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boon
Posts: 1
| I know very little on the subject. Knew a horse who had it done and something went wrong later on with it. My mare is about 17, moved from warm weather to cold weather and has always had a touch of arthritis. Im guessing the combination of getting older, cold climate and lack of exercise she became lame. She is typically on joint supplements but since i moved I have been a bad mom and stopped her on it. Well she is now lame and my guess is the arthritis. I called a vet and she is coming to see her this week and mentioned on the phone something about nerve blocking and it made me uneasy. Your opinions would be greatly appreciated. I am in a new place far from my normal vet and not sure who to trust. I may call up my old vet and get his opinion also.
Thanks in advance! |
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Rad Dork
Posts: 5218
 
Location: Oklahoma | I did my first blocking on a hind leg back in September. I had zero complications and found what my horse's injury was before just injecting a few areas and leaving. As long as you have an experienced vet I wouldn't worry.... But it's just like anything else and something could go wrong. I'm curious to see the responses you get! |
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Member
Posts: 6
| I nerved my barrel horse from two feet and it only lasted a year and half..I would never do it again..to expensive for that short of time |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| There are two things being spoke about.
To properly diagnose a horse, vets will inject a local freezing agent into a nerve to block the pain, then flex the horse, if the horse is still lame, the vet will block higher up, if the horse goes sound then the vet knows where to xray or ultrasound.
What one other person is speakng about is denerving a horse, this is generally used for navicular horses, and the vets go in surgically and cut the nerve, yes the nerve can grow back, and yes the horse can damage their foot and not know it if the denerving works.
My guess the vet wants to do the first for diagnostic purposes |
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 Expert
Posts: 4121
Location: SE Louisiana | NOT if it is to be a performance horse!!! You do NOT want to be riding a horse that cannot feel it's feet. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 560
Location: Where the buffalo roam | They can still feel a portion of their feet and there have been many performance horses that have gone on and performed just fine. That said, I considered it for my horse and my vet is not recommending it because recently he has seen even very carefully taken care of horses end up with severe abcesses and end up worse off than they were before. I think you have to weigh your options and know that you will have to be very aware of the horses feet condition at all times. |
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Expert
Posts: 4121
Location: SE Louisiana | Nobody - 2015-02-06 11:03 PM
They can still feel a portion of their feet and there have been many performance horses that have gone on and performed just fine. That said, I considered it for my horse and my vet is not recommending it because recently he has seen even very carefully taken care of horses end up with severe abcesses and end up worse off than they were before. I think you have to weigh your options and know that you will have to be very aware of the horses feet condition at all times.
Name 4 of them.. This is NOT something you wanna screw with!! There is a reason the pain is there and just because you do something to kill the pain does NOT help the basic problem! If you kill the pain and work the horse hard... when you get home and no longer need the horse to perform, you stop blocking the pain and the horse suffers from it... Because you killed the pain when you needed it killed and don't kill it when the horse is idling in the barn/pasture at home.
This is just like the race trainers using drugs to get a horse through a race. Just because the horse can feel part of it's foot does not make it safe to ride full-out anywhere.. |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| Nobody - 2015-02-06 11:03 PM
They can still feel a portion of their feet and there have been many performance horses that have gone on and performed just fine. That said, I considered it for my horse and my vet is not recommending it because recently he has seen even very carefully taken care of horses end up with severe abcesses and end up worse off than they were before. I think you have to weigh your options and know that you will have to be very aware of the horses feet condition at all times.
On what part of the foot the horse can feel is dependent on where the vet cuts the nerve.
This is why it is generally done on horses with navicular, then it is the nerve that runs at the back of the foot.
When this is cut they cannot feel caudal heel pain, collapsed, crushed heels, abscesses in heel area, thrush, I also believe they cannot feel a fractured navicular bone (I could be wrong on this)
I have never heard of it used on arthritis, as arthritis is generally too high up in the leg.
I do agree with komet, with today's technology. There is no reason to denerve. There are drugs that can be injected into the nerve take away the pain but the horse can still feel pressure (bruises/abscesses) they can feel where they place their entire foot, and it lasts 3 months and costs 100/injection |
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Married to a Louie Lover
Posts: 3303
| cheryl makofka - 2015-02-06 10:37 PM
There are two things being spoke about.
To properly diagnose a horse, vets will inject a local freezing agent into a nerve to block the pain, then flex the horse, if the horse is still lame, the vet will block higher up, if the horse goes sound then the vet knows where to xray or ultrasound.
What one other person is speakng about is denerving a horse, this is generally used for navicular horses, and the vets go in surgically and cut the nerve, yes the nerve can grow back, and yes the horse can damage their foot and not know it if the denerving works.
My guess the vet wants to do the first for diagnostic purposes
Ditto.
We did the first on my guy last summer to make sure the issue was in his fetlock. We blocked with the local freezing agent above the fetlock and when he moved off sounder than without it, we felt confident in our diagnosis. Wore off in a few hours.
Denerving I think you really have to look at the horse, it's purpose, the quality of life it has now, and after. I feel it's a bit of a last resort and if have another affordable avenue I'm going to pursue it first. |
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To nerve block or to not nerve block?