Navicular - What's the cause?

Totty

Totty

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Hi.

Has anyone had any experience with Navicluar? Does anyone know what may cause it and can it be treated or slowed down? Could lack of regular trimming of feet in an unshod horse be an issue?
 
Yes it could. Navicular is most commonly seen in shod horses but bad trimming or no trimming and living/working in the wrong environment can also be a cause. Basically it's damage to the Deep Digital Flexor tendon, which may or may not have progressed as far as causing the navicular bone to degenerate. Damage to the DDFT is caused by poor foot balance.
 
Research with dead horse legs suggested strongly that the cause is toe first landing. The cause of toe first landing is generally understood to be pain and/or weakness in the heel region. Weak heels are most often caused by shoeing but can also be caused by poor trimming or incorrect balance for the foot the horse needs, often coupled with an incorrect diet preventing the growth of good strong feet. Research is also showing that removing the shoes and creating the right conditions for the horse to grow a good foot is stunningly effective as a cure for the condition (in spite of current wisdom being that the condition is incurable. The horses don't seem to agree :-)
 
Just wanted to add that navicular is a syndrome so it has a mild end and a serious end and it can include all sorts of different contributory causes. My wonderful old Highland cross (RIP Sullivan x) developed bi-lateral front foot lameness and the subsequent x-rays showed severe DJD + navicular syndrome. There was also evidence of early navicular in both hind feet, love him. He'd been the star turn at a trekking centre until his late teens. I have no doubt that his safeness in carrying non-riders meant that he worked hard for his living, almost certainly mostly going on his forehandwhich would have led to the severity of his condition.
 
Thanks all. This has been very helpful. I've also been told that egg bar shoes are recomended to support the heel. Has anyone had these fitted to their horse and has it improved their condition?
 
Egg bar shoes would indicate the problem stems from collapsed/low heels. They can be very effective but a) you have to be extremely careful about turning a horse out with eggbar shoes. They can pull off very easily as they protrude a little behind the front foot, so the back foot can catch them and rip them off. Overreach boots help to a certain degree. And b) they are expensive. Horse at my yard had collapsed heels and all the problems associated with that. Came very close to LOU/pts. He's been wearing egg bars for months now and is coming on well - happy to hack out gently. They are a "sticking plaster" though and won't correct your horse's foot problems on their own, just address the symptoms. You need to work with your farrier to address the underlying problem and almost certainly, you're looking at a long term condition. Good luck x
 
"Research with dead horse legs suggested strongly that the cause is toe first landing."

cptrayes is this published anywhere, I'd love to see the research :)
 
Just wanted to add that some of these terms are not being used with any degree of consistency by Vets and that's before you get into difference between navicular disease and navicular syndrome.

MRIs are showing more and more what is going on in the foot with different degrees of lameness so vets are still are a relatively early stage of interpreting these findings.

My horse had mild strain to the DSIL, DDFT and Collateral ligament. The MRI report and my vet said that he did not have navicular (in their definition) but "soft tissue changes".
It also said that these changes were affecting the suspensory apparatus of the navicular bone causing bone stress.

So if it was left unresolved then over a period of time there would be damage to the navicular bone leading to what my vet and the MRI clinic would interpret as "Navicular".
 
Hi Totty
My tb mare was diagnosed navic about a year ago, she had nerve blocks then xrays and she had changes to her navic bone. I decided to go down the barefoot route and a year on she is hacking and doing lite schooling. Pete Ramey's website has a great article think its called ' navicular digging to the truth' its worth a look. If I remember rightly I think it was a guy called Rooney that did the study on the dead horses legs.
There is another guy called Dr Bowker that has done quite a bit of research into navic/bad feet. Another website to have a look at is Rockley farm were they rehab horses barefoot Nic's blog is really interesting
 
Charlie was diagnosed with low grade and mild changes to the navicular last year. I went down the bare foot route. (He is a flat footed tb with terrible feet.) No sign of navicular in him a year later. Now competing in showjumping. Seen by vet today for his annual jabs, have been told that although he shows no signs of it at present, it is not to say that it may not return later on his life. I would highly recommend the bare foot route.
 
My lad has been diagnosed with true navicular (boney changes). He has had 2 tildren drips, steroids injected into his feet etc. In his case more than one vet who I spoke to felt that it could have been accelerated or even caused by me keeping him at a yard with no winter turnout :( Standing in for 22 hours a day does them no good as regards circulation in the feet. He always went on the walker & I worked him every day but according to the vets he was still stood for too long.

I tried barefoot but in his case it wasn't working in the slightest, my vet was adamant that natural balance shoes were the way to go, again they didn't work!!

It got to the stage that I just had to accept he would never come sound when I decided that I had nothing to lose by trying egg bars before I finally gave up with him.

Within 3 weeks of having them on, he was sound and has remained so for 18 months!! We have clay soil which is really boggy (over my ankles) and so far he has not pulled one egg bar off (I'm probably tempting fate now & he will pull one off lol )

A few weeks back we took him to his 1st show since all this started. We have to accept he cannot do 3'3-3'6 anymore as that would be putting too much pressure on him. He did the 2'6 and did a beautiful clear round & went straight into 2nd place :)

A few months into his lameness I would never have expected this. Our vet & farrier have drummed into us that the most important thing to do is be very picky over the ground we jump him on.

He also had a pretty bad SI strain, suspensory probs & nearly died from peritonitis in January!! After all his problems he is absolutely amazing & is so very happy. I know many people would have shot him by now but I am so glad we gave him a chance
 
My horse was diagnosed as having Navicular last year, with holes in his navicular bones.

I was told, by one of the top people in the country to either have an operation to cut the ligaments in the back of heel, to improve blood supply. With only a very slim chance of it coming right. Or have him PTS. As he would never come sound out of the paddock.

I did all my own research, and followed the barefoot route. He was severly crippled when i first took of his shoes, it took a good few weeks, for the foot to be able to cope with working normally.

1 year later, he is hacking, winning showjumping competitions again all barefoot and on no medication.

Fantastic article by Pete Ramey. 'Digging for the truth about Navicular' it is fantastic reading.
 
lillith said:
"Research with dead horse legs suggested strongly that the cause is toe first landing."

cptrayes is this published anywhere, I'd love to see the research :)
Click to expand...

I can never remember if the dead leg rigging was done by Bowker or Rooney. I think it was Bob Bowker and published some time last year. Feet rigged to land toe first ended up with the DDFT wearing through. Feet rigged to land heel first ended up with the foot wearing out!

MRI scan research on live horses showed that damage to the navicular bone only happened after damage to tendons and ligaments. The "soft tissue" damage mentioned in earlier posts is simply the earlier stages of the syndrome, not a separate problem. There is a thread on UKNHCP about that research at the moment.
 
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