Anything but navicular?

[GreenEyedMonster]

To cut a long story short my horse has been referred to Pool House equine hospital for a lameness assessment, there was some talk of nerve blocks and x-rays and because she is lame without any obvious cause (she has been lame 6 weeks, intermittently and on both or either legs and no more than 5/10ths when it's at it's worst)

The physio and vet both think it's in her feet, she is a thoroughbred with a history of irregular shoeing and intermittent work so is a prime candidate for navicular. The farrier said the soles of her feet has small pits where some stones had dug in but he said that it would be no cause for lameness and not one person can find any heat or blemishes on her legs or feet.

I've been trying to look up possible causes and the only thing that appears time and time again is navicular.
Others include poor shoeing and hoof conformation, abscesses and laminitis.
It can't be laminitis as she is presenting with none of the obvious signs besides lameness and there's no reason why it could be.
I find it hard to believe it's a bad farrier as he serves most of the horses on our yard including other barefoot horses, thoroughbreds and international eventers and they haven't had any issues. Similarly i've always been told that even for a thoroughbred she has good strong feet.


Have i missed something?
Is there anything it could be that isn't navicular?

I'd be heartbroken if it is navicular and i've had such bad luck with horses i just can't believe we'd be dealt with yet another blow.

 

[Beausmate]

Is she shod at the moment?

 

[ester]

It's important to realise that navicular is really a bit of a catch all term that mostly ends up referring to soft tissue damage, most frequently in the back of the foot (only diagnosable by MRI)
are you aware whether she lands flat or toe first?
Have your own vets not done any nerve blocks to the feet?
Try not to worry too much until you have some diagnostics to help. If it is navicular plenty of them coming sound again out of shoes these days.

 

[FfionWinnie]

To be totally honest of all the things to go wrong in a horse especially if she's shod, navicular would be my best option! She can have strong feet according to the farrier and still have poor angles. Check out the Rockley farm blog and go for it would be my advice.

I'm just about to take my new warmblood BF. I've hummed and hawed because he has (hopefully!) got a busy season this year and I expect he will need studs. However I looked at his feet yesterday really carefully and despite them being described as good by the farrier there are things going on I don't see in my BF brigade and I don't very much like. He's also 10 and is unlikely to have ever had a break from shoeing. So as he's due to be shod soon I decided just to get them off. Even if he has a couple of months out of shoes I believe that is a good thing. Of course I would prefer he need never be shod again but as he is a 17hh WB and I am aiming to event him this year, I'm not going to make any long term plans until I see how we get on!

Taking the shoes off horses is nearly never going to be a bad thing for them.

 

[stencilface]

Navicular is an umbrella term for a variety of issues with different grades of damage.

Mine had similar symptoms to yours and was diagnosed with ddft damage in both feet. He had 'great feet' according to my farrier, based mainly on his good walls and the fact that he kept shoes on well! In reality he had contracted heels, deep sulcus and a flat thin sole. It's taken a while to get him sound (we also had SI issues) but now he's working well on hacks and schooling. I let him pick his way across stony ground, but on the right feed (currently high fibre nuts, speedibeet, oats, pro balance, magnesium, linseed) he's doing well, I think! I hope to jump again next year in the summer, already doing some on the lunge.

He went to rockley in January this year, and hasn't had his feet trimmed or touched since his last set of shoes went on December 2015.