Navicular

[tashyisaudrey]

What would you feed a horse with navicular? He is 13, Trackehner 16.2hh. At the mo he is on alpha a, top spec, soya oil and haylage twice a day. Any suggestions? He is not in any work as is lame, and is prone to losing weight.

 

[JessPickle]

A 22 year old at my yard has navicular and is still ridden lightly, and he is fed chaff, barley, sugar beet twice a day, Haylage, then he gets lots of soaked fibre nuts (look like pony nuts) which help to maintain his weight

 

[tashyisaudrey]

Thanks thats great. I will suggest it to my friend. I was also wondering about supplements for a horse with navicular. Like would more vitamins and minerals help or make things worse? (sorry don't know much about the disease) this is advice for a friend.

 

[tashyisaudrey]

I mean whats deficient in the condition? What aspect of feeding can help?

 

[lizzie_liz]

Mine has navicular and is sound and competing so I am not too much help but we feed her Alfa A and Spillers Response Rapid

 

[Santa_Claus]

navicular is not really caused by a feed deficiency. It is normally a confirmational issue also there is both the disease and the syndrome! The problem with the disease is that the blood flow to the navicular bone is restricted and the bone dies away. there are specialist supplements such as navilox but their contents is not normally found in the average horse's diet!

 

[JessPickle]

Alfie doesnt have any extra supplements etc, and is absulutely amazing, doesnt do as much now, but in his younger days was an amazing XC horse, as well as a dressage superstar (he still is a dressage superstar would beat any of the other horses at the yard!)

 

[brightmount]

[ QUOTE ]
navicular is not really caused by a feed deficiency. It is normally a confirmational issue also there is both the disease and the syndrome!

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes I agree. It would be nice if there was a quick fix that could be made to a horse's diet to cure it of navicular. In our case, the fix wasn't quick, but it was complete, and that was going barefoot with the support of an Equine Podiatrist. This addressed the foot balance issue, improved circulation, and produced an inch of extra heel growth in a year.

There are a couple of supplements that I can recommend though that might help. One is Pernamax, an anti-inflammatory derived from green lipped mussels. It comes in tablet form and I recommend crushing the tablets as horses are inclined to spit them out to start with! The other is Cortaflex which will help to cushion the joints in the foot. I have noticed a definite improvement using these two supplements together.

I also use CalMag (calcined magnesite), a magnesium supplement that is a barefoot favourite to help with "footiness". Magnesium Oxide does the same job.

Keeping the weight down will help but that sounds like it isn't a problem.