Navicular, after treatment ... tell me your good news stories

[Bubblegum]

Our lovely, lovely TB was diagnosed with mild changes early this year. He is an amazing horse, full of courage and began to be inconsistent in his XC phase. ( most unusual for him ).
To cut a long story short, he had various treatments, and different shoeing.
He was treated at Rossdales, and our farrier is a Rossdales farrier and has shod him for over 6 years... so we are in good hands.
He has responded moderately well to early treatments : equigel, coffin joint injections etc. But we have always felt he was not quite right.
Finally he had a bursa joint injection. 8 weeks ago.
I hardly dare say this, but he feels great. We have had much heartache and bad luck in 2013, so I am being a bit cautious about this.....
But I am slowly hoping he may event again in 2014. He had just made it to Intermediate level when this happened
Am I daft???
Please tell me any of your own good news stories if you have them.
Thanks.

 

[superpony]

I also have a TB with navicular, he was diagnosed 3 years ago now. He started being nappy which was out of character for him, but he is no where near the level of your horse, he just did/does showjumping and dressage (recently registered him BD). He had Navilox and Egg bar shoes, this worked for him and he was fine for approximately 12 months then he rapidly went downhill. He was on two bute a day and could hardly walk, as a last ditch attempt before having him PTS I had his shoes taken off and chucked him out in the field. He had a year off in the field without bute and made a huge improvement, he is now sound, off bute and in work (recently had some time off due to a foot absess but until them was going brilliantly!). He has started jumping again and was due to go to his first BD dressage (foot absess day before - typical!). To think that I thought he was going to be pts, never mind rideable so to be able to jump and compete him again is brilliant and pretty unbelievable!

He was clearly much worse than your horse sounds but just to give you some hope.

 

[toomanyhorses26]

my horse had early changes plus associated soft tissue damage - just back from rockley - start of a long road but early signs are promising

 

[Lolo]

Nothing to add, but I really, REALLY hope he bounces out next year ready to take on the world and show everyone how cool he is.

 

[Busybusybusy]

My horse had a navicular diagnosis last year - was advised he would need remedial shoes or a neurectomy - ignored that and took his shoes off & sent him to Rockley - best thing I ever did!

Remedial shoeing is only a short term fix as it does nothing to improve the long term health of the foot, ultimately it exacerbates the problems, so please do your research & read the Rockley blog.

Yes your horse is likely to event again with remedial shoeing, but is very likely to go lame again in a year or so, with even more damage to repair.

There is hope but it's not likely to be through the shod route.

Good luck

 

[avthechav]

My horse went intermittently lame and was diagnosed with mild nav inflammation and start of wear to ddft, we are 12 weeks barefoot and vets are reassessing sat. He is in full work and feels great, the hard circle will tell all! ....eeeekkkk (bites fingers nervously!)

 

[Bubblegum]

Thank you all Lets keep a HHO batch of fingers xd for all our horses with Navicular!
He had an MRI and then the Bursa injection only 8 weeks ago... and he has had a very quiet time since then as his jockey has been away. But I'm hoping and hoping and hoping that he carries on feeling this great when his work picks up again.
I appreciate your messages of hope

 

[star]

Diagnosed with mild changes this year. Had coffin joint injections and they tried raised heels but he hated them. Had him shod by Liphooks remedial farrier and he's been great since then. Qualified for pretty much everything there is to qualify for this Autumn including Badminton Grassroots!

 

[Javabb94]

My 5 year old eventer has navicular but her x rays are pretty bad
,
she has egg bars on. I'm getting the vet out again asap as have a feeling something else going on. I don't really want to work her again knowing that in a year with just egg bars she could go rapidly downhill and be left in pain

It's such an awful thing to get and I'm devastated as she is so young

It's good to hear some positive stories though. Particular star and orange horse!

 

[Scarlett]

I'm currently bringing my TB mare back into work after a navicular diagnosis nearly 2 years ago. I went down the barefoot route immediately after diagnosis - the statistics for the numbers who return to full work after a barefoot rehab are far greater those treated with remedial shoeing it seems - and my Vet believes that the only way to truly fix issues with the feet is to remove shoes. I read the Rockley blog, got a good trimmer and in just 8 weeks I had a much happier, sounder horse. My mare had a foal which increased the time off she had, however we saw massive changes in her feet in just a few months. She's now looking fantastic and moving better than I remember from before, I'm sure her feet were bothering her for a lot longer than I had wanted to admit. I now have 4 barefoot, all have came far sounder than they ever were in shoes. IMO remedial shoeing may make things better initially but it's not a long term solution in most cases. I do laugh though at people who still consider navicular a death sentence, like it or not the numbers of barefoot horses are increasing due to the continued success of places like Rockley in curing horses who would have been written off/pts, and people are watching and listening.....

 

[Farma]

My horse did not cope with barefoot and we had to use remedial shoeing, she went on for around 11 years after diagnosis and was sound enough for low level dressage and hacking. A lot of people now use Tilden to great effect but at the time my horse was diagnosed this wasn't given as an option. Good luck with your horse, watch for stones ground and going downhill when hacking!!

 

[WellyBaggins]

Good luck OP, a mixed bag of replies so far! Mine was diagnosed in Feb, I have tried steroid injections in the nav bursa, tildren and remedial shoeing, none of which have helped my horse so frustrating, I have taken his shoes off and started riding him, he is better than in shoes but not sound enough to do anything more than plod about currently, I am still hoping he will improve further............

 

[TarrSteps]

You're always going to get mixed replies though, as 'navicular' is not *a* disease, it's a collection of possible problems. A fancy word for 'heel pain', especially in the past when there were fewer diagnostic options. It's also been pretty conclusively proven that x-rays are not necessarily predictive of level of discomfort or even prognosis. I know everyone knows all this now but it's important not to base your hopes or fears on other people's experiences.

I had one diagnosed at 5, shod with pads as was the fashion at the time. He evented consistently, doing 2 seasons at the equivalent to Novice then as a schoolmaster, for nearly 20 years. . .

Another was a good 1.10/1.20 horse. He was injected about every 6 months and did a couple of more years. I have no doubt there are MANY competition horses on similar programs with varying levels of success.

I know many others who were/are managed to do lower level stuff, with care paid to footing, workload etc.

I have not specifically done a barefoot rehab although it was pretty standard to pull shoes and turn away on the rough as a last resort for all sorts of things in the past and I've certainly seen some significant recoveries so maybe tradition knew a bit, too. I think it's certainly worth looking at, although even the most educated promoters don't say it's a guaranteed magic cure.

 

[Leg_end]

My story is this... I've had two navicular horses. One had a significant tear to his DDFT, we tried tildren, remedial shoes, you name it we threw it at him but we ended up PTS as he was never going to be a field ornament and wasn't sound on 4 bute a day The second is my current horse, he was diagnosed in Sept 12 and after trying the traditional options for a few months I didn't see enough of an improvement so sent him to Rockley. He has been sound since Jan 13, his X-rays show an improvement and is back competing and jumping. I am planning to event him next season.

I would agree with TS that it really is horses for courses and you need to find what works for your horse. Taking shoes off has worked for us and the majority of people I know - some of whom have been the Rockley route and some who have done it themselves - but I know a few it hasn't worked for. Those horses tend to have other issues which make managing a BF horse very difficult on a normal livery yard. Nic is currently updating her results but last time it was 85% returned to the same or higher level of work than they were at prior to the lameness.

 

[WellyBaggins]

It's also been pretty conclusively proven that x-rays are not necessarily predictive of level of discomfort or even prognosis. I know everyone knows all this now but it's important not to base your hopes or fears on other people's experiences.

I have not specifically done a barefoot rehab although it was pretty standard to pull shoes and turn away on the rough as a last resort for all sorts of things in the past and I've certainly seen some significant recoveries so maybe tradition knew a bit, too. I think it's certainly worth looking at, although even the most educated promoters don't say it's a guaranteed magic cure.

TS makes some valid points, mine only had minor bony changes on X-ray and trotted up sound straight line, lame right circle so probably not too bad but he felt awful, MRI a couple of months later showed Impar ligament strain as his "proper" diagnosis. As a last resort I am trying him barefoot as I would hate to feel I had not tried everything as I said in my earlier post he is sounder than he was with remedial shoes and the steroids and he is now sound on the lunge but he is still lame right fore in trot ridden but I am still hopeful!

 

[cptrayes]

My 5 year old eventer has navicular but her x rays are pretty bad
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It's good to hear some positive stories though. Particular star and orange horse!

Your vet should have told you that x rays tell you very little about foot lameness as the correlation between damage seen on the navicular bone and lameness is not strong.

If your horse had an mri scan, it is more likely that the lameness is caused by ddft, collateral ligament or impair ligament strain.

For any of those, the success rate for a barefoot rehab appears to be about four times that of the shoeing and medication route.

 

[star]

Mine had no soft tissue damage on MRI which probably explains why he's doing well. They noted changes to his navicular bone and distension of his coffin joints but soft tissue all ok. Prognosis for navicular syndrome definitely depends on what exactly is the underlying cause.

 

[cptrayes]

Mine had no soft tissue damage on MRI which probably explains why he's doing well. They noted changes to his navicular bone and distension of his coffin joints but soft tissue all ok. Prognosis for navicular syndrome definitely depends on what exactly is the underlying cause.

My understanding is that seeing no soft tissue damage at all is pretty rare. He's obviously a speshul horse I'm pleased yours worked out.

 

[Bubblegum]

My understanding is that seeing no soft tissue damage at all is pretty rare. He's obviously a speshul horse I'm pleased yours worked out.

Our boy has no soft tissue damage either. His MRI was very good. I have spoken to our vet again and he wants us to up his workload now, so I am keeping all my fingers crossed.

Thank you for all the replies.