Equine Sports Medicine & Surgery in Tioga, Texas
Horse Show Veterinarian | On-Site Care | Mid-South Equine
Welcome to our Equine Veterinary Clinic, where we specialize in sports medicine and surgery for your beloved horses. Our services include advanced diagnostic imaging such as standing MRI and bone scans, as well as lameness rehabilitation and soft tissue care. With in labs and pre-purchase examinations, we ensure your horse receives the highest quality of care. Trust us to keep your equine athlete healthy and performing at their best!
Mid-South Equine is the only equine facility within two hours of Tioga offering standing MRI, traditional MRI, and nuclear scintigraphy. Owners haul to us from across DFW, Oklahoma, and East Texas specifically for this imaging — because for certain injuries, nothing else gives you the answer.
Standing MRI & Bone Scan for Horses
North Texas | Tioga, TX
When MRI Is the Right Choice
The most common scenario is this: your horse blocks sound to the foot, and the radiographs come back clean.
That used to be where the workup ended — a shrug, a shot of joint medication, and a hope that it holds. The problem is that radiographs only show bone, and the structures most likely to be injured inside a hoof are soft tissue. They're invisible on X-ray.
MRI shows what radiographs cannot:
-
Deep digital flexor tendon lesions within the hoof capsule
-
Collateral ligament injuries of the coffin joint
-
Navicular bursa inflammation and adhesions
-
Bone bruising and subchondral edema
-
Impar and distal sesamoidean ligament damage
-
Early degenerative change before it appears on X-ray
MRI is also the right call when a horse has failed to respond to treatment aimed at a presumed diagnosis. If joint injections haven't worked, it's worth confirming the target was correct.
Why Standing MRI Matters
Our standing MRI is performed on a sedated but conscious, weight-bearing horse.
That means no general anesthesia, no anesthetic risk, no recovery period, and no waiting for a horse to get back on its feet. Most patients go home the same day.
It also means the limb is imaged under load — the way it actually functions. A structure that looks normal with the foot hanging free can reveal its injury when it's bearing weight.
Standing MRI images the foot, pastern, fetlock, and lower limb. For regions higher up the limb, we use traditional MRI under general anesthesia.
When a Bone Scan Is the Better Tool
Nuclear scintigraphy images the entire skeleton at once, identifying areas of active bone remodeling and inflammation. It's a survey tool rather than a detail tool — it tells you where to look.
Choose bone scan when:
-
The lameness shifts between limbs or is bilateral
-
The horse won't localize to diagnostic blocks
-
You suspect pelvic, sacroiliac, or spinal involvement
-
Performance has declined without an obvious lameness
-
You need to survey broadly before deciding where to image in detail
Bone scan routinely finds upper limb, pelvic, and back problems that no amount of distal limb blocking will ever reveal. Horses stay overnight following the procedure for radioisotope clearance.
What to Expect Before:
Bring prior radiographs, ultrasound, and records — including work done by your regular veterinarian. Shoes generally need to come off for foot MRI; we'll tell you when you schedule. Coggins required.During: Your horse is sedated and positioned in the magnet. Imaging takes roughly 60 to 90 minutes per region depending on the sequences needed.After: We review the study and go over the findings with you. You'll receive a full report and images, and if your regular veterinarian referred the case, we send those to them as well.