De-Nerving

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poiuytrewq

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A sore subject I know and my main man I fall back on in real life has bitten my head off already about it!
Vet said 50-60% success rate but he recommends it.
I do need to speak to him again in detail as I was in but if a daze and didn't really take things in. Horse is bilaterally lame and he estimated costs at £1000-£1500 (does he mean both legs?)
That's not high and with the money I earn an awful lot of saving but this horse is my life and if I can get him pain free....
Any advice?
 
I have seen it done on a few hunters and all bar one it worked well. The other one was still lame in spite of two ops. The nerves do regrow, so it doesn't last for ever. I would want a very good vet to do it.
You have to really look after them, as it means thet can't feel the normal niggles they would let you know about.
 
And if you de nerve him and he breaks a leg in the field or does himself some serious damage he isn't going to feel it and your horse is going to carry on walking/trotting/cantering about as best he can until he is found rather than stand still because he hurts.

Sorry its not something I would ever, ever do. I watched the horse that ended Howard Johnson's training career break a leg - bone through skin job - and carry on trying to gallop because he couldn't feel a thing below the knee.

Is your horse simply a field companion? If so the maybe the pros would outweigh the cons but I would certainly never ever sit on or ask anyone else to sit on a denerved horse.
 
not seen the history of this but for me it would depend on what part of the leg or foot was going to be denerved. if its a small area and the horse was only going to be for you to ride then most likely a yes but if it was for a larger area eg half the foot probably a no. not much help to you but I would talk to your vet and have a list of questions so you are not distracted by answers and forget somethingl
 
I know a horse that had this done last year for ringbone they are very pleased with the results but I think it cost more like £5000 by the time they had finished. Coincidentally I was talking to my own vet about this yesterday & he said generally only lasts 2 years or so & is an awful lot to put them thru because you cannot redo once the nerves are back apparently just his opinion of course.
 
Not personal to you at all OP, because I know you aren't the authority on denerving - I hope you get the best outcome for you and your horse.

But, generally speaking, apologies for the hijack OP, what is the rationale behind it? Surely it doesn't do anything to solve the cause of the pain, just removes the receptor? Surely the cause of the pain can continue to deteriorate, or have I misunderstood? In what circumstances is it used?
 
With the hunters it was navicular and the vet always said you would only get one or maybe two seasons out of them. This was over 10 years ago now so things may have moved on. Yes the 'disease' continues to worsen but they can't feel it. I wouldn't do it to my own horse, but a lot of that is I am really tight and wouldn't spend that much money to only give me a year, or with luck 2.
 
My mare had this done on her left hind in November and they are not numb completely below the knee,they are only numb just below the knee/hock at the back.there is an 80% chance of the surgery being sucsessful.
She is now sound 12 weeks on and just started walking under saddle
If you have a look on the PSD group on Facebook there are story's of success 15 plus years on after the surgery my vet also said with the amount of nerve he took out there is no way that it will grow back he said it will last the rest of her life,I realise some are not so lucky as it all depends on how sucsessfully they respond to the nerve block previously
 
I think PSD surgery success depends on other things like hind leg confo too. I might be wrong but I don't think PSD is the issue with the OPs horse.
 
I knew it really. :(
Problem is you get a vet out sadly thinking the end is near in an already retired horse and instead of agreeing your given a slight hint of hope that things could be OK. He said he'd make a ridden horse again and this would be an absolute dream.
 
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