Need some support and advice please.

R

runnerbean

New User
Joined
3 September 2009
Messages
9
Visit site
I'm new to this forum and not sure if I have posted this in the right place but..

I have a warmblood who is only 11 and he has just been diagnosed with navicular in both fronts.. He has never been lame, he just tripped a lot, a bar shoe stopped the tripping and I thought all problems had been solved, however.. he fell during a dressage training session and i decided to send him to the vets for a day where they diagnosed navic. I'm struggling with wether or not to ride him still. The vet has prescribed Danilon, he refused to take bute.. and has said he can do light work only.. but what is light work exactly.. and given that he also has athritis in his hocks, that have thankfully nearly fused, I'm unsure about what I can still do with him.. my vet isn't very forth coming or chatty and I find her difficult to ask questions.. besides I thought talking with other people in the same or similar position would be better, as you've been there so to speak. I'm pretty down right now and would dearly love to still ride him, what are your opinions please.
 
I don't have much experience with Navicular, try posting this also in vet, there are some brilliant guys who will know on here. Best of luck.
 
hi - first thing get another vet! if you are paying alot of money to get vets advice then thats what you should get and if youfeel you cant talk to her, get another one. Secondly Ihave known people who have ridden horses with nav, but only as happy hackers - a vet who can assess your horse is the best place to start, chin up things rarely turn out as bad is it first seems xx
 
Also have a look at Nic Barker's site (Rockley Farm, Devon) she does a lot of fantastic work with navicular/DDFT lesion horses and really gets great results (e.g. back out hunting in 3-4 months)
 
My boy has Navicular and Arthritus and after a dose of Tildren, special shoes and a good joint supplement he is now back hacking and competing again at dressage.
My vet and farrier have been great and worth their weight in gold.
 
friend of mine has one with navicular,she spent a fortune on all the injections, remedial shoeing etc, it all helped for a bit but she kept going lame. As a last resort she removed the shoes and within a day, you could notice a difference! She got boots for hacking but is barefoot for schooling. She still gives her the supplements but they have never looked back really. Her feet have hardened up more now and she rarely needs the boots now.
Might be worth a try, after all it won't cost you anything.
As for the arthritis, exercise is the best thing. It also speeds up the fusing process.
 
wow, firstly dont give up hope - its not always end of the world.

My idxtb has arthritis in hocks (diagnosed 2 yrs ago) which are pretty much fused now she was diagnosed with navicular in june last yr she was trippy and was just very very slightly unlevel(0.5/10th lame) (so unnoticable i had to trot her up 6 times for vet to see it) had xrays - nav - put eggbars on still unlevel went onto bute for 2 weeks and navilox for 3 months - farrier then also put wedges on and ever since wedges has been sound as a pound (touches wood) i have been advised i can hack but dont too too much on hard surfaces NO trotting on road, careful if unlevel surfaces, so most of my work is in an arena, i do low level dressage, i do small circles, lunge her - she is worked 6 days a week sometimes twice a day - she is on no medication and as long as the farrier can leep her sound i will keep her in work.
She has magnetic boots on front legs at night and hinds during day, she has a magnetic rug which is under her turnout during winter - she lives out 247 which is better for nav and arthritic horses.
So i would say dont give up yet - ask about navilox - i also gave mine nettles (supposed to help with increasing blood flow) - as you can tell i will do whatever it takes to keep her sound - she also had white willow too.

if you cant speak to vet ask another one!!!!!!!
 
My friends horse has navicular and he has the drug Tildren which is expensive but suppose to help bone re-growth. he also has remedial shoeing and is being lightly ridden in the school e.g trotting, bit of canter and hacked out for an hr plus. He has another problem as well though.
 
Runnerbean - have a look at Nic Barker's site - Rockley Darm - she has some good informaiton in there and stories abotu the navic rehabs she has hadthrough her farm - most of them rehabbed to hunting fitness within months - no Tildren either... :-)
 
Never had a horse with Navicular but just wanted to say that you should be able to talk to your vet. From what I can see navicular is workable with but it is a long journey and one where you, your vet and your farrier all have to work together. You will be paying a lot of money for your vet, if you're not happy with the service get a different vet that can communicate and will work with you.

Good luck.
 
Mine has had navicular and arthritus since i brought her just over 12 years ago. She has eventrually been retired from being ridden this year - and she is 25.

It can be a managable condition, but like humans they have good days and bad days. I always picked carefully the ground we went faster than a walk on, i would jump her a couple of times a year on good ground and we would still have gallops again on good ground.

Some weeks she was fine with out medication, other weeks she requried a bute and then later danillon - other times she requried 2 bute/danillon.

My vets were brill at the time, but in hind sight i did spend a lot of money chasing for a cure when realistically i should have been just managing the conditon.

I am unsure if the magnetic boots do anything magical, but i do know that she is always better for the blacksmith etc when she wears them - this could possibly be just from the heat they create - but i am not going to question further as it does appear to help.

Good luck - and change your vet or tell her how you feel - you are spending a lot of money and is she is unapproachable you need to tell them -they cant change if they dont know and if she gets huffy - you will move anyway.
 
We had a similar problem with our warmblood mare 8 yr old, last year. Lameness in both front feet, had the vet out every month, had x-rays, decided against MRI, loads of medication, box rest for 8 weeks + egg bar shoes. Told it was probably navicular or if lucky just soft tissue damage. X-rays seemed clear. Brilliant vet - RVC at Great Mimms - Jason Tupper - lovely man, spoke to my teenage daughter at length without being patronising and explained everything in great detail- would recommend him to everyone. 9 months on, horse is barefoot, being brought back into work jumping a dream no road work yet but plenty of walk and trot on good surface. We were very lucky as we decided that time would tell. If you can't talk to your vet then change your vet - afterall we all pay hugh sums of money to keep our horses fit and healthy, so we should only pay it someone who we can talk to. Good luck with it we feared it was navicular but we appear to have been lucky. Perhaps it's a thing with warmbloods. If you want more info on our horse's case just let me know and we can compare notes
 
Runnerbean - did you post on TO too about this. If not someone else has just has a 11 year old diagnosed.

Clannad48 I'm with the same vet, we had an MRI which revealed soft tissue damage but it was what was suspected from the start. These days it is generally considered that the soft tissue damage that horses like mine have precede changes to the navicular bone but these can follow due to the stresses to the bone caused by the soft tissue injury.

Mine is being rehabbed barefoot. Interesting that you are going down the barefoot route too as Jason was very sceptical but he was happy to refer us to Rockley when Nic Barker spoke to him.
Latest footage on the blog
http://www.rockleyfarm.blogspot.com/
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top