Would you nerve a navicular horse?

[Nestor]

[QUOTE=vxf111;8039313]
I think people might be shocked to know how many horses are out there competing, some at high levels, with partial neurectomies. During a discussion once with a team vet, he intimated that one of the olympic eventing horses had a neurectomy. This is one of those things with sich a stigma that you never hear about the “success” stories because people are ashamed to admit it.[/QUOTE]

My vet has told me essentially the same thing, that there are far more horses out there than you realize who are competing at the top levels who have had neurectomies, and no one would ever know because it’s not publicized.

[IPEsq]

Very true. The one we bought hadn’t had the nerving disclosed. We figured it out later. He’d been packing around in the Ch/AA jumpers.

A friend of mine had a neurectomy for Morton’s neuroma. She certainly has feeling left in the majority of her foot. It’s my understanding as well that horses with neurectomy for navicular disease don’t have full loss of feeling in the feet.

[beau159]

[QUOTE=SportingSun;8038184]

Have bursa injections been tried? [/QUOTE]

I haven’t gotten through all the posts yet, but I just wanted to comment on this.

If anyone tries bursa injections, make sure the vet goes through the FRONT. I’ve had them done for my horse with one of the best vets in the region. He told me that if you inject from BEHIND (going through the tendon in the process) then you’ve got less than 2 years on your horse before that foot is done. Dead lame. Destroyed. He says they’ve never figured out what exactly it is that causes it but must have something to do with the high concentration that gets into the area or that it goes through the tendon, or something to that effect. He says he will only go from behind on an aged horse where the owner just wants one more year with them. For anything else, you’ve got to go in through the front.

Just an FYI.

[WNT]

I’m personally iffy about nerving as I have a friend who lost a horse (before we met) to an abscess that formed in the heel on a nerved foot. By the time she realized what was going on, the infection had gotten into his coffin joint and they weren’t able to save him.

And, just out of sheer curiosity, as I see the horse seems to be in northern Virginia, has he been tested for Lyme? I doubt it would directly cause front-leg lameness, but if he’s sore enough elsewhere, he could be doing some crazy compensating.

[Kyrabee]

I think you need to be sure what lesion you are wanting to affect with the nerving.
You said you had an MRI…what did it show?

My friend had a young (4) strapping WB that she sent to the trainer to back and he came back lame. Local vet was able to get horse enrolled in a study at WSU so my friend shipped him up there. MRI showed tears in both impair ligaments (left foot > right foot). Her first inclination was to euthanize right then as she had been doing the special shoes/stall rest/BF route already. Her insurance said they wouldn’t pay out on mortality but would pay for de-nerving (on her major medical). She went against her gut and had him de-nerved (bilateral). It lasted about 3 months. In that 3 months that he didn’t hurt he ran around like crazy. Young exuberant horse. He totally tore the impair on the left in that time and then was dead lame again, probably with some coffin bone rotation or DDFT injury or both. By the time she declared she was going to euthanize, the insurance would still not pay out on mortality as it was > 1 year since the original injury. She told the insurance company to bugger off and euthanized him which she wished she had done 6 months earlier. This particular lesion (torn impar ligaments) is not one that nerving is good for. It turned into a degenerative issue when he was no longer in pain. Oh, his mortality policy was for $6500. The insurance probably paid out $10,000 on this $6500 horse. Kind of crazy.

If the x-rays & MRI showed no lesions, I don’t know how they came up with a diagnosis of navicular. Me, I would probably opt for a trial of 24/7 turnout for a year…barefoot if possible and then euthanization would be the next step if Dr. Green didn’t solve the issue.

Susan

[GraceLikeRain]

@ASB Stars;8039194

I would do a chemical neurotomy first. Depending on the drug you use, and the horse, you can get 30-45 days out of it, and it would give you a good chance to evaluate how your horse handles it, and how effective it is.

I am VERY interested in hearing about this. I am facing a situation where I have a 4 year old with substantial navicular changes in both front feet, no tendon or soft tissue damage yet, arthritic changes in both hocks, and weak stifles.

There are so many moving pieces but in theory it would be incredible to give him a 30-45 day discomfort break to evaluate his disposition without foot pain and try to strengthen his hind end.

[Duramax]

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[Duramax]

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[vxf111]

I had not heard of a chemical option that lasts a full 30-45 days. I’d also like to hear.

[ljo]

Cryogenics & Navicular

Do they still do cryogenics for navicular? My x had a navicular horse and he would freeze him with cryogenics. The treatment was cheap, fast, noninvasive and would last 9 months to a year. I don’t hear about it anymore so why would they stop such a great alternative to “nerving”?