Has any one ever know a horse thats been de nerved?

[charlie76]

There is a horse in my yard that has navicular and the owner is considering having it de nerved- does any one have any experience of this????

Thanks!

 

[GTs]

Yes - what do you want to know?

 

[Stasha22]

My friends horse fractured her pedal bone and had a neurectomy (spelling?). Think thats the same thing...

Seems to have done the trick as she is sound but I don't think it is a long term solution, her vet told her the nerves will eventually grow back and she will more than likely be back to square one.

 

[charlie76]

Just what the long term affects are, whether its worth having it done, pros and cons etc?

 

[GTs]

I would get it done - it is generally one of the last tricks up the vets sleeves, and is not perfect, but it will keep them going for a bit.

 

[Lucy_Ally]

Its not something I would be happy with, a horse came into work with unexplained gait abnormalities. Did nerve blocks etc and flexion tests all negative. Horse was not really lame just not working quite right in front. X-rayed the horse and it was found to have a fractured long pastern bone but had been de-nerved so couldn't feel it. Moral of the story - you may prevent it feeling the pain from the injury/disease, however it may acquire a subsequent injury which it will not feel. This horse was worked through high level dressage on a fractured bone, doesn't bare thinking about. Relatively simple things may go un-noticed in the future until it is too late for them to be treated.
I certainly wouldn't be happy riding a de-nerved horse.

 

[Stasha22]

I would agree with you as once you've had it done, chances are you would have no idea if another injury occured.

My friend had her mare treated as she was a very well bred 5 year old and she wanted to keep her as a broodmare. She has since had 2 gorgeous foals and is still pretty sound.

I guess it depends if the horse is to be ridden, retired etc.

 

[ihatework]

L_S, I have very limited knowledge of neurectomies but from my understanding different nerves/parts of the nerve can be cut thus narrowing down the areas blocked out?
So I am assuming this pastern incident was a high neurectomy?
Would say something like navicular just involve partially denerving the foot?

(not disputing your reasons for not performing a neurectomy, all perfectly valid) just wondering if what i have been led to believe about the different degrees of neurectomy are correct?

 

[GTs]

I have played polo on a de-nerved horse....................

But I would not breed a horse who has had it done!!!

 

[Stasha22]

Curious as to why you would not want to breed from a horse that has had a neurectomy?

 

[ihatework]

I would imagine that if a horse had a neurectomy there must have been a reason why? And surely you wouldn't want to be potentially breeding in future problems.

Edited to say, just read your first post about pedal fracture and can see why you would. not the case in all horses though particularly for degenerative conditions

 

[Stasha22]

The reason why was that she had a nasty fall which resulted in her fracturing her pedal bone, nothing that would pass on to a foal.

 

[Lucy_Ally]

Yes it depends which nerve and where it is cut, a neurectomy for navicular would section the lateral or medial palmer digital nerve which supplies all the structures in the caudal portion of the hoof, therefore an abscess in that region would not be felt.

 

[GTs]

I think it is a case by case basis, there are some cases that are OK -

I am not a fan of the concept 'it is damaged so lets breed of it' if it is not worth breeding sound, then it is not worth breeding at all!!!

 

[hotheaded]

Hi,
this procedure can work very well but all operations have their risk of infections causing complications.
The nerves will eventually develop feeling again meaning it is not a permanent solution and would have to be re operated on. There are not neccessarily any clear advantages between medical and surgical approaches to navicular. This procedure should only be carried out as a last resort and may provide many added years of service. Varies from horse to horse. Think carefully and decide whats best for your horse, Definately exhaust all other avenues first.

 

[seaofdreams]

i was advised not to have done by my vet, there were alot of problems with doing it she told me (can't remember what they were though sorry)

 

[robinson]

Don't get the horse de-nerved. You can get your horse sound again through barefoot trimming. Go to the web site www.thehorseshoof.com and read up about navicular. I have seen many written off horses returned to soundness

 

[robinson]

If you go to the site www.easycareinc.com you can ask questions directly to a top horse vet Dr Tom Teskey in his forum, who has cured many navicular horses