Mitchyden
Well-Known Member
This is a post which I have put on another forum and would like help with please.
"Zara has been lame since an endurance ride at the end of March. In April she had a full work up and with nerve blocks and scans it was discovered that she had damaged her tendon sheath. She also had x-rays and it was found she had arthritic fetlocks.
As Zara has made no improvement over the last four months, she went back to the vets and didn't come sound when the tendon sheath was nerve blocked. On further investigations, it was found that she has both heel and sole pain.
Over the last year I had my suspicions that she had developed navicular. She was very short striding especially on hard ground and had a pottery type of gait. She was completing her endurance events easily but never wanted to trot up for the vet which was unusual for her. This was looked into back in April and I was told that she didn't have navicular.
Am I being really stupid but I thought heel pain was navicular or could it be something else?
I tried taking Zara barefoot for a couple of years when she was diagnosed with her bone spavin and she always landed toe first. She was never 100% comfortable barefoot but was ok booted but I found the lack of traction a problem so I went back to shoes. Once she was shod, she started landing slightly flatter but was still toe first although not as bad as she was barefoot.
My vet has suggested trying egg bar shoes but if this is navicular then surely she would be better off going back to barefoot? But how can I make her more comfortable? I have thought about trying the Easyboot Transition and keeping her turned out 24/7 in them. Has anyone tried these?
I really don't know what to do with her as my gut feeling is not to put her in egg bars. Anyone have any ideas what I should do and is this navicular?"
I would add that although she was comfortable enough to work in boots, she still never stopped landing toe first. I cannot afford to send her to Rockly unfortunately and I'm going to have a battle with my vet to even take her shoes off! She actually seemed much more comfortable when her shoes were put back on so I'm contemplating leaving them on until the ground softens or should I remove them now?
"Zara has been lame since an endurance ride at the end of March. In April she had a full work up and with nerve blocks and scans it was discovered that she had damaged her tendon sheath. She also had x-rays and it was found she had arthritic fetlocks.
As Zara has made no improvement over the last four months, she went back to the vets and didn't come sound when the tendon sheath was nerve blocked. On further investigations, it was found that she has both heel and sole pain.
Over the last year I had my suspicions that she had developed navicular. She was very short striding especially on hard ground and had a pottery type of gait. She was completing her endurance events easily but never wanted to trot up for the vet which was unusual for her. This was looked into back in April and I was told that she didn't have navicular.
Am I being really stupid but I thought heel pain was navicular or could it be something else?
I tried taking Zara barefoot for a couple of years when she was diagnosed with her bone spavin and she always landed toe first. She was never 100% comfortable barefoot but was ok booted but I found the lack of traction a problem so I went back to shoes. Once she was shod, she started landing slightly flatter but was still toe first although not as bad as she was barefoot.
My vet has suggested trying egg bar shoes but if this is navicular then surely she would be better off going back to barefoot? But how can I make her more comfortable? I have thought about trying the Easyboot Transition and keeping her turned out 24/7 in them. Has anyone tried these?
I really don't know what to do with her as my gut feeling is not to put her in egg bars. Anyone have any ideas what I should do and is this navicular?"
I would add that although she was comfortable enough to work in boots, she still never stopped landing toe first. I cannot afford to send her to Rockly unfortunately and I'm going to have a battle with my vet to even take her shoes off! She actually seemed much more comfortable when her shoes were put back on so I'm contemplating leaving them on until the ground softens or should I remove them now?