Horse with navicular syndrome

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ShazzD

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Hi everyone
My 5yr old horse has recently been diognosed with a number of issues
1.Degenerative joint disease (DJD) of both front coffin and pastern joints.
2. Mediolateral imbalance with the inside of the front pedal bones being lower.
3. Formed side bone on the outside of both front pedal bones.
4. Formed osteophytes on the dorsolateral aspect of the short pastern bone of the RF foot.
5. Both front navicular bones show a rough dorsal border, a greater number of synovial invaginations than normal, and reactive osteophyte on their dorsal border.
6. The RF navicular bone shows a central crescent shaped lucency in its distal border. This is seen in young horses during navicular stress but its clinical significance in unknown
7. Thoracic back pain.
Which my vet is very shocked that a young horse could have so many problems with a very low mileage.
I was basically wondering if anyone else has had a horse with the combination of the problems stated above and if the horse was treated and what was the out come. :(
Thanks
 
God bless you!

My old mare had djd & then a year down the line got navicular. It was due to her having 1 smaller front foot which at vetting the vet wasn't worried about but they should have been clearly!

She had cortisone injections for the djd & was sound for a year & better than ever until she got her navicular. We did tilldrin & they said she should be sound within 6 months a year down the line she still wasn't so she heartbreakingly went as a companion, few months later she came sound & spent a couple of years hacking & doing dressage whilst popping little logs

Had I have known then what I know now I would have took her barefoot
 
Well it is all connected at least and am not surprised the horse has some thoracic back pain with all that going on in the front feet!

Please consider transitioning this horse to barefoot as I suspect that is it's best chance for a successful outcome. At the very least do some reading up on it before deciding to go on any other route so that you at least make an informed choice :).

It is possible to do at home, sometimes with the correct help or send them away to Rockley farm. Either way Nic at Rockley is worth an email. The horse's feet are amazing at the sort of self repair they can do. From your list the DJD could resolve (my lad had this diagnosis 3 years ago and no degeneration yet, just improvement!) The sidebone will likely stay but there are horses with very large sidebones that are much better without shoes on where they can grow the feet they need to compensate too.
The ML balance and potentially some of the boney changes (Legend a poster on here had boney changes to the navicular bone that went when they re-xrayed after a spell at rockley) can be improved.

Diet, movement and minimal trimming are the keys, there is loads of stuff on the internet to read, most of us are quite normal and not too evangelist ;)

http://rockleyfarm.blogspot.co.uk/
 
We have been back and forth to the vets asking questions and finding out treatment plans, he is already barefoot with regular checks and trims and my vet sudjests that he has corrective shoeing alongwise injections and drips.
 
Do you have any pictures of his feet? Those that are bare that seem to end up with navicular diagnosis do seem to end up with the long toes/low heels that tend to go with it. If it were me I would still want to speak to Nic/send her some pictures before deciding to shoe, and tbh having a horse that only has a prognosis of being able to walk in straight lines would be a no go for me :(.
 
Yes and it showed in a six year old horse, he was broken at five. However it was not straight forward. he had a cancerous growth in his third eyelid at five and although it appeared to be removed in full it can lead to hypertrophic bone cancer, he had growths of extra good bone on all his feet bones and all the cartilages turned to bone. I did have him denerved and he was comfortable for nine months and then went lame again and was put down as they could not repeat the operation due to scar tissue and extra bone growth. It was about a one in a million chance so very unlucky.
 
i haven't got any pictures of his feet to hand, but something the vet did say was that it's his confirmation that has caused the issue as his unbalanced heels, but every time I have the farrier out for my other horse and my friends horse my farrier has checked his feet and we alway asked if he thought his feet were ok I.e. Did he need shoeing, any problems ect ect and he always said he was fine and this is every 4-5 week from the day I brought him ☹
 
I had mine for 8 until and issue flared up, stencilface who has a thread on here about just delivering her boy to rockley has has hers since she was a kid and is now in her 30s. It doesn't mean they do a generally bad job just that some horses will throw something at them that they can't sort. (Mine admitted he knew nothing about barefoot rehab/working barefoot horses so suggested I get someone else on board- he still shoes my mums horse). Does your farrier have many hard working barefoot on his books/deal with hoof pathologies without shoes. I think at this stage when your horse is quite broken a second opinion wouldn't hurt at least.
 
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