Dear Dr. Teskey,
I read your article about navicular with great interest. I am not a vet, but a horse owner with many years experience trimming my own horses. I have four horses. Three of them are very sound with big, healthy frogs and beautiful hooves. However, my 13 year old is very lame indeed and I believe he has navicular.
This horse has been barefoot for 3 years. He was unsound in shoes, showed improvement after going barefoot, but has develoepd increased sensitivity in his front hooves and is very sore at present.
I will have the vet come and x-ray, I think, but I suspect he will only want to use the traditional "treatment" of navicular syndrome.
He will not use the back of his heels. He toe-walks downhill, has a shortened stride and often trips. He is unsound even at walk on flat surfaces. He is not pointing. There is no heat, swelling or any sign of injury and the problem has increased gradually over time.
I keep his toes short, his heels low (though not as low as my others are. I think it would be more painful for him to be set right down on the back of his heels). He lives out and has no white line disease. His frogs don't look great. How could they when he won't put any pressure on his heel? But he doesn't have white line disease or stretch.
If you have any articles you can point me toward, or any ideas of who I might talk to about helping my horse, I would be very grateful.
Thank you for any help.
I read your article about navicular with great interest. I am not a vet, but a horse owner with many years experience trimming my own horses. I have four horses. Three of them are very sound with big, healthy frogs and beautiful hooves. However, my 13 year old is very lame indeed and I believe he has navicular.
This horse has been barefoot for 3 years. He was unsound in shoes, showed improvement after going barefoot, but has develoepd increased sensitivity in his front hooves and is very sore at present.
I will have the vet come and x-ray, I think, but I suspect he will only want to use the traditional "treatment" of navicular syndrome.
He will not use the back of his heels. He toe-walks downhill, has a shortened stride and often trips. He is unsound even at walk on flat surfaces. He is not pointing. There is no heat, swelling or any sign of injury and the problem has increased gradually over time.
I keep his toes short, his heels low (though not as low as my others are. I think it would be more painful for him to be set right down on the back of his heels). He lives out and has no white line disease. His frogs don't look great. How could they when he won't put any pressure on his heel? But he doesn't have white line disease or stretch.
If you have any articles you can point me toward, or any ideas of who I might talk to about helping my horse, I would be very grateful.
Thank you for any help.
Hi
there,
One of
the better articles recently is by Pete Ramey at www.hoofrehab.com. Using neoprene pads in side
good-fitting boots really helps these horses get past the pain long enough to
really start using the back of their hoof. This is key for turning these horses
around early on. Once you start to get a more correct heel first
landing and some better structure in and around the frog, digital cushion and
lateral cartilages, these horses start to really motivate.
Certainly
sounds like you're right on with what is going on. Of course conventional
"wisdom" will want to cover up his problem using special shoes, but by now
you're seeing why they don't work. The key is improving comfort while
stimulating that back part of the hoof to grow stronger. The pads in the boots
do this, and the shoes with wedges, etc. cause even further damage/ weakening of
the area.
Once you
get the right boot/ pad combination (Click here to check out EasyCare
for supplies), hitting the trail will be easy and enjoyable, and you can get
some quality time in while you're rehabbing at the same time.
Let me
know how it's going. If you want to do more in-depth consultation with pic's,
etc, we can do that sometime.
Dr. Tom
T.
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