De-Nerving

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catherine22

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Has anyone had any experiences with having a horse de-nerved? We are starting to think about it as a possible last resort for my horse but wanted to know any experiences
 
I know one who had it recently for ligament problems and it didn't make any difference :( But I know it does work for some horses. Sorry you are in this situation with yours, I hope you can find a solution for him :(
 
I had a horse with Navic a good few years ago. My vet told me all the options including de nerving and although he didnt personnally reccomend it he would if I insisted do it. He said the problem is they can no longer feel pain, which is good in one respect, hopefully cures the lameness but bad as they cant feel anything in that area so god knows what else is going on. Also apparantly nerves can re join. I didnt have it done.
 
I was offered it for my horse who was lame for a year, didn't have it done (thankfully) as the negatives far out weighed the positives.

-they can't feel pain, so you would never know if he had a different pain.
- they can react to the anesthetics
- they can injury themselves getting up from the operation.
- the nerves can re join so the procedure would have to be repeated
- and finally it is very expensive and your insurance may not cover the whole cost.

luckily for me i found a decent farrier and my horse is now sound (well when he doesn't throw and shoe and get an abscess!) and in fully work jumping, XC etc. whereas the vets best outcome would be a "paddock sound" ornament, who may in time be capable of very light work.
 
A horse at our yard has it. However he wasn't at the yard before, so I don't know the difference it made.

However what I do know is...

...He's never been lame while at the yard, does a lot of work (at least an hour a day 6 days a week usually) and is very happy, but as (I understand it from a convo with my YO) it means he can't really feel his feet, meaning if he had an abbcess or had stood on anything there would be no sign of it, so he's shod every 4 weeks with out fail, we also have to check his feet when picking them out (tho good practice to be in anyway) and he has frog pads on 2 feet (not sure if thats to do with the de-nerving or because he needs bar shoes, but because of his feet size he just looses them, so its a replacement thing)
 
Hi Catherine, my mare had both her deep digital flexor tendons cut a year ago (bilateral tenotomy). It was her last chance too and although she is not 100% sound she is comfortable and seems happy.

History: - She had severe laminits in both front feet nearly 4 years ago. She recovered really well and was doing well till the beginning of 2008 when she started to rest one foot on top of the other. Then started crossing them completely. Anyway to cut a long story short after x rays on feet and legs and scans it was decided the bilateral tenotomy was the only thing left. (Nothing showed up on any of the tests). Her tendons were very tight and once inside it was found her ddft and sft had attached to each other with fiberous tissue. The vets had not seen anything like it before (glasgow and inverness vets). Nor had they seen her peculiar stance, legs crossed. She is back home and the thinking was there would be some relief within a week. She was pretty much as she was before the op for about 4 months but has gradually got better. We are now just over the year since the op.

Not sure if it is any help but good luck what ever you decide. I had no option and only alternative was to have her PTS. She is now a fantastic nanny and goes for hacks in hand......she is 20/21 so not too bad to retire her at this age.
 
I know a Connie type 6 year old with persistnt lameness who had it done. Owner is ultimate fluffy bunny with loads of money to throw at problems, but has no substance to her (would never think about picking out feet each day, used to make us annoyed when we had swept yard & she lead horse out of stable leaving muck all over it every day). Lameness (after much expense) undiagnosed but thought to be it foot so she had it de nerved. Didn't make any difference, still lame. Now been told to ride it through the lameness (or so she claims), does improve as it warms up. Not surprised, horse so badly put together yard nick-name for it is 'cut-n-shunt'.
 
Its something I was offered for my old lad with Navicular and TBH after much thought it just didnt sit right with me, the issues causing the pain were still there, and would have got far worse in time but my boy wouldn't have been able to feel it... urgh no thanks!

However a friend has her horse done, it lasted for 9 months and the nerves re-grew and so he went lame again :( She doesnt see the point of doing it again.
 
To be honest i'm not that keen on it myself, especially as he quite accident prone so would pretty well have to be kept if bubble wrap if he was de nerved and it doesn't seem to have a brilliant success rate, it was just an option my vet threw up when he was out as a last resort.
He has arthritis in both front coffin joints, which have been injected before so that will be a next step, recently (3 months ago) he damaged a ligament in his off side foreleg which has now improved altho he is not 100% sound, so we are about to start 25 mins walking exercise as essentially a 'kill or cure' type approach, if he breaks down after this there will be a lot more investigations going on then we will take his long term future from there. And he's only 10
 
catherine22 said:
Thanks for all your replies so far. will look into rockley farm. It is a total last resort and all hopefully not a route we will need to go down
Click to expand...

Thank you for saying you'd look into it.

It may not be necessary to send your horse there for rehab - you may be able to do it at home for no expense with the right support.

Nic Barker (of Rockley Farm) has always said she is happy to repond to emails.

Obviously as I don't know much about your horse, I can't say whether RF could help, but if you emailed Nic with info - she could give you an honest opinion either way.

I'm really sorry you are facing all this. Good luck.
 
my horse had it done and it was the best thing i ever did. PM me for details. He had a cyst in the pedal bone which was going to get no worse or would not have had it done. Had it done for 2 years now and do a bit of everything. I strongly reccommend a good farrier. I do see both sides of the arguement I was against it till it was my last option.
 
One of my horses trod on a nail which went into his Navicular bursa,he had 2 operations which after both I was recommending having him put down as they were not a success, I took him home and he was lame for a year in the field ,not ideal but he enjoyed the life he had. I had a thought :could he not be de nerved and phoned the vets,and was told yes...but why did it not come up a year earlier?, We had it done and he has enjoyed a good life since and been ridden regular for the past 15 years he is now 25 and still plodding.We did jump him at first but not to the level he was at prior to the incident. But since he competed dressage unaffiliated jumping and a lot of hacking.
SO I would say yes, but each case is differnt.
 
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