Bad news navicular

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cazzaroogie

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Hi I have just had some news on my old horse who I sold about 4years ago. He has navicular in his front feet. The girl who has him is lightly hacking him out at moment and he has special shoes on. I am considering taking him back to just be retired. Does anyone know much about navicular as I dont. The girl who has him is going to have him put down if he gets worse and cant be ridden. I dont know what the best thing to do for him is. Any advice be very appreciated!! xxx
 
As far i know there are different severities of it, Someone i know her horse has it, so she hacks him now, still shows him and does riding club horse classes etc, it hasnt affected him at all, he isnt lame at all, but one at college goes dog lame every now and again, their are some tablet things you can give them, i heard the vet talking to an instructor about it, best thing to do is ask vet and see where to go from their. x
 
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The girl who has him is going to have him put down if he gets worse and cant be ridden. I dont know what the best thing to do for him is. Any advice be very appreciated!!

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How terribly sad. There are things that can be done, supportive shoeing - medication to help with the pain.

But like the girl that has him - I would be looking at pts ultimately if nothing can be done. Far kinder than letting him be in pain.
 
My mum's horse has had Navicular for years and years. She is now mostly retired but we can still walk and trot her in the school now and again to give her something to do.

You can put them on Bute in order to mask the lameness but nothing can cure the problem. We haven't used Bute yet as it's not something you can do long term (damages the liver).
We would rather she has a nice long retirement with us than than be ridden with Bute and have a shorter life span. It's competely a personal choice though.
 
Thanks for your advice it so hard to decide what to do. I would feel so bad if I let him be put down if he could be not in pain so much if he retired. I not bothered about not being able to ride him, I have 2 others to do that.
 
It depends on how advanced it is I had a horse on a 6 month trial I had heard storys that he was going lame all the time but the owners insited it was jealousy I thought nothing to lose as he on trial 1st he was sound but went lame after hard work after getting the vet out they said it was nav and there is treatments ans shoing to help but I also know of 1 pony that had nav and it could not move it was drugged up 2 eyeballs and still in pain so had to be pts
 
retired mine this summer with it, he has text book navicular with the nasty addition that it came on very fast and was progressing fast aswell; he also has a nasty curled hook developed on the corner of the navicular bone in addition to the more normal lollipops (yeah right like I know what I;m talking about, souonds good though!)
We went from pads and shoes to barefoot and retired and he is happy and well, he is however lame on the affected leg probably about 2/10th though and is maintaing his weight etc so we are not giving him painkillers as we want to save those for when they are needed. He still happilly loons round his paddock and carts the girls off when being lead out in the mornings.
Hopefully come the sping he will go out in the retirement paddocks with the rest of the gang and I hope he has many years rest after all the hardwork he's put in though his life.
I understand people finacially may not be able to do this but thankfully I can for now.
But if I didn't own the horse when this had happened I would have left the decision to his current owners.
 
I rdie a mare who has navicular. She gets special shoes and cortaflex but is allowed to be lightly hacked to keep her ticking over. And it's lucky me who gets to do that
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as she is a lovely girl
 
Like everyone says, it can vary so much in severity. I had my horse PTS after battling with navicular - even after loads of box rest/turning away he was still lame in walk after starting to ride him again, and I thought it just wasn't fair to him, he used to beat up others in the field so wouldn't have been a companion
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But I also ride out a horse with navicular - he cannot trot on roads, but if the ground is right and he is right then he can go Novice eventing
 
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Like everyone says, it can vary so much in severity.
But I also ride out a horse with navicular - he cannot trot on roads, but if the ground is right and he is right then he can go Novice eventing

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I've had exactly the same experience - my 16yo was diagnosed with bi-lateral navicular two years ago. With remedial shoes and No-Bute he's perfectly sound except on hard surfaces; we still have the daily bute option to come if he gets lamer.
 
Exactly a year ago, my horse was about to be PTS with navicular. She had been on-off lame for 7 months and on box rest for 4 months. I was offered an MRI scan which I went for just to confirm there was nothing to be done and that to PTS was the only decision. At this stage it was taking her 30 minutes to walk from one end of the yard to the other. I was told to take her shoes off for the MRI but thought I'd never get her on the lorry, so I had them taken off on arrival. They were such different sizes you wouldn't have known they came off the same horse.

I didn't know how she would load back on the lorry without shoes to come home, but she was no worse, so we waited shoeless for the results. The MRI scan came back with a long list of issues, but nothing that said PTS immediately.

At this point I bumped into an Equine Podiatrist who had clients on the yard. I had never considered this route as I had a TB and thought she needed shoes. However, she was coping in the few days she had been without and I had nothing to lose, so the EP took us on as a client, and she had the backs removed and her first barefoot trim.

From then on, we never looked back. Her structure improved immediately, and she was much more comfortable. She was given boots and pads and a programme of hand walking and conditioning. As she improved, she was able to be ridden again and turned out. She became a normal horse again. She now has no sign of the navicular, and has won dressage competitions and been placed recently at SJ.

Barefoot podiatry is definitely worth considering as it has a proven track record in putting navicular cases right, although every case is different and there are no guarantees. Make sure you contact a trimmer trained in the right sort of trim. This is a starting point:

http://www.equinepodiatry.org.uk/
 
DEPENDS…

Basically Navicular is arthritic changes in the front feet – you can manage it. Do you know the degree of lameness that he has?

I would think that the majority of older horses – i.e. over 10 – have some sort of arthritic change in some joint.

I bought a horse (long story) with Navicular who was sound…though as I wanted to jump BSJA tracks he was not up to the job and had to be sold.

I also had an ISH who was diagnosed with Navicular changes at 4.5 – he was retired at 12 with spavins but with pads and egg bars he was no lamer than any other horse for eight years – we were just very conscious of where we rode him.

Also an old trotter mare I had as a kid is still alive in the field and has never had anything other than biotin in her feed.

I would say that I am probably really lucky – as she is riding your horse it doesn’t sound like he is at the bullet stage yet.

I would thoroughly recommend the non panicking approach, egg bars, and biotin in the feed and the odd bute.
 
OH's HW 17.2hh hunter has navicular in his front foot (only one) he can still jump, hack etc, Hes not on any bute or anything or special shoes. It really is one of those 'every case is different' type things!
 
I wanted to just explain about barefoot and not wanting to push this down peoples throats but having had my own horse have his feet damaged badly by shoeing and it was a farrier who was well trained the foot still got away from him and now having been BF for over a year all round and never been lame. I have gained more information and learned more about the foot then I ever thought possible.
Most navicular changes are caused through ill balance and through farriers not maintaining the correct balanced structure, but shoes no matter how well applied still do compromise the foot. It is a compromise most of us have used and through what ever reason we believed we have a need for them.
Horses learn to compromise in most of what we do. But the damage can often and I do mean often be undone or at least given a very good chance of repairing itself.
It often will need the skills of a trained Equine poditrist not simply a farrier removing shoes. Most farriers do not have the training for conditioning feet to BF they mostly know about a pasture trim. Note I do say most or often, and not all.
I have knowledge of so many friends and trained EP's who have had horses and been told the terrible news and believed it was a death sentence or possibly their own horse would only become a lawnmower.
I can only suggest visiting the Enlighten Equitation forum and go into the Barefoot section and read the posts of many owners who have had the same information and since gone the shoeless route and had success they didnt believe possible. Even vets have been pleasently surprised. On the last KC le Pierre training course last November 06 a vet was taking his final exams to become a trained EP because he was fed up with forever trying to repair damage done by shoeing and wanted to become more proactive to keeping horse sound for long term. On the latest course just about to finish tomorrow my friends own Vet has attended this as he knows the success my friend has had with all of her polo ponies she has of over 20 and they play arena and outdoor polo unshod. Most of her horses have been past to her due to lameness issues. All have cone sound and the only change was removing shoes.
I have another very close friend who told me last July her TB would never cope BF but got told 2 months later that same horse was suffering serious navicular desease. Her vet could only suggest the normal routes of remedial shoeing. She had in fact tried that 5 years before and it had not worked. But by Cytek shoeing had got a sound horse she was only 5 at that time, but it now was no longer helping and she was at a loss to know what to do. Well that same TB is now fully sound on no medication and her foot balance is correct and she is moving better then she has ever moved. Her own vet has now seen and been very impressed at the result and pronouced her sound for the insurance company.
It isnt a easy route of simply remove shoes, it has required the use of a EP and use of pads to condition feet to be able to in hand walk out to keep stimulation up and the use of boots on stony surfaces and now she is fully sound without those

It has to be worth investigating and only at this stage costs you some time reading and researching.
But all in all it is cheaper then most remedial shoeing but it will cost you in your own time and commitment.

I can only add, I never believed my own RID would ever be sound shoeless as I was told a heavier horse had to have shoes on at least at the fronts as the weight would cause the foot to collapse. That has in fact been proved very wrong and he is now got a foot smaller but in correct size to him and not the large saucers and he is gaining concavity as losing the flat feet he had in shoes and the loss of flare that shoes also caused him to have. Shoeing to his feet only allowed him to gain bigger and bigger feet. Now he is self repairing his feet to how nature said they should be.
But it has its ups and downs along the way but all in the all to look at a foot after a short while, only rasped to maintain balance and so much healthier makes it all worthwhile.

I hope I may have helped you and others of another area of investigation.
 
We have a horse in our yard that has been treated with Tildren and it jumps Grand Prix show jumping successfully. It really does depend on the severity of the condition. I had a horse diagnosed with it and when we rexrayed with another vet it wasn't that but arthritis in the coffin joints.
 
you must know if it is navicular desease, deseased crumbling navic,bone. [no cure, just anti inflams ,pro balanced trim gentle exercise and above all ,no shoes.] if it is navicular syndrome complete cure is possible. this is inflamation of the deep heel region, and caused by something like bad posture due to wrongly shaped feet ;long toes high heels shoes too far forward. he needs de shod [if shod] nice balanced trim, aperiod of anti inflams, walked every day on a good surface, like the tarmac road, not a mucky field ,[too much joint wobble, and concrete too hard [concussion] good luck.
 
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