Horses with Navicular, your experiences?

LydiaRow

LydiaRow

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Hi there,
Was just wondering if any of you out there have been in the same situation (sure a lot of you have). Would be great to know your experiences.

I have a 16.2hh, 15 year old, Skewbald, IDxTB. All her life she has been a keen hunter on hunting yards. She got diagnosed with Navicular last year, since then i have retiered her and she has been on buiet for the past year, recently the vet came out and said to take her off the buiet and see how she goes. As you can imagion, you cannot keep a horse going on medication for a long period of time as it is un fair and not humaine. She is looking slighty lame now. Please, would love to hear your storys.
 
I have had 2 horses diagnosed with navicular. Both were competing in dressage. The youngest was diagnosed at age 14 and he was working at Advanced Medium affiliated. I retired both of them from competition and gave up schooling as the tight circles were not good for them. Basically, they became happy hackers and both of them came sound after about a year. Neither of them were on bute. The only time there is any sign of a problem is when the ground gets really hard and then I just pick my going and ease off a bit. My older horse lived to age 30. The younger one is now 25 and is going great. Navicular is a syndrome and as such can vary in each horse - its not necessarily a death sentence.
 
Took one one two years ago after a long term of lameness (and over £5,000 worth of vet treatment and remedial shoeing) and about to be put down for humane reasons due to poor qulaity of life. Gave him a barefoot rehab with a complete change of diet and he was sound in about 3 months. He is now rock crunching barefoot, National show winner, and hunts.

Take a look at rockleyfarm.blogspot.com for plenty of others like him.
 
Yes, I would emphasise as the others have said that foot balance is the key to this and if you could try going down the barefoot route you may find a solution.
 
Slioghtly different but something I am sure has a similar prognosis?
My mare was recently (Jan 30th this year) diagnosed with ringbone, sidebones and DJD, Verdict? Light hack only for life. This was NOT the case. I felt like the bottom of my world had fallen out but my mare decided that she didn't want to lead this life. We gave it ago but she was a nut and miserable.

She has been bare foot for about 6 months, And my vet believes that being bare foot has been paramount to keepig her sound (could be different for others but this has made a huge difference to her) She is now coming back into full work with a bute morning and evening on the days she is ridden which we are hoping to wean her off of once she is fit.

I think each horse copes differently, and mine worsened when she was in lighter work.
Just do what you think is right, your horse will tell you when they aren't coping :)
 
Mine was diagnosed a year ago, we went down the nerve blocks/x-ray route. He went on a course of navilox and bute. He had gel pads in his shoes for a few months. Eventually these caused abscesses so had to come out, he couldn't wear them all the time anyway.
He's ok, not on any medication. just have to be careful with regards to hard ground and roadwork (which we don't do anyway). We've been advised to do as much exercise as possible, to encourage blood flow, and he's shod every 6 weeks. His feet do look good, and we've had no issues *touches wood*. Just need to be careful is all.

We're lucky in that our farrier is the vet's farrier (if that makes sense), and he answers all the questions I have,and knows how he's progressing etc. My horse is 15 and thrives on work, and he'll tell me when enough's enough.
 
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