Evidence for success of remedial farriery?

[Orangehorse]

Re the barefoot "cures" navicular thread - just looked on another forum and someone posted the very good question about what evidence is the for the success of remedial farriery for navicular.

I think I will go and hide behind the sofa.

 

[alsiola]

ØSTBLOM, L. C. (1984), Egg bar shoeing technique for treatment of navicular disease. Equine Veterinary Journal, 16

Ostblom. L.. Lund. C. and Melsen, F. (1984) Navicular bone disease: results of
treatment using eggbar shoeing technique. Equine Vet J. 16,203-206.


M. A. WILLEMEN, H. H. C. M. SAVELBERG and A. BARNEVELD (1999) The effect of orthopaedic shoeing on the force exerted by the deep digital flexor tendon on the navicular bone in horses. Equine vet. J. 31 (1) 25-30

These are the first few results a quick search turned up.

 

[TPO]

Have taken my brave (or possibly mislabelled Stupid?!) pills; here goes...

Now I know I'll get jumped on re hoof balance etc but hear me out. Dinah was diagnosed with navicular disease in 2007; ten days after she arrived with us bought unvetted (but sound when tried) from Merseyside. With hindsight my vet was useless but at the point in time I trusted vets more than myself. The final straw was a partner at the clinic saying to carry on as normal on danolin, ride her until her tendon "frays" and to take a foal out of her!

I tried barefoot and bought all the boots and pads. I had an EPAUK (maybe got that jumbled) trimmer out to see Dinah and I was NOT impressed with what she done or said. However I persevered following her instructions and changed D's dietbut she continued to land toe first and take short, pottery unlevel steps.

At this time I found a fantastic equine practice who would travel to me. He assessed Dinah and recommended shoes back on asap and to start with wedged egg bars then over the months reduce the wedge until she could wear normal eggbars. He said the wedge would alter the angle of her foot and may reduce the pressure on her DDFT making her more comfortable. He said it would either work or it wouldn't and she'd say no. At this point I wanted to do something that would make Dinah more comfortable.

The farrier shod her under the vets supervision and then we trotted her up...

Almost immediately she started landing heel first and striding out (towing me straight past the vet embarrassingly enough).

So yes, now that I know more then perhaps they aren't the prettiest feet in the world, but I don't regret the decision because of how much it improved her quality of life.

Just like the replies in the barefoot thread I don't know and can't prove how it worked but it did because I had a happy sound horse who enjoyed the rest of her days curling her tail over her back and prancing about the field like a happy horse

I'm no David Bailey and they are taken at a bad angle. Here they are...

 

[LucyPriory]

I haven't seen any evidence of 'cure'. By which I mean positive remodelling of the navicular bone in cases of navicular disease.

Syndrome is much harder to quantify; both because it is a vague term often used when there is no clear diagnosis (so how do you know if cured?) and because in many cases the follow up is patchy.

But if a horse is unsound out of shoes (even if sound in shoes) can it really be described as cured? The feet may have been numbed enough so the horse feels less/no pain. But the source of pain is not necessarily removed/cured or otherwise relieved.

So in summary; if the horse can only function with medical or mechanical intervention, then no, I can't say I have seen robust evidence of cure.

 

[TPO]

Can't edit my original post. Just to add I don't think the shoes cured her at all merely made her comfortable; more so than she'd been without shoes. Sorry if that wasn't clear in the original post.

 

[LucyPriory]

TPO - just want to make sure that you don't think I was having a dig at you.

My concern is that a horse can be in really bad foot shape, practically disabled, but because they can't feel their feet and therefore move (more or less) level it is considered ok.

I live in hope that in the future we might advance beyond the sort of practice which salves our consciences, but not the horse.

And really truly this is not a dig at the unfortunate partnerships that are living with a diagnosis of navicular syndrome. My heart goes out to you.

And if I win the lottery I will surely donate at least some of it towards funding a rehab centre. (barefoot natch!)