Information to Note About Navicular Disease in Horses


You may, at times, come across a horse that has a chronic forelimb lameness. The most affected horses by this condition are the athletic horses. Note that this condition is always referred to as navicular disease. We, however, need to alert the people that navicular disease also affects ponies and donkeys, but in such an instance, it is not known. This kind of disease is usually a chronic degenerative condition that affects the navicular bone. It always involves the loss of medullary architecture, medullary sclerosis, traumatic fibrillation, and also the formation of enthesophyte at the distal and proximal borders of a bone. It is vital that we say that there has not been known pathophysiology of this disease, and it has remained to be unknown; the syndrome is due to pathogenesis that is complex and not a specific disease entity. The navicular horses disease is insidious at the onset. In the early stage of the disease, there will be an intermittent lameness that will be manifested. This disease is bilateral, and there is no head nod when it comes to lameness. The horse needs to be presented as well as examined, as this is how the diagnosis is made. To eliminate the lameness, you need to know that there is a need to have a palmar digital nerve block. This will apply the excess to horses that have a secondary moderate that is extensive to damage to the digital flexor tendon.


Another tentative diagnosis of this disease is to ensure that lameness is transferred to another forelimb, and this can be removed using the palmar digital nerve block. One important aspect that we need to say about the navicular horses disease is hat it can never be cured. What happens is that it can easily be managed since the condition is degenerative and chronic. We have a couple of treatments that are effective in managing this disease. Among the commonly used are the corrective shoeing and NSAID administration. In NSAID, phenylbutazone is used; however, one need t be careful since there are adverse effects associated case this method is used on a daily basis, then you are required to ensure that the horse is taken off the drug at least one day so that the body can easily clear those drugs that have accumulated. On this day, you can decide to give your horse flunixin. With foot care, it should be noted that trimming as well as shoeing need to be included so that there can be the restoration of the normal phalangeal alignment as well as the balance, the main purpose of shoeing is to ensure that the pressure which might be on the navicular bone is decreased. The kind of shoeing technique that will ensure that pressure is decreased is ensuring that the heel is raised. If the toe is rolled, then the pressure will be relieved. If you consider palmar digital neurectomy, you need to know there will be the provision of pain relief as well as ensure that the usefulness of the horse will be prolonged. Fr curative, you should never consider neurectomy.