Nerving-COTH article

I read an article a few months ago about how nerving has become more common with horses as a last resort. I thought it was a COTH article but I can’t find it. Anyway I understood from reading the article that nerving has become more widely used and safer BUT it is not a cure. I thought a horse that has been nerved would have to step down to a much easier job and be closely monitored. Is that accurate?

I have no experience with a nerved for navicular horse. But from what I have heard no, they don’t need to step down.
My QH had a pasture accident about 3 years ago and nerved himself. He basically did exactly what they do to the navicular horses, but on one foot, and without removing nerve but just severing it. It took about 6 months for him to get full feeling back in the foot. During that time I competed and rode as normal.

I don’t know that it’s any more common now. Whether or not a nerved horse needs to step down depends entirely on the job the horse has, the underlying issue, and the ethics of the owner. Jumping cross country and intense trail riding on varied footing should probably be out no matter what. Working in an arena on groomed footing will depend on the nature of the underlying issue and the risks to the horse posed by that issue. For example, bone rubbing on soft tissue in the rear half of the hoof (which the horse now can’t feel if it worsens), poses a risk of catastrophic failure. To me, that horse should be retired.

Agree! A horse with soundness issues severe enough to require nerving should be retired.

Neurectomy for hind suspensory injuries has become more common.

I assumed a horse would need to step down. This article made it sound like it has become more common and able to be more precisely done as opposed to vet practices from 20 years ago. I did discuss nerving a horse back in 2000 but was told 50% of cases have the nerves grow back in two years and if the horse does not block sound, it won’t be successful. The only reason I considered it was to give the horse a more comfortable life but no heavy work or competitions.

Very true, although this is a bit of a different story, for two reasons. First, these are typically done not to relieve the pain of the injury, but because the nerve is trapped in a small space with the proximal suspensory, and if the suspensory heals with any scar tissue or increased thickness, it will compress the nerve causing pain long after the injury is healed. Second, the only the a horse can’t feel is the top 1-2" of the suspensory ligament.

Yes it was a COTH article, in the Care Issue, I believe.

I think the reason most people “step down” is 1) the horse doesn’t have complete feeling of its foot, so there is some danger of them being less aware of their feet, and 2) you aren’t healing the damage, so if you don’t help protect the horse from further damage, they are going to be in much worse shape after the nerves come back. You can’t keep nerving them forever.

I had a horse that was indefinitely sore from large side bones. Everything else on the MRI was clean. I nerved in 2011 and the horse went on to continue his successful career as a 3’6 and international derby hunter. He was a lease horse for several years and is now retired to flat work sound.

As said previously it depends on why you’re nerving and what the underlying issue is.

It’s not one size fits all.

I had a horse with navicular who I nerved. He was only doing low level hunter work at the time and that’s what he did after. He never was ridden hard/long/on difficult terrain (before or after). The bony degeneration inside the hoof was going to happen with or without the nerving-- the only difference was whether he was going to feel it. There was nothing that could be done to stop/slow/prevent it-- it was a slow degenerative process (Osphos/Tildren was not yet available in the US at this time).

I got 2+ good years out of the nerving. He was comfortable, sound, and exactly the horse he was before the navicular began to degenerate.

When the nerves regrew, it was time to retire him due to other bony changes and cushings/laminitis-- all unrelated to the original navicular/nerving. So I retired him and he lived at my house. He was 18 and he deserved to take a break.

After a few years into retirement, when he was 20, Osphos/Tildren became available. I did 4 rounds of Osphos. After the first it was like a miracle-- he was basically SOUND. I didn’t want to push it due to his age and other issues, so he remained retired-- but I probably could have done light riding at that point. The second round of Osphos 6 months later was the same-- a miracle. The third round I saw improvement but not to the same degree. The fourth round didn’t really do anything.

I babied him and maintained him as best as I could on Adequan/Pentosan/bute/prevocixx until the pain became too much. I euthanized him a few months ago.

I wouldn’t buy another horse knowing it had navicular (I bought his horse at age 8 and at the time he did not have navicular changes on his x-ray. He did have another bony lesion in the foot that NEVER caused ANY problem so there you go!) If I had one with navicular and NO SOFT TISSUE COMPLICATIONS I would absolutely nerve or consider Osphos/Tildren. I am a little scared of using the Osphos/Tildren on a young horse, but on an aged one-- absolutely. I would nerve a horse again under similar circumstances. It bought him several pain free years. And there was no difference between nerving him and retiring him or nerving him and riding him-- once the pain was gone the pain was gone. What was happening inside the hoof was going to happen exactly the same way either way.

Would I have trail ridden him for 5+ hours every day on rocky terrain or gone prelim cross country-- no. Could he do the 2’6-3’ hunter job-- absolutely.

Why does everything I post get marked as unapproved @Moderator 1

I received a message that you quoted me and then it said I didn’t have access. Weird.

Is it literally every post? Or more than normal?

Right now, the spam filter seems to be more sensitive to people editing their posts, for example…not sure if that applies to your situation or not. Lots of links can trigger it, but that doesn’t apply to the post in this thread. Possibly all of the medication names? It does seem random sometimes.

We’re in the midst of re-building the site on a brand-new platform instead of vBulletin, so that software will have it’s own anti-spam algorithms I’m sure we’ll have to tweak. In the meantime, I think we’re going to be in a holding pattern with what we have going on with the current site, so they can focus their tech resources on getting the new site up and running.

Sorry for the inconvenience!

The past few days it is any post longer than a sentence or two, I think?

I do like to write and edit my posts as I go. I am guilty of that!

I rarely include links.

Re: original post!

Now with the use of MRI, veterinarians can be more selective, and accurate in placement in the use of blocks.

Also comparing foot nerving and nerving of the superficial suspensory tendon is comparing apples and oranges.

But Yes, foot blocks do require intelligent management.