navicular - treatments?

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tinker88

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My boy was diagnosed with navicular 3 years ago, he has a supply of bute, egg bar shoes, and had tildren iv.

All this kept him comfy for a year or so, but im starting to see him go down hill again, he dosnt move right, looks awkward when hes moving.

SO its time for more x-rays. and im wanting to try a different vets, i wasnt happy with the ones i used.

So what other options are there, and what apart from him being a field orniment and living on bute will keep him ok? I also worry about the long term effects of bute etc.

any suggestions/help?

p.s - insurance wont pay out now, so its down to my pocket :( - hes 17yrs old
 
If your wanting a different Vets to look at your horse, I used Peter Scholefield from Hird & Partners in Halifax, not too far away from you. Peter is a fantastic vet and they specialise in lameness issues. My mare had a DDFT tear and he was spot on with her treatment and recovery. Cant recommend him highly enough. PM me if you want more details. I do know that clients are referred to Hirds from all over the country.
 
This is Schoko from my yard.

If you look at the cost breakdown you can see what is cheaper!

http://www.progressivehorse.co.uk/html/shoko.html

Rockley Farm specialise in rehabbing lame horses and have excellent results for naviculars returning to full soundness. That's bony changes as well as soft tissue.

With the RIGHT support it is highly possible to obtain the same results at home. But you need to do your research first and know what you're doing. You would also be going against your vet and possibly farrier's advice - so you would be on your own.

However if you manage to rehab the horse please be aware that he would be sound with no further shoeing costs or drug treatment costs. So your future would be much cheaper and with a sound horse!

The UKNHCP forum is a good place to start. That's where we Rockley Farm trogladites hang out:)
 
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Yep, another for Rockley farm, i had a horse lame for 2 years while the vets tried to work out what would work. So i sent him to Rockley 4 months later sound and able to go hunting on his last day.......and now 11 months at home and going strong, hunting, jumping, x-country, hacking on roads and tracks........i had two choices, pts or Rockley, i had nothing to lose....x
 
My horse was recently diagnised with navicular and DDFT.

He had Tildren but then MRI showed DDFT so never actually brought him back into work.

I did a lot of research and I have gone down the barefoot route, my boy went to Rockley farm on thursday. For me it was an easy choice because Dillon's prognosis wasn't great and I couldn't/wouldn't box rest him like the vets suggested.

The other reason I have gone down the barefoot route is because it is (hopefully) going to help improve the root cause of the issue by encouraging his foot to do what it needs to do rather than treat the symptom which for me is what remedial shoes, tildren, bute etc do.

I should point out I am in no way an expert but speaking to Nic at Rockley and doing my own research it makes a lot of sense to me. It is too early to say whether it will help my boy, but I have my fingers crossed!

Good luck with your boy whatever you decide - I know its not easy.
 
My gelding was diagnosed about 12 years ago, caught it early. Did all the remedial shoeing, drugs to improve blood flow etc etc. After the downhill spiral, I decided to try barefoot, (I have a typical flat footed TBx who went sore in one day after frequently losing shoes)
It was the best thing I ever did - five years ago - taking those nailed on iron shoes off. I was back riding him again within six months and hacking out, off bute and biotin after twelve and hacking out for hours, booted if necessary and then back to bare for turnout.
Now my TB has beautiful hard, thick walled, non splitting, chipping hooves and is perfectly sound in the field and happy to walk to a fro on the tarmac roads. I can't recommend it highly enough - BUT, I echo posters before, this isn't an easy route. I went against my vet and farriers advice and you get dissapproving people thinking you are being cruel so you need to be 100% committed and follow all the barefoot advice. That means the bare foot experts, not the farriers who advocate barefoot, they generally are not properly converted (otherwise they wouldn't be farriers).
Find a properly trained barefoot trimmer - if you make the decision you will be amaized at the change in your horses feet - for the better - good luck.
 
^^^^^ What they said, i Have 2 barefoot horses that were diagnosed with navicular - both sound, both working - one was about to be PTS. I no longer consider either of them to be navicular horses, they're just regular barefoot horses nowadays.:)
 
More and more vets abroad, not in the UK by the way, are comming to the conclusion that navicular is more often than not the long term effect of shoeing, basically lack of circulation to the bones in the foot.

No recorded cases of horses recovering from remedial shoeing, just delays the inevitable unless the shoes come off, for good.

Its about time British vets got their a*** into gear over this one.
 
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