Vibes needed desperately poor poor boy

neddynesbitt

neddynesbitt

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My lad who is only 8 was diagnosed with navicular in December'08. He has been on box rest with controlled exercise which has been really hard. You can't blame him for exploding every now and again. He is locked up for 23 hours a day. He has had 2 Tildren drips and remedial shoeing, we were keeping everything crossed for him.

I have had so many people tell me they know of horses who are still out competing that perhaps I was too optimistic
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The vet came today and he is lame on the right fore and left hind!! She says that they have done everything they can as regards the navicular and it could well have been the pressure of the front lameness which has caused the hind lameness. Either way he is very lame.

He is going back to the vets again for more nerve blocks etc this time on the hind leg. The vet has told me that things are not looking good and I must prepare myself for the worst.

He has been a real handful and has been cantering round his box and double barrelling the wall. Obviously this is not good and it is possible that he had done himself some serious damage to his hind leg in the process.

It has been a real emotional rollercoaster - Oh how I wish I could get off:(

He truely doesn't deserve this, he is an amazing horse. He just adores jumping and in the time we have had him he has NEVER stopped.

Even today whilst the vet was assessing him, he was edging towards the jumps in the hope we would let him jump. His adrenaline was pumping and he so loves his job he just wants to get on. It's hard to believe that he would want to jump when he is so lame.

I feel so guilty as he doesn't understand, and sadly watches all his mates going out to have fun. The last few times he has been out in the trailer it's always to the vets Life is a bitch.....
 
Thats so sad to hear, and your right to feel life is a bitch at the mo, what a horrible situation to be in. Never had personal experience of navicular so cant offer any useful advice, but sending you lots of hugs anyway. Nat x x x
 
So sorry to hear this. You are right life is a bitch and it isn't fair. Nothing to say except I know how you feel and (((hugs))) to you and (((vibes))) to neddie.
 
is there any change you could but some bedding out side in a tiny little field for him so he can at least be out so he stops kicking the wall. and dont no much about this condition but i no there are serval herbs that ment to be very good for this!
 
Sorry to hear that, what a shame. Can you not give him sedalin to sedate him. My friends youngster had to stop in for 4 weeks and he was sedated with 3 mls from a syringe and it kept him quiet for the rest of the day. It really would be a good idea to discuss sedation with your vets. Tildren is the best thing your horse could have for Navicular so it is good that he has had two lots. Fingers crossed (and toes) for you and your lovely lad. x
 
My horse has had consequative injuries some unrelated over 2 years the best thing I did for him was make several small paddocks and interlinked them so he could graze.He is 7 yr old tb and was only 5 when some of this was going on it kept him sane and happy.Is this a option for your horse.
When I stopped restricting he didnt even explode and settled down to graze .
Hope things improve for you
 
Your very right "life is a bitch" why my horse i always say!
My mare thankfully has accepted box rest its been 3 weeks still have another 10 weeks left!
I put her in my friends stable throughout the day(for a change of scenery) She has a stable lick, a play ball & a hanging suede.
She was very stressed out at first & had to give her 3m of sedalin which helped loads. (have you tried a calmer?)
I do hope all goes well at the vets, fingers crossed for you both.
Simular situation with my mare, she's only 5 and not much chance of her coming back into any sort of work
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Thank you everyone for your replies. The vet is coming out again today as when I ran my hand down his front right leg earlier it has major heat in the leg and foot!!

About an hour later I checked it again (all the time hoping it was an abcess) and it had cooled down so much it was hard to detect.

I did not imagine it as I got my YO to check when I found the heat.

Surely if it was an abcess, the heat wouldn't subside????

This is the foot which is worse (navicular) and had significant soft tissue damage when he was diagnosed 4 months ago.

I am at a loss until the vet gets here, I don't know if he has re-damaged the soft tissues and if that would create so much heat that it was up as far as his fetlock??

He has NEVER had heat in his foot before this?

He is also quite down today and not at the door calling me as he usually does.

My YO will not allow me to turn him out and I have been offered a place at another yard by a friend who would allow him to go out in a small paddock on his own.

I will now have to await this outcome before we can go further as if he now has to have more box rest it's not fair on the poor chap to take him to a strange yard with all the other horses out in the daytime. He is stressed enough now and I don't think he would cope moving unless he can go out which is the whole idea of moving him

Also I had to give him sedaline when he went to the vets and on instruction from the vet he had to have 7ml (yes SEVEN) and it didn't touch him at all which is why we haven't persued this any more

Poor boy he really doesn't deserve this, it's hard for any horse but I just feel so sad that he really loved his job and was always so good and he is only 8
 
I don't know tonnes about navicular except that horses suffer different degrees of severity and some do return to soundness (or practically sound) with remedial shoeing, supportive therapies etc.

In all honesty I feel as others said that turning him out in a restricted paddock would probably help him mentally anyway. It doesn't sound like box rest is doing him an awful lot of good and him acting up whilst stabled is just going to create other problems.

I would much prefer my horse to be mentally happy and just monitor the degree of lameness. In general most horses are sensible enough to realise when it hurts and don't go out of their way to make it worse. See what the vet says/suggests next but sometimes you have to make a decision that suits your horse best.
 
Poor you, how awful and worrying - it's a horrible roller coaster to be on.
We had a horse presenting with low grade ongoing lamenss which was diagnosed as soft tissue damage in the foot (he was only 5 yrs old). He improved by having his shoes taken off and good trimming by our farrier - it really made a huge difference to him and he was turned out daily and in the field was sound, although he was not going to be a competion horse.
He was ulitmately diagnosed via MRI scans, and there was a potential treatment of potting the foot to stabilise the joint - the vet is a lameness specialist in Yorkshire, however after further examination he decided his foot has contracted too much to be able to do the treatment.
I'm not an expert on Navicular syndrome, but just wanted to suggest some alternatives to research alongside of your current treatments.
 
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