help re: navicular?

[emw]

At our Herefordshire Sanctaury we have a TB, 11 year old mare coming in shortly who is showing signs of early navicular, although tests conducted by the previous owner proved non-conclusive. Being a sanctuary we have no spare funds for invasive tests/ expensive x-rays etc as it is impossible for sanctuaries to obtain veterinary insurance cover, we also prefer to go down the route of herbal/homeopathic if possible therefore could you possibly suggest herbal supplement treatment and basic care of this young mare.

She is currently bare foot and sound, though not being ridden at present. her lifestyle prior to coming into sanctuary care was of a riding horse though I do not know how hard she was ridden during that time. The foster care home she has been at have had her feet trimmed, the farrier remarked she had grown considerable toe on both front feet.

I would appreciate any help you could offer on this.
EMW.

[eeyore]

err i don't know how much this little babbling of mine will help you, but oh well here goes.

while my horse's previous owner was trying to sell him, he went lame and the vet diagnosed him with Navicular Syndrome so she gave him to me! :D
the vet got the farrier to put egg-bars on his front feet and put him on courses of Navilox & bute. where as the specialist farrier we still have (he's like.. the master of feet, lol) said he saw his x-rays and said he had underrun heels! (SO much better ~ as it's curable hehe)

my gelding just has INCREDIBLY low heels and so therefore both his front ones (the same in Navicular!) are underrun. He's doing good now though! he can hack along the road (though i don't too often ;)), i caught his galloping full speed around his field yesterday and soon i shall start jumping him ^_^
it only hurts/he pulls away when i have to put hoof supplements on the balls of his front feet, otherwise he's fine.

but I've heard Navicular Syndrome is very hard to diagnose and so it could be a number of things other than that! It's the movement of the Navicular bone and someone said something about there being holes in the bone as well?! i really don't know.

but if possible, I'd try to get a better diagnosis (e.g get a different vet out to check the feet/ask a specialist farrier for their opinion).

good luck! tell us what happens in the future :)

[parsharainbow]

Hi my horse has Navicular, pedal ostitis, Ring bone and side bone ......... and he's sound with no painkillers!!!!!! Ok so he has had Tildren, but he is also on supplements of Seaweed, Codliver oil, cider vinegar and dried nettles. It may be worth going down the Tildren route as its a one of course (either 30 min drip or 10 injections )- the only problem is that the drug is unlicenced and you need to fill out a lot of forms to get the drug imported.

If you type in the word Tildren in a search on the cafe area and horsecare and health forums my posts will come up and my search for a cure for this disease.

Hope this helps in some way and Good luck

[intouch]

Great that the mare is barefoot - but you really need a barefoot specialist to trim for you, with proper trimming and getting the circulation optimal the navicular will more than likely not be a problem.

[MelanieD]

A good barefoot trim (not strasser) can help most navicular horses, lots of info here: http://www.hoofrehab.com/end_of_white_line_disease.htm#Navicular and you can find a list of UK trimmers on this site: www.equinepodiatry.net

If you want to save money and are feeling brave quite a few people have managed to learn to trim from the Pete Ramey book which can be bought on Amazon. There are also courses to learn to trim but they are quite expensive.