navicular

[orin]

i took buffy to the vets as she is lame on all 4 legs and has large effusions on both hocks.
she has something wrong with both hocks and has been diagnosed with navicular. the vets is coming out on 1st sept to medicate her hocks and she has been fitted with special shoes. if she is still lame after 3 onths we will need to make the decision if to pts as she is only 5yo and dont want her on bute (she has a history of liver trouble).below are her special shoes

has anone else had any experience?

 

[Marchtime]

I'm sorry this must be a very difficult time for you.
What I will say is be wary of a diagnosis of navicular. True navicular is very rare especially in young horses. Navicular syndrome was a very common diagnosis prior to the development of MRI. Since MRI what has become apparent is navicular is rare, and instead soft tissue damage within the coffin joint (collateral ligament, DDFT, etc) is actually far more likely. Sadly because of where these structures sit within the foot the only way to diagnose is by MRI.
I thought I should mention this because quite often the treatment for navicular is very different to the treatment for soft tissue damage. The best treatment for soft tissue damage is rest, and lots of it (i.e. six to eighteen months). If you horse is young this might be worth considering.
Having lost my 8yr old eventer to a ruptured collateral ligament which was made worse by a misdiagnosis of navicular I'm only to aware of how heartbreaking it is. Sorry to not be more positive but if a 5yr old is lame in four legs it's rarely got a good outlook.

 

[maggiesmum]

I have 2 horses with navicular and they have both come sound after having their shoes removed and being re-habilitated to working barefoot, I would definitely recommend doing some research into it as the success rate so far seems to be pretty good. This lady is doing a study with some vets into it.

http://www.barefoothorses.co.uk/index.html

 

[huskimo12]

Have pmed you where are you based?

 

[traceyann]

Marchtime is right i was told my horse had navicular by two vets mri scan proved it was collatral ligament had the special shoes no good had steroid injection and tildren twice didnt work my horse had irap and now barefoot and i feed recovery eq hes now sound and doing better than any vets thought as he was only meant to be field sound at best and his age was against him hes seventeen

 

[orin]

thankyou guys,

huskimo12 i have replied to your pm in in kent