The equine medicine group comprises internal medicine and sports medicine. Clinicians involved in this area are Veronica Roberts (internal medicine) and Kate Allen (sports medicine). Sanne Wilmink is the clinical training scholar in equine medicine.
Veronica joined the department in October 2010 with a research background in headshaking in horses. Headshaking in many cases is suspected to be due a neuropathic facial syndrome, with many similarities to trigeminal neuralgia in people. With people reporting trigeminal neuralgia to cause the worst possible pain known to man, it is vital that we move forwards with finding causes, methods of diagnosis, and treatments for headshaking in horses. Whilst undertaking her residency at the University of Liverpool, Veronica was involved in developing a novel surgical technique for headshaking. Currently she is working with Sanne to validate a diagnostic method which uses local anaesthetic around the suspected affected nerve. An interest in pain and pain management has lead to the current planning of a study comparing the efficacy of 2 different non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in horses undergoing routine castration.