Looking for some different suggestions on how to fix a horse that is lame with navicular disease.
Thanks
What steps have you taken to date? Need more info! Been dealing with navicular issues, too, and pony is better, but then, every horse is different.
Right now he has actually been out on lease for the past year doing pre childrens but he comes back at the end of the month. I know all they did was inject him a few times but if he dosnt get injected he is dead lame
http://www.equisearch.com/uncategorized/navicular-disease-horses/
found this to be a very interesting article in light of new diagnostics that are available to really get to the actual problem. May be helpful to look a little deeper if you haven’t already. Good Luck.
Did they have radiographs done? What measures were taken to diagnose him as navicular? Is it truly navicular, or just some kind of heel pain that can’t be pinpointed so the vet just slapped "“navicular” on him?
Even if there are radiographs, get them done again - in fact, get a full lameness workup by your own vet. Then, with fresh radiographs in hand, find a farrier that has experience working with this type of issue (navicular disease, navicular syndrome, caudal heel pain syndrome). Working with an experienced farrier should be the first step, because it is likely that there is some kind of imbalance in the hoof that is causing the wrong type of leverage points - negative palmar angle of the coffin bone, for example, is often found in horses that exhibit navicular type symptoms. Corrective shoeing can realign these structures and give the soft tissues time to heal.
But without a full workup by a vet and radiographs (maybe even an MRI if you have the funds and the horse is worth it) will tell you and your farrier where to go. Just injecting may not fix the problem, although it is useful to know that he is sound with injections. Just a word of caution - the horse may never be “fixed” or it may take years of time and effort and money. There is a very good change that the horse will be comfortable for many years to come, but will require special attention to his feet for the rest of his life.
Uh, yeah, he needs a full workup with you vet, and he needs to be treated. If he’s “dead lame,” as you said, then he definitely doesn’t need to be jumping.
I had my navicular horse nerved. I know it is a somewhat controversial treatment option and isn’t the way to go for everyone, but it worked for us.
You really can’t “fix” navicular…if he really has the condition. It’s degenerative -meaning gets worse over time. But there are a whole lot of conditions that get lumped into the " navicular" bucket so you need the vet work up and new pictures to diagnose the exact issues and recommend treatment.
You can often mitigate the damage and slow down the progression as well as do things to ease the pain but it’s not going to go away. It comes back as you have seen.
I suggest you do your own research and learn as much as you can about managing navicular and understand it may not be in this horse’s best interests to continue to jump. How much medication, injections and pain killers to keep it going varies with severity and owners decisions for the well being of the horse. Please educate yourself and speak to your vet.
[QUOTE=findeight;7262347]
You really can’t “fix” navicular…if he really has the condition. It’s degenerative -meaning gets worse over time. But there are a whole lot of conditions that get lumped into the " navicular" bucket so you need the vet work up and new pictures to diagnose the exact issues and recommend treatment.
You can often mitigate the damage and slow down the progression as well as do things to ease the pain but it’s not going to go away. It comes back as you have seen.
I suggest you do your own research and learn as much as you can about managing navicular and understand it may not be in this horse’s best interests to continue to jump. How much medication, injections and pain killers to keep it going varies with severity and owners decisions for the well being of the horse. Please educate yourself and speak to your vet.[/QUOTE]
This.
Also, my (limited) experience with navicular is that many horses will develop a dirty stop over time when asked to jumped with the condition, even with proper maintenance. I can imagine the anticipation of pain upon the landing just gets too much.
Like others have said, the horse should be diagnosed by a vet, then treatments and shoeing discussed.
But I know one horse who went from grade 1 lame to sound using Isoxsuprine and front eggbars with wedge pads.
Yeah, I had one too. But OP describes “dead lame” and that’s a 4/5 out of 5 not a grade 1 like this example or mine. And those shoes cost like heck and did not stay on so good…and forget it in the mud.
[QUOTE=findeight;7262405]
Yeah, I had one too. But OP describes “dead lame” and that’s a 4/5 out of 5 not a grade 1 like this example or mine. And those shoes cost like heck and did not stay on so good…and forget it in the mud.[/QUOTE]
I missed the dead lame part.
In that case I’d want to know exactly what is wrong with the horse. Just seeing if the horse blocks sound and getting a set of x rays would be a start.
Get him home , get radiographs, and discuss with your vet. Caveat: Get as much info as you can regarding past Rx.
Try pulling the shoes and letting him have time off. A woman who I boarded with told me her neighbors show horse would not stay sound with expensive shoes so they retired him. Pulled the shoes and 6 months later horse was sound and stayed sound
Tildren seems to be a very exciting drug in the field of navicular and degenerative diseases. Navicular is a broad subject. I agree, get pictures. Pads may help but this horse really should not jump any more IMO. I leased a horse for several years that has slowly lost his battle w/ “navicular” but he is 20 now and will live out his years as a therapy horse. He’s in pads and seems to be holding his own with light to moderate work.
Like findeight said - you cannot fix navicular. However you can have your vet do xrays and give you direction on shoeing and medications.
I have a horse that had navicular when I got him. He had been nerved by previous owners. I had x rays done then and managed him with shoeing, then time off with barefoot and turn out. It worked well until he developed ring bone five years later. The interesting thing was the xrays showed the ringbone but the navicular xray was the same as the five years prior xrays. He had the additional vascular channels (navicular)
My other horse had been diagnosed with navicular as well but this was where the navicular bone had calcified… in xrays was a solid white color.
So far the best course of action for my horses has been bar shoes, pads, large stalls so they can move around at will and the recently new medication Previcox. (this is great stuff)
So once you discuss this with your vet a course of action can be taken and only your horse will tell you if it is working or not.
Good luck and I am very sorry about your horse…
Lots of new treatments out there, that will aid in some relief - however, ask yourself whether its fair to continue regular work on a horse whose body is failing, or if its better to find a maintenance program and have him sound as long as possible in lighter work. They are often stoic creatures and don’t show us how sore they really are.
When my gelding was diagnosed with Navicular, I strongly felt it was unfair to continue jumping. In hindsight, there were probably signs of pain jumping (getting quick, ears back, but never complaining or acting up). He responded well to regular, lighter work.
I put him in egg bar shoes against the recommendations of one of the veterinarians (he cited poor shock absorption, additional concussion). I don’t know which vet was right or wrong, but I wish I had transitioned him to going barefoot instead. He caught the egg bar shoe in turnout and was very lame. I pulled his shoes and let him limp around a field barefoot. With the injury, the navicular, and transitioning to no shoes, it took maybe 15 months for him to recover. He’s sound most days now, so semi-retirement may actually be in his future so he doesn’t become a porker.
No answers here, maybe some food for thought, though.
[QUOTE=hunterjumperx12;7261832]
Looking for some different suggestions on how to fix a horse that is lame with navicular disease.
Thanks[/QUOTE]
What does your vet say ?
[QUOTE=hunterjumperx12;7261842]
I know all they did was inject him a few times but if he doesnt get injected he is dead lame[/QUOTE]
Inject him with what ?
