Fed up post. At wits end barefoot and navicular

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black_n_white

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I have a lovely mare that I've owned since August 2014. Early in 2015 she went lame. After a period of box rest and then x-rays she was diagnosed with navicular from an MRI (her x-rays were clear). She has chip fractures on her navicular bones on both front feet and a cyst in the left navicular bone.

Immediately following the MRI in March 2015 she was mediated with cortisone and tildren. Her shoes came off for the MRI and after reading a whole bunch of stuff about barefoot and Rockely Farm, I decided not to put them back on. I rehabbed her myself, sorted diet, put her on a forage plus balancer, treated thrushy front frogs and swapped my farrier and she transitioned really easily. She hacks out over all terrain and is as rock crunching as they come. She went back to competing at and everything was good. I achieved my lifetime ambition of doing a 90cms ODE, she was schooling really well and progressing nicely. Then sadly she went lame again in July 2016 so just under a year and a half since her initial treatment. This nerve blocked to the back of her foot she had cortisone injections again. She’s come back into work really slowly and done mainly slow hacking over the winter due to the ground. She’s schooled no more than about 15 times as our sand floods and freezes and has jumped a grand total of 5 times (all on a surface).

She went lame again about a month ago while stabled due to the ice. She’s been box rested and has improved very slightly to the degree that she’s only slightly off on a straight line but is very unlevel on a right circle. She’s very flat and subdued. She had a few days on danilon at the start of her box rest and was noticeably chirpier in her outlook for those days until it wore off so she is obviously in pain

Feeling really fed up and despondent about the situation and feel like I’ve let her down by not doing something properly. After reading so may success stories about barefoot I think I convinced myself that this was going to be the answer to all my prayers – clutching at straws I know but she’s my horse of a lifetime even from our limited time together and I love her dearly!

My vet is going to come back next week to nerve block to check it relates to her navicular but she’s outlined my options as:
• pen rest (but isn’t hopeful about this due to the fact that she’s not got better on box rest,
• re-treat with a stronger cortisone,
• bute her up and carry on riding,
• de-nerve her
• or retire her

I definitely won’t de-nerve her as I just don’t like the practice. I’m extremely reluctant to re-medicate as I just don’t think I can face the emotional rollercoaster of waiting for it to wear off again. I think if I can keep her paddock sound then I’d happily retire or keep her as a light hack her but am worried about the fact that she is clearly in pain so am just thinking this through at the moment. My other concern is her weight if I retire her! She’s the definition of a good doer and lives on fresh air. I can usually manage her weight by muzzling and exercise but I’m concerned that if she’s retired she’ll just balloon even if she’s muzzled.

Has anyone had any similar experience with barefoot not working out? Because she had medication have her feet not rehabbed properly? Is there anything more I can do to help her?
 
My big question is what are her feet like? Those that have relapsed always seem to have somehow gotten under run heels and long toes again- I think ycbm knows of one and stencilface on here's horse did - but is doing fine after his rockley trip.

Who is doing your hoofcare atm?

I guess my pondering from your post is whether she has foot confo that makes her susceptible and that over the last few months she hasn't been able to get enough mileage on them to counteract that?

Is she landing toe first?
 
I had a welshD x with navicular. Tried him barefoot (and everything else I've ever taken barefoot has done well). It just didn't work. The only thing that made him comfortable was Cyteks on the front.
 
Mine had shoes off in August 2013. He was diagnosed with ddft damage ('navicular syndrome') in both fronts in Sept 2015. Have you got hoof pics?

He's sound again now, kind of, he needs to remember to use his legs properly!
 
Could it be that lack of roadwork has allowed her feet to become weak again ? Mine had hind suspensory issues after she came back from Rockley and that meant paddock rest and this did the same.

I have just had her down to Rockley again and fingers crossed she seems to have come right again. It's really hard to keep those feet in enough work to keep them strong, hope that's all it is with your mare.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I took loads of hoof pics when she first transitioned but haven't taken any for months. I'll take some this evening and post. She's not self trimming - gets done by a pro barefoot farrier about every 3 months. She wears her feet unevenly - loads the outside more than the inside so he only ever rasps the uneven toes and rolls the edges. I don't think her toes look long - well, they do now she's been standing in the box for a few weeks, but they didn't before. She's due a trim this evening anyway which has been booked since before the lameness issues.

When she went lame in the summer she was worked 6 days out of 7, mainly hacking for an hour + 3-4 times a week (walking on the roads with trot and canter on tracks and fields as the ground allowed) plus schooling on an abrasive sand school, jumping and competing so don't think it was a lack of work that was the issue then. It could be the case this time though as we had a few cold icy spells that stopped games intermittently then I've been ill so she's not done the roadwork she normally would do so that could be a possibility. How would I know if this is the case? What would I do?
 
Has the pro barefoot farrier done any barefoot cpd? Have they done tricky rehabs and have plenty working hard on their books? I would definitely have a good chat with them at the trim.
Is 3 months often enough, mine also wears unevenly and was much better trimmed 3 weekly when in full work, could just about go 6. Now he is doing less his feet have slowed their growing/they take longer to go uneven bit he still needs 6 weekly visits.

I think really you have an idea if that is the case by getting her walking and seeing if the feet start to change again, or send her to rockley
 
I trim my horse that wears unevenly every fortnight the one whose toes run to long is best trimmed weekly .
I think BF will not keep all horses from getting navicular type lameness it's a bit like saying no one who does not smoke will get lung cancer that's just not true .
I can't remember if you said that you have up to date X-rays if you have not I would get some you can compare with the old ones .
I would be thinking that perhaps you might need to be doing inhand walking with pain relief but you need a vets advice on that .
 
Sorry to hear this, how frustrating.
I had the same with barefoot 'working' then not for my welsh sec D; I tried another 'rehab' - like you, doing it at home myself, and again he came sound but niggly. I don't know. I did try remedial shoeing too, using Xrays and an amazingly well-renowned farrier, but that made no absolutely difference either. Sadly I lost him to a random colic so that was that, but after trying different options, my plan was just to do ANOTHER rehab but paying more attention to grass levels, feed, hoof angles etc (possibly I wasn't obsessive enough the first times?) and see how it went.

I would think that not working for a bit could have contributed to your issues though - it seems like with some the walking has to be sooooo consistent. could you try that and see how it goes?
 
I was in a similar situation - no evidence of navicular on x-ray but vet was convinced he had it. We didn't do an MRI as vet felt it would waste most of the claim limit and we'd have nothing left to treat so we just treated. He had the injections and vet and I discussed shoeing v barefoot.

I did things the other way round from you. He was shod with wedges as vet advised it was probably easier to try the remedial shoeing before the barefoot rather than the other way round. 10 years on he's still sound and was still in the wedges until late last year. Then he had a bit of an abcess under one of the wedges. After sorting it out, we had to shoe him without so we could get access to keep cleaning the hole left by it. 3 shoeing cycles on, we've left the wedges off as the farrier is really pleased with the way his heels have grown and he's showing no signs of problems. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is remedial shoeing can work, even if it's a case of doing it for a while to alleviate the acute problem and then going back to barefoot.
 
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