I just got a msg from the lady that bought my mare....

elliegirl12

elliegirl12

Well-Known Member
Joined
18 March 2007
Messages
1,415
Location
hampshire
Visit site
Hi I sold my beautiful grey because at the time I couldn't afford to keep her, about 5months ago now she flew through the vetting we never ever had a problem with lameness whatsoever for the 5years I had her :( appart from when she strained her check ligament when we first got her, well I just received a message from the lady that bought her saying she has navicular, she was jumping 1m10 schooling beautifully and everything when we sold her I don't know what on earth to say back I was so shocked she was saying she is definetly not going to jump again and her ridden carreer is more then likely over and that it might have to be the end of her life she is only 10 :( is this right they cannot have a ridden carreer? I am absoloutley speechless :(
 
I don't think her ridden career is over, though it would depend on how bad it is. I loaned a lovely mare with navicular several years ago. She could still jump etc :o
 
How awful for you... :0(

I think (and I am no vet!) that 'navicular' is a bit of a catch all word now for numerous foot problems of various bones, and tendons (?) around the navicular bone in the foot, so without more detailed vet information its not possible to say whether 'navicular' means the end of all ridden work....
 
When our mare was 7 ( a year after we bought her) we were told she had 'navicular syndrome'. After the initial shock and panic we investigated as much as we could, the vet did xrays and nerve blocking but nothing 'conclusive'. We made the decision not to go down the MRI route after hearing that it may not confirm or deny the diagnosis - We put her on medication at first with 4 months box rest and then 5 - 10 minutes of hand grazing for another month then 15 minute turnout a day for another month - and so on. Three years on she is sound and has been competing at show jumping up to 1m10.

Admittedly not every case is the same but is it Navicular or Navicular Syndrome.
 
I think that it depends on the severity of the navicular. I had an intermediate event mare, she was putting in extra strides into her fences and sometimes putting in a stop. Xrayed and she had navicular. Far from being unrideable, I hunted her with the Warwickshire, teamed chased. Moved to Wales and hunted her with a farmers pack. Bred 2 foals, one became an event horse, the other a dressage horse. I was just careful about hard ground and unecessary road work, and avoided drop fences. So in my opinion there is life after discovering your horse has navicular.
 
My friend had a mare with Navicular and she was fine to be excercised on soft ground such as sand surface, it was only hard ground that she struggled with. I think it depends on the severity of it, there is Navicular Syndrome and Navicular disease. it effects the Navicualr bone that is near the coffin bone which is in the hoof and there are ligaments that support this and a sack of fluid called the bursa, and it is to do with disruption to these ligaments etc that causes Navicular. i dont think they know what causes it other than various things like tension, compression, bad shoeing some confirmation etc, work - uphill work, alot of galloping jumping etc, anything that would put pressure on that area that can make the ligaments etc flex / over flex.
As for work it depends how bad it is, it cant be cured, but i think it is managable with drugs and proper shoeing as well, depending on the severity of it, any excersise that envolves putting pressure / flexion on that area will become painful at some point, so i presume it can get worse too.
im really not a vet so im a bit vague, sorry, but i hope it helps you a little.
xx
 
If it were diagnosed from xrays then it means that the bony changes associated with navicular were visible on the xray.
They can get a decent idea of how badly degenerated the bone is from the xrays ,in this case ,and can therefore offer a semi accurate prognosis.

You cannot predict how fast the condition will deteriorate and how successful the remedial work will be to the horse.

They may be able to get the horse sound again :)
 
You are obviously shocked and upset because you didn't sell her with a known problemn. Can she be ridden - depends whether it's true navicular in the navicular bone or, as someone else mentioned earlier, a problem in the foot which these days seems to be called navicular syndrome. It would also depend how advanced it is. Yes she may have to take things easier but doesn't mean she can't be ridden. Surely, the vet will have given her advice on what she should and shouldn't do?
 
How awful for you.
I had a horse with Navic a few years ago and I was devastated at the time.
My vet said most horses if xrayed will have changes that will show on xray even though the majority arent lame. It may be that it has been going on for some time, just like lots of other horses out there but you never knew as there was never a problem with lameness.
Do you think that she is having a go when she is saying its been going on for some time as if thats the case then her grievence should be with the vet not you as the horse passed the vetting. Surely if it was an ongoing problem she would have failed the vet.
 
I am not sure if she was trying to have a go, I am absoloutley devastated! Got another email saying she is having the special webbed shoes? And see how sound she is and nerve blocking to see whether she is in pain apparently she was looking at putting her in foal next year, the first email she sent me saying her future was bleak! But apparently vet has said she would breed a perfect foal she has a fantastic temp and is very well put together is what her vet said, he said at first that it was a splint forming she always had shoes on whilst she was with us with not a lot of road work but she decided to take them off when she got her with quite a bit of road work, I doubt this has anything to do with it but a month later she was lame, she flew through the vetting with no lameness after a flexion test etc etc :(
 
Navicular is certainly not the career-ending prognosis that it once was. My vet used to treat a GP show jumper who continued to compete at the top level with navicular.

My horse is currently at Rockley Farm with suspected "navicular syndrome" - he has likely DDFT or collateral ligament damage but we didn't MRI. Rockley has had amazing results with very serious cases so maybe point the owner towards their blog (rockleyfarm.blogspot.com). Nic at Rockley is extremely helpful and would happily have a chat with her to see if she can help!
 
Taking the shoes off won't have caused navicular. Poor hoof balance can. Do you think she would be open to investigating Rockley Farm? Long-term I suspect that would give her mare a much better chance of a ridden future. Normally the horses get the special shoes on, then other special shoes on... and when it all doesn't work, well, they had navicular so what can you expect? But Rockley Farm are proving that navicular can be treated and so far the majority of the horses they've worked with in their clinical trial have gone on to be able to live useful and active lives. I wouldn't hesitate now if this were to happen with one of mine.
 
If her vet has told her to use the mare for breeding with navicular then she needs to change her vet :-(

No wonder people breed duff foals if that's the sort of professional advice they are getting grrrrr !!
 
wonkey_donkey said:
If her vet has told her to use the mare for breeding with navicular then she needs to change her vet :-(

No wonder people breed duff foals if that's the sort of professional advice they are getting grrrrr !!
Click to expand...

echo this

Also while this is not nice and I am probably totally wrong here, but make sure you don't end up offering to have her back through being made to feel guilty in anyway if it is not what you want.

I only mention this as a friend sold her horse then 8 months later was told he was going to be pts because had been diagnosed with navicular and vet said he would never be sound etc etc. Turns out new owner just didn't want to try and treat it and was hoping my friend would just take him back and look after him. While my friend probably would have done, she just wasn't in a position to be able too as she was nursing her terminally ill mom
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top