Navicular Disease In Horses: The Possible Management Techniques

By Francis Riggs


Whenever a horse is labeled as suffering from the 'navicular', there is a tendency of people to shy away from him, making it look like he was suffering from some deadly malady like the Typhoid Mary or other similar diseases. Many people are in the dark when it comes to treating or even visualizing the navicular disease in horses. This is a condition that the feet that normally results in lameness and is most likely to appear as the lameness in one of the forelimbs.

Unknown to many horse owners, a horse with the said condition can easily be brought back its former perforce level, all that is needed is proper management by someone who fully understand what it take to manage the condition. In order to understand the situation better, compare the horse with an athlete that has been diagnosed with bad feet, the athlete can go back to its former level of performance as long as it is well managed; the same goes for the horse.

The most common sign the vet will normally notice is a history of the front leg lameness which can be gradual. At times, the lameness can be observed on both front feet. The other sign is a history stumbling and developing a choppy gait that appears to be uncomfortable. The condition is also more common with the thoroghbreds and the quarterhorses than other breeds as they are larger in size and rests on small feet. The onset of signs is also common at the age of 7 to 14 although it can occur at any age.

There is no particular cause of the condition as several factors can contribute to the diseases. In the same way, it is rare to find one treatment procedure that is successful. Bute is widely used as it is known to reduce pain as well as inflammation, particularly in the early stages of the syndrome.

It is true that there are changes in the said bone as this can be noticed from the radiographs; however, most other causes of the disease have no evident bony change. For proper diagnosis, the veterinarian determines the cause of the lameness. Radiography can help eliminate other possible causes such as a crack in the coffin bone, a heel bruise, or a simple sole bruise all which can cause lameness.

When it comes to the causes, there are no particular causes; instead, the condition is associated with several possible conditions. As such, there are rare cases where one treatment approach will successfully tackle the condition. In order to reduce pain and inflammation, the vets usually chose Bute, particularly at the early stages of the condition.

When it comes to treatment, most veterinarians usually go for bute to manage navicular and other lameness diseases. It is considered effective as it helps to reduce the pain and inflammation in the early stages of such conditions.

In case the condition is long-standing, the vet is more likely to resort to neurectomy. It is a drastic treatment that involves cutting the nerve to the foot just above the fetlock which leaves the entire foot dead. This is not a solution for a riding horse and the horse will stumble often as it cannot tell where the feet are.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment