Navicular - Naughty or in pain horse

[superpony]

Sorry in advance.. this may be quite long!

I have a 15.3hh 8 year old ex racer who i've owned for just over a yearm. When I bought him was very green but very willing and a quick learner. Last year and for most of this year hes never put a foot wrong. Hacked, schooled, jumped him, then in April/May time I took him to a couple of showjumping rallies, was a star. Then in early June he started being nappy to hack out and then not long after the same happened in the school, he got worse and got to the point as soon as you got on him he was running backwards, leaping, spinning, bucking and rearing. He'd gone from the most sweet, kind, easy and at times very lazy horse to devil horse to ride!!

Knew there was something wrong so had the vet, she found he was 1/10 lame on a circle, so he went to the vets for nerve blocks, xrays etc. They found he has navicular. He has extensive changes in his navicular bone in both front feet. She put him on navilox and 2 bute a day, field rest for 2 weeks then drop down to 1 bute a day and started riding again for 15/20 mins in walk slowly building him up.

Well I have ridden him a few times and been very good felt alot better, rode him yesterday he was a little nappy but i got him going before he had chance to start bucking or rearing.

Then today got him and straight away he was running backwards, bucking and rearing. And meaning business he was determined to get me off.

Now my worry is.. is it pain? Is the bute a day not enough especially with me riding and hes still in pain with his feet? Or is it behaviour that hes now learnt or hes remembering the pain?

Like I said he was fine for the past few rides didn't put a foot wrong, I never got off him when he was having tantrums before he was diagnosed (except when he bucked me off twice but got straight back on). Hes had everything else checked, teeth, back, saddle.

So i'm at a loss! Hes been checked in a few more weeks by the vet, but i dont want to keep riding him if hes in pain? I plan on ringing the vet on Monday and see what she says.

Opinions/Thoughts/Experiences? Thank you.

 

[Farma]

This is exactly what i went thru with my mare - she went from one thing to the other so quickly and would totally flip and bronc till i was on the floor it really knocked my confidence - she was diagnosed with navicular and she was treated with remedial shoeing successfully and i was told i could ride her gently in walk and a little bit of trot but by this time she had become unridable and very dangerous - i turned her away for a few years and ended up missing her too much so bought her back - anyway i thought id have a go at riding her again and low and behold she was totally different - very calm and accepting of being ridden and fingers crossed been sound and in full ridden work for the last 2 years - she has even done sponsored rides and has her first dressage test tomorrow. There is a light at the end of the tunnel but its fairly likely that its pain related and i was lucky that i could afford another horse whilst the other one had some much needed time off - if i had tried to persevere at the time i would have ended up getting seriously hurt.

 

[jacksmum]

Feel so sorry for you, what a horrible situation.
My 9 year old ex race did the same after being diagnosed with Navic and having had treatment.
We very quickly decided he was in pain and unfortunately things have got no better.
I was told to try him on Bute but as he was showing such extreme signs of pain without i was not prepared to mask it with Bute.
He has been out at grass since and has not improved but got worse.
I hope things get better for you.

 

[cobface]

We had a TBxID around 10 years ago, she was 6 when we started noticing changes in her behaviour, she started to rear and bolt alot and was un-cooperative we had the vet and after extensive tests found she had navicular. She never got better and was always lame despite everything she got. She was retired early but sadly got laminitus a few years ago and had to be PTS bit of a sad story really.
I dont know how things have progressed medically with navicular now, probably alot more than 10 years ago.

 

[Louby]

Same thing happened with a horse I had years ago. One day she started jogging on the road, not normal for her but didnt read into it too much. Then she started leaping and mini rears on hacks. She too was diagnosed with Navic.
Its so sad and I felt really bad when I found out as I thought she was being a witch at the time.
Good luck with your horse

 

[Jericho]

Exactly the same with mine I am afraid. Lovely quiet horse to hack, starting napping, jogging, humping his back when asked to canter, diagnosed navicular (although there was very little changes to the nav bone) but there were a lot of other problems as well caused by poor lower leg and foot confirmation. We tried more or less same treatment as you plus tildren and 6 months of remedial shoeing and 16 months of rest. He wasnt happy in himself as a field companion (worried constantly) and I tried to bring him back into light work but he hated it and was obviously very uncomfortable. I didnt see the point of masking the pain too much with bute because life always seemed a bit of a challenge for his mind anyaway and unfortunately (and I know you wont want to here this) we had my chap PTS a couple of weeks ago. His prognosis was never going to be good but he was 13 so older than your chap. AND there have been a lot of other very successful stories so you need to look into a bit more and only you and your vet can decide the best course of action,

I suspect your horse is still feeling pain so he needs to have more lameness work ups. Did they isolate the pain to a particular point? Have you tried riding on strong dose of bute? Try something completely different to schooling if that is where he has messed about recently.... see what he is like on a hack, alone or with a friend, lunging, free schooling? He could have something like low grade laminitis due to trauma to his feet, flush of grass - there might be other reasons why he is feeling pain. From what I learnt about navicular, or navicular syndrome which vets seem to use as a coverall prognosis for foot lameness nowadays, it is the effect of other facts not just a disease that happens....

You could even go barefoot route as that as helped many horses but get some advice on that as it is not just a question of taking shoes off i.e. need to look at diet, conditioning and it takes a while.

really really good luck, and fingers crossed for you both