Navicular..

[redmerl]

My friends 11 year old TB has been diagnosed with the early stages of navicular.

I would love to hear about peoples experiances with it, good or bad. How did you treat it, what is your horse doing now, time scales ect?

THanks

 

[scotsmare]

My friends mare had this a few years ago and reacted well to Navilox but no idea if it still exists or if there's something better now.

 

[SnowandSunshine]

Google barefoot, you'll find some interesting stuff about foot shape, funtion and how barefoot has helped a lot of horses.

 

[Diggerdog]

I second the vote for a good barefoot trim (not just taking the shoes off). Its not an instant fix, but should help get the most out of any other treatments.

 

[random_rider]

My friends horse had it! He was given something, dont know what it is, but was exspensive! And it worked well! Hes ok now and she gets to ride him occasionally! So ended up good

She has another horse so when shes feeling fit she can ride both! Yet he doesnt need excercise all the time as he is getting older but loves teh odd hack

 

[hussar]

My then 14yo gelding was diagnosed in May 2004 with bilateral navicular. He was treated for 3 months with Navilox, which had no effect, and was then given an intravenous dose of Tildren, then available only as a trial in the UK but quite highly regarded in France, where they claimed a 60% success rate. Sadly, we were one of the 40%. The vets didn’t recommend further Tildren as he had not responded at all to the first course. He was shod remedially and had a minimal daily dose of bute for nearly 4 years. I rode him very occasionally, only on soft ground.

A couple of months ago my farrier stopped the remedial shoes as he said the heels had risen and spread so ordinary shoes would be fine. I also stopped the bute to see what would happen. To cut a long story short, he is now grass sound – ie, I wouldn’t expect him to be happy on tarmac, but he’s sound enough to do pleasure rides and pass the vet at the end.

 

[Leah3horses]

My mare Dolly had bilateral advanced navicular at age 11,before I got her and was shod with eggbars every 4 weeks after that...it worked very well for her but all horses are different.She had x rays prior to the eggbars and further x rays showed no deterioration 2 years later.Hoof conformation and balance is key to avoid undue pressure on the tiny navicular bone in the foot.

Dolly stayed sound for many years, it can be done.I would have another 'written off' navicular horse,it doesn't have to mean the end of everything.She also had athritis and had occasional bute for this but it didn't make any difference with her feet, she was fine on or off bute. There is a herbal liquid,'navilam' which is supposed to help the blood circulation in the feet and I had good results with this,definitely helped keep her stride length good and she had good sure footing 4 years after the vets gave her loss of use for most things.

I am a fan of proper barefoot trimming, this did not work for Dolly though, I do feel keeping my remaining horses barefoot with Epic boots on for road work will hopefully avoid navicular at an early age, as their feet will have better shock absorption and hoof balance than a horse shod all his life.Their frogs have become much healthier and bigger and are absorbing a lot more of the concussion than when they were shod but it took a good year to transition them from shoes to barefoot.

Has your friends' horse got good feet to start with or are the heels underslung or collapsed?A good remedial farrier is key,it may take 8 months or more for the remedial work to improve the feet,until then I'd strongly recommend padded hoof boots if the horse is in any pain at all.Tripping and stumbling is a classic sign that things are deteriorating in the feet.

Hope your friends' horse can get the attention of a remedial farrier who has lots of experience with navicular.

 

[Santa_Claus]

Well Dan has navicular disease (not syndrome!) in both front feet in addition to arthritis and bone spavins in his hocks. about 2 years ago now we treated it all at once with Tildren (he had previously had steroid injections into hocks on 2 occasions with no long term improvements). The navicular was only finally diagnosed 2 years ago but vet suspects (changed vets at this point) that it had actually been present for several years due to level of deterioration. (i could clear as day see bone changes on xray without them being pointed out

)

Anyway 2 years on and he has had a few days off here and there normally due to abcess or just being plain stupid (like jumping out of field and going a*se over t*t!!)

Anyway he is retired from jumping and isn't 100% conventionally sound as he is stiff within his movement but he has done dressage since and won without a single comment referring to being lame or unlevel.

He couldn't go barefoot but had 1.5 years of pads to raise his heels. He is now treated like a normal horse but is fed cider vinegar (was on newmarket joint supplement for a year but he is just as supple on just the cider vinegar which is small fraction of cost!) and has as much turnout as possible to keep him supple.

Now he is a happy and sound (enough!

) horse again although he is very annoyed he can't jump. Tildren is our wonder drug although it doesn't work on all horses!

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

Navicular is a syndrome so there's a low end and a high end. You could be lucky and your ned could be not too badly affected. I think it depends on what the horse has done in it's life, ie amount and type of use, and whether there are other problems mixed in with it. My 20 yr old ex-trekking centre pony started stumbling on uneven ground, worse going downhill and was eventually diagnosed with bilateral DJD and navicular syndrome. It was the worst the vet had ever seen. We tried Newmarket glucosamine and bute and rest and steroid injections into the hoof capsule but sadly nothing worked and ned started to lose weight and eventually he had to be pts. RIP Sullivan.

 

[rachier]

My 12 year old ex racehorse was diagnosed with Navicular in january after he had been lame intermittently (sp?). However, this was the same day i found out he had kissing spine as well, and i already knew he had a sacrioliac subluxation and DJD in his hocks.

Therefore he is my own personal field ornament as the vet said he is field sound!!!! Certainly doesnt stop him galloping round, had all his shoes taken off in stages and he is doing well - a bit footsore, but no more lame than with the balancing shoes.