Navicular Fracture Healing Success

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CMEklund

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Hey everyone,

I'm looking for some positive stories of your horses that fully recovered from a navicular fracture.

One of my girls came up lame one morning on her right front....long story short it took over a month for a hairline fracture to appear on the xray and officially a diagnosis. I am working with a lameness specialist and my farrier. Her current treatment is 6 months rest and therapeutic shoeing. We have our reassessment in a week (at the 6 month mark) and I'm feeling in the blues because she isn't fully sound. We are still mildly lame on hardground to the right and sometimes straight lines on hardground.

For those of you who had horses with navicular fractures, who made full recoveries back to riding, even performance, what was your timeline like? How long did you rest? When did you start rehab and what was your rehab? When were they fully sound on hardground? I know this injury takes a lot of time, and it's been a slow and steady process so maybe I'm just inpatient.

I'm also finding the more this horse walks around the better her soundness level. Did anyone else experience this?

She is a 3 year old QH mare cursed with tiny feet, but cute as button.

Thank you!
 
Maybe have a chat with your vet and farrier about taking off the shoes and going barefoot. Agree that remedial shoes would have offered support in the healing stages, but my personal opinion is that the foot now needs to start working properly, not be fixed into position by shoes. No experience of navicular fracture, but I have seen horses rehabbed through navicular changes back to soundness. Take a look at the information on line around navicular and barefoot working so that you can make an informed decision should you have a vet who thinks all horses should be shod.
 
I know one, a lovely young mare belonging to a friend I was offered on loan last summer due to her being incredibly well bred for SJ'ing (148) but after a year rehab and remedial she sadly did not come anywhere near sound enough for the teen daughter to compete on.
I think she would have been OK for a very gentle hacker, but I declined her due to the livery yard set up I was on at the time.
 
I bought my son a pony, and a few weeks later he kicked a wall and broke a hind navicular clean in 2, about 1/3 along it's length. I. can't remember the exact time scale, but it was a few weeks in a small yard, and then a small paddock. Maybe 6 months total? He had a heart bar on for 6 weeks, and then returned to barefoot. He came back in to full work, eventing/jumping/ hunting etc
 
CMEklund said:
Hey everyone,

I'm looking for some positive stories of your horses that fully recovered from a navicular fracture.

One of my girls came up lame one morning on her right front....long story short it took over a month for a hairline fracture to appear on the xray and officially a diagnosis. I am working with a lameness specialist and my farrier. Her current treatment is 6 months rest and therapeutic shoeing. We have our reassessment in a week (at the 6 month mark) and I'm feeling in the blues because she isn't fully sound. We are still mildly lame on hardground to the right and sometimes straight lines on hardground.

For those of you who had horses with navicular fractures, who made full recoveries back to riding, even performance, what was your timeline like? How long did you rest? When did you start rehab and what was your rehab? When were they fully sound on hardground? I know this injury takes a lot of time, and it's been a slow and steady process so maybe I'm just inpatient.

I'm also finding the more this horse walks around the better her soundness level. Did anyone else experience this?

She is a 3 year old QH mare cursed with tiny feet, but cute as button.

Thank you!
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Kind of, quite a long time ago: my friend’s hunter broke his and did 9 months box rest - and he was a total saint. Then started walking out in hand, grazing in hand, building up slowly but steadily. About a year after the original injury, he was fully sound and being hacked normally (altho didn’t get back hunting), brilliant.
And then unbelievably he did it again, stumbled a tiny bit awkward coming down the horse box ramp, and that was that. She didn’t want to put him or herself or family through anymore stress. But the vets (Leaverhulme, Liverpool) were fully satisfied as to the original fracture, said it was just pure bad luck.
Not exactly a happy ending, but optimistic for yours : best wishes.
 
My mare fractured her navicular bone in hind leg. 3 months box rest and bar shoes for a while. Then did handwalking for a month followed by small paddock turnout. Got back on after 4 months just walking out and building up to an hours walk. She was sound on and off for a year but then was fine. Still hacking out everyday, I jury was 5 years ago. She is used for dressage so still able to do that. It is a slow recovery but possible to overcome with patience and time.
 
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