Navicular and diet - help!

[maggie123]

Hi all,

I posted a few weeks ago about my mares mystery lameness. Well its a mystery no longer and she has just been diognosed with navicular syndrome (nerve blocks and x-rays). My vet says we've caught it early and that she is positive she will be back working again with a combination of shoeing and medication. She has just had raised wedges put on and we will look to put in eggbars if these dont have the desired affect on their own. Drugs wise she will start on a course of cartrophen tomorrow and we will look at other options after this if necessary.

At the moment her feet aren't great and the walls are pretty thin, particularly in some areas which coincide with the wear on her shoes from standing awkwardly recently.

She is 16.1 IDxTB, slightly on the heavy side although not obese and 14 1/2 years old. She is used three or four times a week for light work mainly hacking, schooling and occassional jumping. She is a very good doer.

No onto the bit I need advice with - feed and suppliments. I've always fed a small amount of pasture mix, unmolassed chaff and some sugar beat in the winter and never really given her diet much thought. She is on good grazing and gets haylage over night. I've just done a bit of reading up about feeds on the net and my head is spinning a bit!!! Is what she is on ok for her given the condition? Are sugar beat and pasture mix still ok?

With regard to suppliments my vet suggested cortaflex and farriers formular to help build up her feet and joints. Are there any other suppliments I should be feeding? Perhaps a general vit and min suppliment or would this mean she was getting too much of certain minerals that are also in cortaflex and farriers formular?

Who knew feeding horses was so complicated, now she not only gets her back, teeth and feet seen to more than I do (never!) but her diet microanalysed as well....

(also where is the best place to bulk order the above? I looked online and its seems like I would be much better off ordering cortaflex from america as it seems to be about a third of the price... do any of you do this?)

Thanks for the help, this is a new area for me and I just want to make sure Im feeding her the best diet for her feet.

 

[Farma]

My mare sounds similar to yours - she is a 16'1 suffolk x so fairly heavy and a very good doer. She was diagnosed with navicular around 9 years ago and her weight has fluctuated but never had any effect on her soundness.
She has recently started on cortaflex but more for general wellbeing than navicular in particular.
She is fed a handful of chaff and mix twice a day mainly so she gets a feed along with the others.

 

[intouch]

This should be fun............

 

[maggie123]

Thanks.

Yeah - you've got to love the big girls. I love her irish levelheadedness and I blame her thoroughbred daddy for her bad feet!

Glad you haven't noticed any changes in soundness due to weight, thats reassuring.

Have you noticed a difference since using cortaflex?

 

[maggie123]

This should be fun............

Have I opened a massive can of worms?
Guess I will have to sift the wheat from the chaff (badoomboom) in terms of advice


(And talk to my vet and yo as well obviously)

 

[Farma]

Thanks.

Yeah - you've got to love the big girls. I love her irish levelheadedness and I blame her thoroughbred daddy for her bad feet!

Glad you haven't noticed any changes in soundness due to weight, thats reassuring.

Have you noticed a difference since using cortaflex?

Well its difficult to say because she only started on it recently and yes she has improved but at the same time she started on it she had phsio and the ground improved so its hard to tell what was the determining factor, maybe all of them? Time will tell though.

Mine has nice feet so Im very lucky and has managed well and has stayed sound for quite a while just with wedge pads to raise the heels, Ive never had her on anything additional but they all cope differently so what will work for one wont work for another, she has bad days but this is usually due to hard ground. I have had to be careful with going downhill, stony ground and hard ground but other than that you would never know she had navicular!

 

[NicoleS_007]

Keep an eye on you horses way of going with those wedges. My boy was diagnosed with a chipped nav bone so was put in wedge's to shift the weight onto the toe, to make him more comfortable. It made him worse. He got them off after 6 weeks. He started off fine then became very uncomfortable, he would constantly buck due to it and his canter looked as if he was troting behind and cantering infront. They came off in exchange for concussion pads and normal shoes, after a week of his tendons being swollen from the shift in height he was back to his normal happy go lucky self. The wedges stretch the muscle at the front of the leg and condense the tendon at the back so when they come off and the leg is returned to its normal stance everything swells. My horse could barely walk the first day they came off, he kept tripping and nearly fell on his face so was box rested for a week until the swelling had gone. I have pictures of his feet the first time they came off. My previous farrier also told me that after 2 years in those my horse would be crippled as they crush the coffin bone (I think thats the bone). On the feed front my boys feed stayed the same with no problems, mix, cubes chaff etc

 

[Farma]

Keep an eye on you horses way of going with those wedges. My boy was diagnosed with a chipped nav bone so was put in wedge's to shift the weight onto the toe, to make him more comfortable. It made him worse. He got them off after 6 weeks. He started off fine then became very uncomfortable, he would constantly buck due to it and his canter looked as if he was troting behind and cantering infront. They came off in exchange for concussion pads and normal shoes, after a week of his tendons being swollen from the shift in height he was back to his normal happy go lucky self. The wedges stretch the muscle at the front of the leg and condense the tendon at the back so when they come off and the leg is returned to its normal stance everything swells. My horse could barely walk the first day they came off, he kept tripping and nearly fell on his face so was box rested for a week until the swelling had gone. I have pictures of his feet the first time they came off. My previous farrier also told me that after 2 years in those my horse would be crippled as they crush the coffin bone (I think thats the bone). On the feed front my boys feed stayed the same with no problems, mix, cubes chaff etc

Its interesting he said he would be crippled after 2 years with wedges yet mine had gone 9 years and been fine?

 

[Ladylina83]

Its interesting he said he would be crippled after 2 years with wedges yet mine had gone 9 years and been fine?

I'm a barefoot believer - but had a pretty good farrier before I gave up on shoes, he always said that his lecturer used to use wedges to chuck at them to get thier attention as Quote " that is all they were good for !"


... I'm sure the rest of the barefoot brigade wil be along to help shortly !

Sorry about your bad news but don't worry it is not the end of the world

 

[Farma]

I'm a barefoot believer - but had a pretty good farrier before I gave up on shoes, he always said that his lecturer used to use wedges to chuck at them to get thier attention as Quote " that is all they were good for !"


... I'm sure the rest of the barefoot brigade wil be along to help shortly !

Sorry about your bad news but don't worry it is not the end of the world

I make you right, barefoot is often the way forward, in my case and others it wasnt. I tried barefoot for some time with careful management and it simply didnt work for us whereas wedges have provided instant and long term relief that I hope will remain a solution for a long time to come.

 

[NicoleS_007]

Its interesting he said he would be crippled after 2 years with wedges yet mine had gone 9 years and been fine?

I didnt believe him until my boy started going downhill. He used to shoe him before his diagnoses, the vets farrier put the wedges on and as soon as i got him home from the vets with the 'stiletto's' as i liked to call them lol that was the first thing that farrier said. But his werent the pads, they were aluminium wedge shoes. Then I got a different farrier to take them off and he said they were quite severe and heavy so know wonder he was in pain.