Longterm outlook on navicular

[curlypoppet]

Hi i'm new so please bear with me.I am really looking for advice .My daughter has a 15'3 Irish Tb who is 12.Two months ago,he was diagnosed with navicular in both front and ringbone in one.The first signs of this were intermittent lameness,but he had started to trip quite often.Anyway,he has had his first set of remedial shoes on and is due the next this week.My problem is this,my daughter currently lives abroad and will be back in the spring next year.The horse had been due to go on loan,when the navicular was diagnosed,the lady still wanted to take him on even knowing she couldn't ride him .This has been wonderful and she looks after him brilliantly.But what i am trying to work out,is if he continues to be lame in the forseeable future and is unrideable,what do others do in a situation like this?I have no problem paying for him to live out his life without being ridden so long as he is happy and not in pain.My husband,who is non-horsey,thinks it would be mad to keep him as a pet ,and that we should sell him on.This is out of the question for me and my daughter.The vet's diagnosis was the shoes,box rest and that the best outcome would be very very light work.Does anyone have any similar experiences?I just don't know what to do for the best.

 

[cptrayes]

Search this forum (button on the brown strip towards the top of the page) for "barefoot navicular" and you will find a wealth of information which will help. Have a look at Rockleyfarm.blogspot.com for stories and pictures of many "navicular" horses which were written off by vets and farriers which are now in full work.

 

[maggiesmum]

^^^ This. Far too many horses are written off by vets because they don't realise (or want to accept) that there is another way!

 

[ESH]

I can agree with taking a Navicular horse barefoot, I did with my mare (a 3/4 TB x 1/4 ID) about 6 years ago. With the help of a barefoot trimmer, hoof boots, patience, time and a lot of learning along the way she came right and would have gone back in work, except a hock injury limited what I could do with her, so I retired her and bred from her and 2 1/2 years ago she gave me a perfect foal and she is now enjoying life with new owners as a light hack.

The hardest part was going against the advice of the vets. The best day was the day she went back to the vets to show them she could now trot up sound on any surface without her hoof boots.

 

[sbloom]

If your husband thinks this through, he'll realise that he's expecting someone else to keep him as a pet, or must realise that he'll end up going for meat or similar. PTS is better than passing him on as he is, obviuosly a good reliable loan home would work, but I'd be cynical that someone who was taking a riding horse on loan would genuinely want, and want to care for, a pasture ornament in the same way.

GIve him the best chance of an actual recovery and learn all you can about the condition, and the treatment options - barefoot would be my choice as well. There are no success stories from any other treatment methods that I've seen - all they do is slow down deterioration at best.