I don’t know exactly what ASB_stars used, but alcohol is pretty commonly used. It lasts about 3 months.
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Thank you! I had tried searching on it a while ago and never got very far. Definitely something to discuss with my vet.
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We used the drug Serapin, which has been around for years. Initially, I felt like we got 4-6 weeks where it was clearly active. Ultimately, it went to almost two months. I do not remember the cost- this was over 25 years ago. I do not remember it being expensive for either the drug, or having my Vet come out and inject him.
I just can’t imagine doing a surgical neurotomy without trying this first. I’ve known horses that have been nerved forever, but there can be issues with the surgery, and I’ve heard of problems with the nerve endings.
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To show that he is NOT ready for euthanasia.
If you’re looking to twist words and pick a fight, look elsewhere. Have a good day.
This is precisely where I am at. He is one of those million dollar horses that I can put my child on and not have a single worry because he’s going to take care of them.
The video I posted is pretty much the extent of his workload. Trotting for about one minute.
True.
Yes, of course he’s been blocked; several times. It is his feet.
Kind of. I guess my theory is to try to judge how much a single therapy seems to help, if things are added one at a time. So that’s my thought process there.
Tell me more about the ISOX. I was not aware of this nor have tried this.
Thank you for the story. My vet and my farrier are in two different locations but they do know each other well. My vet is actually married to a different farrier (who is also amazing) but he’s too busy with farming/ranching that he doesn’t provide farrier services to the public anymore, unless his wife convinces him to put something really unique for a unique lameness issue, get the horse better, then “graduate” the horse to their regular farrier.
Fortunately, my farrier has the same level of expertise and he can do anything complex that is needed. Trust me when I say I probably have the best farrier in the whole state. I’m pretty lucky.
Because of my other gelding with issues and his special shoing needs, we are at the farrier every 5 to 6 weeks (usually 5) And I’m not making special trips for my other two horses so everyone is on that cycle.
Thank you for sharing this.
I have NOT heard of this chemical option. (I see your other response above.)
THANK YOU for sharing this. Certainly more questions to ask my vet(s). That would seem like a way better trial option before the real thing, if shoes are not giving him success later this year.
He will still be kid appropriate. 
He’s the type of horse that will do whatever you ask, without hesitation, no matter what.
One time (several years ago before his hock injury), I tried a new Shoulder Relief Cinch on him. He’s got a pretty well sprung ribcage and I thought it might be better for him. We did our 4 or 5 mile ride as usual, I got off him, and then discovered it had literally CUT into him on both sidesand created horrible, horrible saddle sores. I was mortified!!! That horse never let on during the ride. Nothing. He rode exactly the same as he always does.
Talk about a heart of gold when the cinch is cutting into you and you just keep on going anyway. He truly is special.
This what I have been told too. Sometimes they last for years, and years, and years. And sometimes you maybe get 4 months.
Right?!?1? Maddening. 
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Especially considering the cut by the new girth information
So he sounds pretty stoic, but he’s saying his feet hurt.
Which is really saying something considering his demonstrated stoicism.
Same, I’m not riding or letting a kid ride a nerved horse, one foot put wrong, one trip… can end very badly.
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Xanthoria isnt one who does this.
She offered her opinion and advice which you asked for.
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I understand you have the best farrier in your area and are considering a new/ different shoeing package (that he’s currently barefoot).
IME farriers can come highly recommended (by vets and high performance barns alike) and still be missing a piece of the puzzle, or not have the knowledge and/ or expertise to handle difficult cases despite claiming or believing they do. This is not to say this is your case with your farrier, but I always value second (third, fourth, as many as possible) opinions when a case gets complicated or seems to be plateaued and think you may get some valuable feedback if you share some photos of his hooves here. Same goes for any X-rays you have of his hooves. Not all vets are created equal at reading or even taking X-rays (anecdotally, I’ve had a horse be declared to have a career ending knee injury go on to never have an issue with it and was cleared by another vet - both lameness specialists, or a bone infection that was missed entirely by one vet at a clinic to be called a few hours later by another vet at the same clinic tell me to rush her to the hospital).
I am sorry you are going through this with your horse, hoof issues can be complicated and frustrating to say the least.
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Not statistically valid; but anecdotal:
My BFF had her beloved, lovely, rock solid show horse nerved after running out of treatment options for him. (More limited then - early 90s.) Also an AQHA, with the kind of QH confo that predisposes to navicular.
He was functionally sound for YEARS after that. She leased him to a local show barn and he happily carted kids around the 2’ local division for awhile, then she retired him at home. He lived to be 31.
His nerves did not grow, he did not develop neuromas, and he was a happy guy.
Her options other than the nerving were euthanasia, retiring as pasture unsound or keeping him on a high dose of bute until he developed ulcers. Before Equioxx and Adequan were available. (BTW, I have found Equioxx to be helpful with early navicular type lameness, not so much with advanced.)
In your situation, with an otherwise healthy 17 yo that is the perfect mount for your daughter, I would be tempted to try the neurectomy. If it buys you a couple more years for your daughter, and a pain free retirement, I think it will be worth it.
I’m sure you know the disclaimers - has to have feet checked/picked regularly.
ETA: this was the partial/low neurectomy, where only the back third of the foot is affected. The horse can absolutely be turned out safely, and ridden safely. Would I foxhunt a nerved horse? Probably not. Showing in groomed footing and light trail riding? Sure. They still “know where their feet are.” I can only imagine the procedure has improved since my experience in the late 80s.
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You know, another thing to look at for your guy may be whether or not there is not some underlying metabolic disease at play too. It sounds like x-rays of the foot are a reasonable first step, and shoes are a cheap thing to try in the scheme of things horse-related. Nerving would be a last-ditch attempt for me, and certainly not for a riding horse.
I understand not wanting to put shoes on what is basically a retired horse. We had to put shoes on our barefoot-for-life AQHA when he was 20 or so. Looking back, this was one of the earliest symptoms of Cushings coming into play with him, but that wasn’t caught until a year later when he went from airfern to difficult to keep weight on.
So yeah, even though he’s retired and might humor my SO with one trail ride a year, he lives in shoes. He’s also toothless, needs his own special soaked mash 4x a day, can’t eat hay, and is perennially looking for new ways to avoid his Prascend pill. But he’s worth it.
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Equioxx is a Cox-2 inhibitor and an anti-inflammatory. It’s not terribly accurate to call it a painkiller. It specifically works a certain kind of arthritic inflammation. A horse that is still lame while getting daily Equioxx needs better diagnostics and treatment.
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Finally, I am curious that a couple of posters say their vets “refuse” to do the procedure?
Is that a refusal to refer you to a surgical hospital, or a refusal to do the surgery themselves?
I would not be at all surpised if the latter, would be very surprised if the former.
My understanding is that the procedure needs to be done under full sedation, on a tilt table, in a sterile operating suite.
Not something to be done standing or in a clinic setting.
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Here’s another out-there idea based upon my personal experience with menopausal arthritis:
Vioxx and Celebrex didn’t do much for me, but diclofenac sodium (Voltaren) DID. It is a very old drug, not a cox-2 inhibitor. I know they market it for horses topically as Surpass, and for people as Voltaren OTC.
But I took it orally. I just wonder if that is an option for horses instead of bute/equioxx for pain relief.
(And following up to that, I started taking 8g ALA in Spectrum Flax Oil (1 TBS) because at that level it is anti-inflammatory and I was able to drop the diclofenac sodium after a few months. The equivalent that worked for my horse was Horseshine, as it had 21+ g omega 3s. In fact it was my horse’s results that led me to try it!)
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Funny, @BlueDrifter, I had exactly the same experience. Vioxx stopped working for me, Diclofenac and Tramadol have been my go tos for forever.
No idea if it’s approved for equine use.
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As usual here, a ton of pearl-clutching here and hand-wringing about what is a fairly common and relatively safe procedure. Many, many years ago, my childhood eventing horse had ongoing lameness that blocked at one side of the heel when he was 8yo. He had a honking large sidebone on that side. We consulted Marty Simensen, then the USET eventing team vet, who recommended a neurectomy. He said that a number of upper level horses were running around with zero problems many years after nerving. We nerved the horse on that one side. He immediately moved better than he ever had the entire time we owned him. He did develop a neuroma, which was injected with a steroid once and was nbd. He regained sensation on the heel/skin surface but not in any of the deeper structures. The horse never had a problem, evented novice/training for years was humanely put down when he was 30 due to age issues.
Not too long ago, my aged AA hunter developed a very slight LF lameness. She had a honking huge sidebone which is what the vet initially suspected was the issue but she did not block out completely on that side and upon x ray decided to inject her coffin joints, which completely remedied the issue. The vet, a renowned lameness specialist and surgeon, said if it had been the sidebone the best option would be neurectomy and she would be fine to return to her 2’6-3’ job.
All of that said, I’d try to manage it with shoeing and isoxuprene before going the nerving route, but I’d take your trusted vet’s advice over the COTH “you should just put him down” mob.
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If they just snip, yes. Any surgeon worth their salt will remove an inch or so of the nerve so it cannot regrow.
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My vet refused to refer me to UC Davis for the surgery when my old TB’s career ended at age 15 due to lameness. He’s well connected to some of the best vets in the world and told me clearly that it had the potential to cause more harm than good - even for a retired horse, who he said could no longer be turned out much less ridden if nerved. I put the horse down at 23 after a lovely long pasture retirement, albeit on pain killers for some of it. The horse was happy to gallop around with the herd until he slowed down in his last year.
It’s worth noting that in the UK it’s against the rules compete in recognized dressage or to race a nerved horse, as well as racing a nerved horse in AZ and probably other states. You can’t compete any nerved horse in Germany, and the FEI bans nerved horses with limb sensitivity from competing too. I’m sure there are more. My point is: I believe Europe and the UK to generally be ahead of the USA in terms of animal welfare legislation, and that is the direction the world will go in, not the other way. Many people may still believe “it’s OK if I can get a vet to do it” and many vets will say “if I don’t do it, someone else will” so neurectomies still happen.
@wanderlust Dr Simensen passed away in 1995 so he would have been practicing in the 80s? Possibly thinking on neurectomy has changed in the last 40 years? I’m glad you had good luck with it but perhaps it depends on exactly what and where it’s applied.
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My clinic has a full equine surgery suite. They don’t do the procedure. I’d like to believe they might make an exception for some sort of unusual case like a pregnant broodmare that had no other options but I’m just speculating on that.
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He saw my horse in 1993 or 94. He passed away at age 65 and I believe was still practicing. However it was just last year that the other vet, who focuses sports medicine for the top hunters, jumpers and dressage horses in Wellington, suggested nerving as a viable alternative for my older horse.
Your vet is entitled to his opinion, but it is pretty out of touch with reality. You have to manage them, but to say they can’t be turned out or ridden is absurd.
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A horse at the barn where I board had a neurectomy a couple of years ago and vet said that he could only be on solo turnout in a small paddock. Our barn isn’t really set up for that, and he ended up moving soon afterwards, so I don’t know how things went longer term.
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