Intermittent lameness please help!!!

Mine is getting his shoes off today all being well, I am taking the approach that he is now retired until at least the summer, can do a wee bit of work in hand in the meantime, and we will see how he gets on. He was shod with wedges but they haven't really made a difference. If he is unsound with shoes then he may as well be unsound without. He is on a daily danilon at present which has really taken the edge off and he is in great form now.
 
What Sheep says is true. Many horses are returning to full work after a navicular diagnosis, so please don't feel it's the end of the world. Did you read any of the Rockley blog mentioned earlier in this thread? If not, go and have a read. :)
 
He's had a treatment called tildren. This hasn't helped at all. My vet has stated that his x-rays were very bad. I had a look at the Rockley blog, as I said it's hard to go against the advice of my vet and farrier but I am considering it as nothing else has worked yet and I am broke now :(. Vets said the only other thing the could do is operate and take away the feeling but I'm not willing to do that.
 
I would get yourself round the internet and gather as much information as you can about navicular and barefoot horses, it is possible to transition them at home with minimal financial outlay (compared to other treatments). I'd also suggest you get a good trimmer on board if your farrier isn't (someone used to doing rehab cases)

There is also this forum which is friendly and helpful

phoenixhorse.myfastforum.org

and I have a copy of feet first that was written by nic barker that I am happy to send if you would like to read it.
 
(QUOTE=LauraJay;12411868]It was navicular.[/QUOTE]

Only just seen your post and did wonder if it could be navicular because same symptoms as my girl 3 years ago. With a change of routine, a good farrier and keeping her weight down she's been fine. Navicular is manageable with help from your vet, farrier or BF trimmer and a routine where they are kept moving as much as possible.

My girl went lame earlier this year but after lameness investigation and nerve blocking the pain isn't due to the navicular but from a serious injury to her suspensory branches and OA in her fetlock :(
 
Thanks everyone. The lady I share with is barefoot so I'm going to speak to her podiatrist and see if he has any experience with navicular. He isn't been ridden at the moment so hopefully shouldn't make too much difference to him as he's just chilling in the field. I just want him to be comfortable as all he does is mope about at the minute. His field pal gallops to the gate when I arrive but he just ambles along behind - isn't nice to see.
 
I feel for you OP, I'm going through something similar ATM only mine has been diagnosed with quite severe arthritis and she's not even 12 yet. Started in October last year being about 2/10ths lame, vet came, two weeks box rest and bute, appeared to help, vet gave ok to start gentle hacking and then she had a bout of colic a week later. Farrier wasn't happy with her, she was very uncomfortable being shod so ask vet if ok to get a Physio out. Physio came out, didn't want to treat as lame but did some work on her back as had lots of muscle spasms and it did relieve her (obviously compensating a lot). She went to the hospital for full lameness work up, bi laterally lame in both hinds at the hocks, both hocks injected with steroids and tildren given. Two weeks paddock rest and the gentle hacking, vet comes back out, still lame in nr hind so reinjects it. Another two weeks rest etc.

Then she has a bout of laminitis (fortunately caught in time), she's on full livery, I was away for weekend, she was wormed and I had had her on a joint supplement (which I now know glucosamine might have also been a trigger). Got vet to come out and check her, been on box rest to get her off the grass and she was now 5/10ths lame in the hind. Back to the hospital for more X-rays etc, she now has a bone spur on her hock. Got my farrier to pull her back shoes after the laminitis as she was lame with them on and we both thought she might find her own balance/grow the hoof to suit her. She has very good feet as already on a barefoot diet due to her type. Vet wasn't too happy but then agreed she wasn't at all footsore and I didn't need to put them back on:rolleyes: Fortunately my farrier is quite old school as was taught that shoes were a necessary evil and if we could do without then so much the better.

It's been nearly a month now, no more signs of laminitis (X-rays showed no changes), taken her off the joint supplement and changed her balancer to one with more magnesium, pro and pre bio tics etc, managing to get her on some turnout but am constricted by livery yard, aiming for 24/7 turnout soon as she is better being kept moving. She will have to come in in winter but for now she is more sound. Am going to go on a small hack for the the first time today depending on how she is, I am very slight so no weight for her and I feel she is better when kept moving and she has to be in this pm due to sugars in the grass ATM. She also seems more comfortable without the back shoes on - how can nailing shoes on be any good for her?

My farrier thinks the vets have created a toxic horse with her with all the hock injections, nerve blocks, tildren, me giving her a joint supplement, lack of exercise (I was hacking 4/5 times a week). Vet now wants to do a bone scan, inject the top hock joint and has also suggested surgery on the hock - we are talking about a happy hacking cobby cart pony here, not the next Valegro. Not sure I want to do any of this (insurance runs out in six months) and feel I should have gone with my gut when she colicked 6 months ago ie taken off her shoes and turned her away for the winter. I feel I have failed her to a certain degree. For all the vets have pumped into her, nothing has worked.

Apologies, that turned into a bit of a ramble :o

I wish you all the luck in the world - I'm hoping time and patience will help me (not sure how long I can give it as husband is paying £500 per month to keep a pony I haven't been able to ride properly for six months and may not be able to for the foreseeable).
 
Another horse on our yard with navicular had tildren and it didn't seem to work initially but she improved after about 4 weeks. I know the horse was just shod on the front after box rest but wouldn't go forward, she's now shod all round and is moving much better.

I don't think there is a fix all which suits every horse but there are options and you seem to be exploring them all so hopefully you'll find something that helps him even if it takes a little while.
 
It's been three weeks since he had the tildren. He was initially shod on all four but I've had the backs taken off - £175 every 5 weeks is alot for a student with a part time job! It's just hard knowing what is best for him right now because everybody has something different to say.
 
Faracat said:
Really you've got nothing to lose and everything to gain by trying a BF rehab.
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This.

I totally understand where you are coming from re: going against advice of farrier and vet. I was advised by a number of posters on here (including ester above who has very kindly offered you the Nic Barker book ;) ) to try the unshod approach; my horse has a slightly different issue but ultimately the treatment is very similar to the navicular approach, ie medicate joint and shoe with wedges. Mine seemed sound at first (he was treated in Oct) but went lame again in January.

The vet and farrier thought I was nuts when I initially suggested taking shoes off - my farrier came round to the idea when I put it to him in the context that he is lame regardless, so he may as well be lame without the expense of shoes as he would be the same in shoes anyway.

Anywho the shoes eventually came off almost 3 weeks ago, and so far he is doing very well indeed. I haven't ridden him yet - that won't come for a wee while yet, as I need to build him up slowly due to other issues - but he is striding out confidently across various surfaces and when I tentatively trotted him up on a circle a few days ago he looked the soundest he has in probably 8 months.

I can't predict the course of how he will do over the coming months but I am cautiously optimistic that he will return to work. How much work I do not know, but I am hoping he will be able to hack and possibly do some light work in the school.

I am not on a yard with any fancy facilities, though we have year round turnout, on both hilly and flat fields, some nice smooth concrete areas and some gravelly areas, the sandschool and easy access to a fairly smooth tarmac road. It isn't perfect but it isn't a bad compromise, and I make an effort to do something with him across a variety of surfaces a couple of times a week. He knows what he can and cannot cope with so I let him show me to an extent what he's comfortable with. It seems to be working for us so far.
 
It is worth saying that those on here that suggest it are only doing so because they now have sound horses where they previously had lame ones (and yup we only had a field and the roads really - did make a small gravel area but shouldn't have bothered in hindsight!) - going from lame to hoping for a bit of light hacking to a veteran you can take out hunting/dressaging/basically enjoying yourselves can make you quite keen on taking shoes off ;)
 
My horse has very slight intermittent lameness every few months and eventually MRI scan showed up inflammation of the nav bone itself and very early signs of wear to the ddft. The consultant prescribed Tildren and told me to keep shoes on but having read as much as possible I decided to barefoot rehab...( luckily my normal vet is very supportive) the winter has been hard and we have had a couple of abscesses and annoying niggles and I am now starting work again so a watch this space! But I would definately research barefoot rehab and have a look on the phoenix barefoot forum.

Good luck!
 
ester said:
It is worth saying that those on here that suggest it are only doing so because they now have sound horses where they previously had lame ones
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This is true. I was very lucky though, my mare was comfortable on concrete, tarmac, in the sand school and the field straight away. She got better with stones as time went on.
 
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