic Ducts. These have a valve which will close and from there the Lymph fluid is filtered.
For this reason it is important that if a therapist is providing a Lymphatic Drainage Therapy session for your horse a full body routine is completed. Otherwise Lymph will just be being moved to another part of the body where it will pool in the Lymph Nodes.
Completing a full body treatment in a very specific order will allow the whole system to be activated and all the waste products to be sent to the Thoracic Ducts to be eliminated and not left pooling within the body.
This was a fact that really resonated with me and makes a lot of sense - for example if you just massaged the horse’s legs to help reduce filling, you will not actually be sending the fluid for elimination unless you complete the routine and send the fluid back to the Thoracic Ducts.
Something very interesting that we learnt too was that recent developments in scientific research have shown that the Equine Lymphatic System has 8,000 Lymph Nodes, compared with just 600 in the human system, and that Lymph Vessels are lined with a very thin layer of smooth muscle. Hence they can be activated to propel Lymph through them as well as create pressure and pull from the Interstitial Fluid.
Who knew there was so much to learn about this incredible system? And that was only the first part of the morning’s theory.
After a short break we continued with part 2 of the theory. Learning more about what Lymph Fluid is before beginning on techniques.
Did you know, Lymph fluid contains enzymes which don’t catalyse/work as quickly in cold weather, therefore the Lymphatic system can be more compromised during the winter months.
And having a healthy and functioning Lymphatic system can also help with other functions of the horse’s body such as:
Aiding Cellular communicaition
Aiding hormone synthesis
Transporting antibodies - aiding the body’s defence system
Aiding metabolism - assisting with metabolic disorders such as EMS & Laminitis
I was excited at this point to start learning techniques as having a clear understanding now of this incredible system and the numerous benefits of having a healthy Lymphatic System I wanted to know how I could start helping all the compromised horses I come across.
Racheal then went through a head to toe routine on a dog, as we were to practice on the dogs first.
The routine covers the whole of the body in a very specific order based on where the lymph nodes are in the body. It is imperative for a comprehensive and effective treatment to follow this routine and complete it in full. The routine is followed by limb & body mobilisations and movement to allow the system to flow and the body to eliminate the waste products. It is common for the animal to want to pee after treatment or sometimes during treatment to excrete the waste. And it is very important for the animal to have access to water to rehydrate during or after treatments.
My little dog Elsie loved the treatment and it was really interesting to see how around some scar tissue she has on her abdomen from an operation some time ago did have some Lymph pooling, which had completely gone after treatment. I hadn’t actually realised that the slight puffiness she had there was Lymph and that something could be done about it.
Following on from the dogs we went out to work on Jo’s horses and learn and practice the routine with them. Working in groups it was great to help each other, watch other therapists work and see the reactions from the horses and the changes in their bodies that were made through the session.
I worked on Jo’s horse Dan with some of the other ladies on the course and with the help of Rachael.
It wasn’t until we started working and really studying his body that we could see he did have areas of Lymph pooling, and as we worked through his body we could see areas draining and also other areas becoming ‘spongy’ where the Lymph was moving through.
A great example was his hind leg. As we moved the Lymph through the system his hind legs started to pool with Lymph. But as we then worked on the hind legs and started moving everything back towards the heart and Thoracic Ducts, the Lymph moved and drained. And true to form, as soon as we completed the session he was desperate to go off and have a wee.
Amazing!
I really enjoyed the whole day learning from Rachael and also spending the day with lots of other like minded therapists. There is always such a lovely calm and encouraging atmosphere at Rose Therapies, I really enjoy being there.
There is so much more I want to learn to help horses and I have plans to be back ay Rose Therapies a few more times this year for more learning. But in the meantime I look forward to adding Lymphatic Drainage sessions to my current practice.
Thank you for visiting my blog.
Jess