Love your horses LYMPH

Horses are amazing to watch and observe, but sitting just below the skin surface is an intricate, delicate and often forgotten system of the body – the equine lymphatic system.

Intertwined through the horses body from the superficial layers to the deep internal organs the lymphatic system heavily supports the circulatory, digestive, muscular and immune systems.

The main functions of the lymphatic system are:

• Drain away excess fluid and returns it to the bloodstream.

• Absorb and transport fats

• Filter out waste

• Identify harmful pathogens

As blood is moved through the body in veins and arteries moving into blood capillaries, tissue fluid is released, bathing all the cells of the body. The tissue fluid is vital for the delivery of oxygen and nutrients for the cells. The cells uptake what they require, and majority of the fluid is returned to the blood and taken by the veins to the heart.

This diagram highlights that just below the epidermis (the weird little squares with dots on them) the lymphatic capillaries are just below the skin. Too much pressure pauses or reduces the amount of lymph (lymphatic fluid) being transported at the time. The red to blue line is the circulatory system, the red is the artery, and the blue is the vein.

The crazy little black squiggle lines are called anchoring filaments, and these cool kids connect the membrane of the endothelial cells to surrounding elastic fibers, guiding the extra cellular fluid into the lymphatic system.

When applying manual lymphatic drainage, we go down the legs!

Horses have a poor venous return. This means that interstitial fluid finds it easier to move down the legs but struggles to come back up.

Horses that aren’t able to walk around as much, travelling often, have scarring on their legs or recovering from surgery are more likely to have swelling occur.

When stocking up occurs in the legs, the lymphatic vessels are already stretched and not working effectively. Manual lymphatic drainage stimulates from the lymph nodes to the pre-collectors, allowing vessels that are working a gentle little wake-up call to help the team remove the excess fluid.

Remaining fluid is referred to as extracellular fluid and contains cell debris, or cells that are too large for the blood capillaries is taken up by the lymphatic system. When the extra fluid is not able to be moved away, swelling occurs.

Swelling because of the extracellular fluid is harmful to the body, it contains excess proteins that become harmful to the body. The lymphatic vessels move lymphatic fluid (lymph) by a lymphangion contraction and only contract 5-7 per minute.

The circulatory system has the heart as a pump the lymphatic system does not and the movement of lymph is also supported by general movement of the body such as movement and breathing.

Horses that are not able to move as much as they need, the movement of lymph is reduced increasing the chances of swelling to occur. The swelling can become chronic leading to issues such as cellulitis or chronic progressive lymphodema. Both of these conditions cause irreversible damage to the lymphatic structures of the leg.

The lymphatic system can be supported by walking horses that are on box rest or have been travelling, grooming, manual lymphatic drainage and supporting compressive stockings.

Manual lymphatic drainage is a technique that supports the physiology and anatomy of the lymphatic system by the correct application of pressure and directional movements. Used commonly in Germany, manual lymphatic drainage is working with the body to help remove waste.

The lymphatic system is vital for overall health and general well being, but once it has been compromised or damaged it has very little capacity to heal.

The main lymph nodes are spread throughout the horses body. The majority of the nodes are in the cervical (neck) region, but they are also found along the digestive system.

The lymphatic system is designed to help remove waste products and harmful pathogens as well as pick up interstitial fluid.

These hard-working nodes are sensitive and can become overworked when there is an infection in the body or there is too much excess fluid in the area (odema).

Equine Lymphatic Grooming

Using your horses favourite brush start at 1 and brush in the correlating direction. Each stroke 5-7 times.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR – Mel Rowe

Based in WA and lover of all things lymph, Melany Rowe specialises in Equine Lymphatic Treatments and Remedial Therapies. Mel also runs workshops on Equine Kinesiology Taping, Equine Touching Tools and Equine Lymphatic Therapy throughout all states of Australia.

Two workshops coming up in NSW soon!

For more info: Phone: 0488 009 190

Email: mel@meltlymphatics.com

Visit: www.meltlymphatics.com