experiences of navilox for navicular. also in NL

china

china

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my tb has just started his course of navilox. hes on his for about 6 months. just wondering if anyone has any experiences of it.
and do magnetic boots help for blood supply to the navicular?
 
china said:
my tb has just started his course of navilox. hes on his for about 6 months. just wondering if anyone has any experiences of it.
and do magnetic boots help for blood supply to the navicular?
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I used to use Navilox in all cases of navicular - now I never use it. It's not that it's harmful, but I didn't have any better success then that I do now using the old mainstay of treatment for this disease - remedial and careful shoeing!!

I have seen a good response in several cases with the use of Tildren - that's worth a try if the money is available...it's not cheap :(

I don't have any answers on the magnetic boots thing....but they won't cause harm so what do you have to lose by trying them? Personally, I don't put much store by them but then I'm an old cynic ;)

Good luck
Imogen
 
thanks for the reply. yes iv heard of tildren. he is insured so money isnt to much of an issue at the moment. he has 3 seperate conditions so were claiming for each one seperatley to get the full 5grand on each. he has KS, bone spavins and navicular. he is currently having remedial shoeing buts its been hard to shoe him, he has very poor and extremley sensitive feet but hopefully wel start getting somewhere. we get his feet looking good and he either pulls a shoe off and pulls half his foot with it or they splay and split, but my farrier is fab and checks them every 2 weeks and tightens and tidys them up for me. he gets shod every 4-5 weeks at £65 a front pair alone :O!
 
eek!!!

I would speak to your vets about going through Tildren infusions for the navicular....sounds like you've got your work cut out with the feet!!! the Tildren we use a lot for DJD in the small joints of the hock too....so that a good one to try and investigate....put it on either claim!! :D
 
hes had cortisone injections in his spine and hocks and is having lateral extensions on his hinds. i will certainly mention the tildren to him and see wether its an option when the cortisone injections wear off. does tildren generally last longer? the equine hospital he went to for the full body bone scan injected him before i picked him up so didnt really get much info about what treatments are available, they just carried on and injected him, im not to bothered by it as hes sound behind now :D just lame infront :(
 
china said:
hes had cortisone injections in his spine and hocks and is having lateral extensions on his hinds. i will certainly mention the tildren to him and see wether its an option when the cortisone injections wear off. does tildren generally last longer? the equine hospital he went to for the full body bone scan injected him before i picked him up so didnt really get much info about what treatments are available, they just carried on and injected him, im not to bothered by it as hes sound behind now :D just lame infront :(
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Oh dear :( what a pickle!!!:rolleyes:

Tildren can be, and is frequently repeated 6 monthly, but some cases I've used it once to start the ball rolling and then been able to keep on top of the issue by other means. :o
Try also talking about biotin/magnesium supplements for the horn quality of the foot...I like Equistro Biotin Forte, but Farrier's Formula etc is similar.
 
Have you considered barefoot rehab? If you search through the threads here you will read lots of cases of people who have had amazing successes with their own navicular horses. It would be especially helpful for you as he is having foot quality problems and is difficult to shoe. The barefoot rehab will address those foot quality issues by looking at his diet as well as just strenthening the feet by shoes off and slow work on hard surfaces. If you are worried that he has sensitive feet and couldn't cope barefoot then don't - with the correct diet and management his feet will improve and adapt to cope with life without shoes. Sensitive feet almost always indicate a diet problem - too high sugar/starch percentage. Horses with very sensitive feet often prove to be insulin resistant - so they struggle to cope with what we consider normal grazing/grass. Steroid injections can also contribute to unhealthy feet. Also with his shoes off he will be able to grow the foot he needs to support his other issues too - nature really does know best how to deal with these things. Barefoot can offer a cure for navicular rather than just managing it long term. Repeatedly barefoot rehab is bringing previously thought to be incurable and unrideable navicular horses back into full work, including jumping and hunting! Many insurance companies will now pay for barefoot rehab livery costs if you choose to send him away for the rehab period - usually three to four months. If you want to find out more then PM me or have a look at http://www.rockleyfarm.co.uk/RockleyFarm/Home.html
 
Over the past couple of years I've had four horses come through my yard with early navicular, three of the responded well to Navilox & Tildren and one responded to Navilox until it came to the weaning off period when it drops to alternate days and then she went lame again. A friend of mine tried barefoot but just ended up with a miserable horse, bruised feet and loads of vet bills so her horse went back to being shod with wedged eggbars every four weeks and is in work every day, his jumping is limited to perfect ground or in the arena but she's able to enjoy him and he appears pain free.
 
My horse had navilox over a 12 week period and it made no difference.

He later also had the Tildren and that also made no difference.

eta: that cost seems reasonable to me!! i am paying £100 for a pair for front egg bars, every 5 weeks!!
 
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I second those recommending a good barefoot rehab programme and long term reassessment/changes in diet, management and foot care/support.
So many horses and scarily young horses seem to be developing foot, leg, back etc. problems, surely we need to be asking why more often and looking at what we are doing that may be contributing?
 
funnily enough imogen i started him on farriers formular today and have got the pro feet rub that you rub into the coronet band. his hinds are being done 2moro so they will check his fronts, they arnt looking great and they have only been on 2 weeks. the breakover point at the front is just spliting over the edge.

luciejjkk- its criminal isnt it. mine has aluminium straight bars on at £65 a front pair. i normally pay £67 for a fresh set of normal shoes and £60 if they go back on.

i have looked into the barefoot option and will go down this avenue if he doesnt come sound by a target time, i will send him to rockley if needs be, but i know him to well and know he will be a very unhappy horse for some time untill he is comfortable. my only concern is that with how lame he will be without shoes untill his feet adapt it will aggrevate his other problems. and when i say lame, i mean hoping lame like someone is walking on glass.
 
65 for a full set sounds good , i would charge that a pair of eggbars . there is nothing clever with the making and fitting an eggbar , it is only a shoe , the foot preparation can only be done correctly , as for any shoe application , so i think you are being ripped off as are many folk when it comes to the service industries
chris
 
I know it's standard practise but it's always seemed odd to me to recommend navilox and egg bar shoes as surely they work against each other? Navilox is used to widen the blood vessels to improve circulation yet egg bar shoes restrict circulation... So you're basically paying for two things that cancel each other out...
 
My horse was diagnosed with navicular when she was 5, she had a course of navilox, and the vet told me to have egg bar shoes fitted, however these proved impractical as she kept treading them off (she is quite short coupled). Also she was not 100% sound after this. I was told she would only be suitable for light hacking. I gave her a year off work and my farrier fitted her with raised heel roll-toe shoes at the front and she was sound following this. I have hunted/SJ ever since and she is now 19..not saying it would work for your horse though, navicular does not seem to be fully understood even now!
 
the eggbar shoe is the most overrated ,over used horseshoe in the farriers arsenal . for some reason vets keep prescribing it so farriers keep applying it, unfortunately the farrier has to do as the vet says unless by pure chance your team communicate and work together professionally
chris
 
ferrador said:
the eggbar shoe is the most overrated ,over used horseshoe in the farriers arsenal . for some reason vets keep prescribing it so farriers keep applying it, unfortunately the farrier has to do as the vet says unless by pure chance your team communicate and work together professionally
chris
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I couldn't agree more. I understand that egg bars have been proven to create dependant pathology?
 
My lad was diagnosed with acute navicular in his off fore (and slightly milder in his near fore) last summer, at the age of 6. This was diagnosed with an MRI scan so there was no doubt about the prognosis.
After this we put him on navilox (which I'm sorry to say didn't appear to do much), and then four courses of tildren at the appropriate intervals. The tildren, although expensive enough to in theory pay for bionic limbs to replace the faulty ones, didn't work. He had 8 months off and was intermittently lame to start with, becoming progressively sounder in time. Now I have him on a joint supplement from my vet and he wears wedge aluminium shoes - the joint supplement makes me feel better that I am giving him some sort of drug (!) but I'm certain it's the shoes keeping him sound. Unfortunately they wear down very quickly, so he's shod every 4-5 weeks, but it's £80 for the set so I guess a bit better than £100!

I did have the same problem with shoes ripping off, especially in the winter, which is why eggbars didn't work and why we often have to resort to plain old steel shoes in the worst of the winter weather/ bogginess, just to keep him shod!

Should he not stay sound I will look into Gallium Nitrate, which seems to be causing some controversy in the states! (But not to be used in conjunction with ally shoes).

Sorry, that was a bit long - topic close to my heart!
 
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