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Veteran
Posts: 110
| Im looking to purchase a fantastic 8 yo gelding but he has been nerved in both fronts. Very skeptical but wanted some opinions. I have never owned one or had it done so i dont want to be worried for nothing. My understanding is he had sore heels but nothing structuraly wrong that could be found. |
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 Bulls Eye
Posts: 6443
  
Location: Oklahoma | Nerving is traditionally done when a horse has navicular. I've ridden a couple that were nerved. They had to be re-nerved about 5 years after the original nerving. |
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  That's White "Man" to You
Posts: 5515
| I bought one when I was in High School as a rope horse. Never had a problem and I used that horse a lot. |
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Member
Posts: 35
| I'm curious as well, I am considering having my 11 year old gelding nerved. He has navicular and I think he's at that point. I'm wondering about maintenance (shoeing etc) and how successful the surgery has been for people? Any experiences? |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 851
Location: West Texas | From what Ive been told by good vets on the issue is that nerving should be a last resort. I would kind of doubt they nerved him and never found out why. I bet he had navicular and it was diagnosed. Just speculation on my part of course.
I have been told it last 3-5 years and then has to be redone, but the second nerving is much less successful. You would need to find out when the horse was nerved and know that it will progressively get worse again. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 851
Location: West Texas | majiksummer - 2016-01-22 12:31 PM
I'm curious as well, I am considering having my 11 year old gelding nerved. He has navicular and I think he's at that point. I'm wondering about maintenance (shoeing etc) and how successful the surgery has been for people? Any experiences?
My understanding is that nerving is the most successful treatment that can be done for navicular. It is quite successful, but also relatively short lived. At 11 and getting worse, I think that would be an appropriate time to nerve. I have seen nerved horses doing quite well. You will probably get 3-5 really good years out of it and unknown after that. |
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 Born not Made
Posts: 2937
Location: North Dakota | allaboutme2 - 2016-01-22 12:00 PM Im looking to purchase a fantastic 8 yo gelding but he has been nerved in both fronts. Very skeptical but wanted some opinions. I have never owned one or had it done so i dont want to be worried for nothing. My understanding is he had sore heels but nothing structuraly wrong that could be found.
I think the biggest thing is to find out WHY he was nerved and what the real reason was. Sounds like they never found out what was wrong?
My Red has heel pain in both front feet (worse on his left) from a bursitis. He gets it when he is ridden hard (AKA during the rodeo season). For now, I am managing it with a 3 degree wedge pad under his front shoes, and doing coffin injections when he needs it, and doing Previcox if we are going to have a long multi-event weekend. He does NOT have navicular. He has good feet, all-in-all, and I have a good farrier. I could have done an MRI to figure out exactly what is going on with the soft tissue but it would not change his treatment so I opted not to spend the money for that reason.
Red would be an excellent candidate for nerving, according to my vets. However, they agree that's something to look at ONLY if the injections quite providing him with relief. You can do the nerving maybe twice, but then after that you can't really do it again b/c there is so much scar tissue that it is difficult to locate the nerves.
If it comes down to it, I would have no problem nerving him IF he needed it. It doesn't make the whole hoof numb as some people incorrectly think and doesn't make them any more prone to falling/tripping. I highly doubt I will ever need to go that route but it is an option.
So long-winded story short; I would want to look deeper into this gelding's history to see what is going on. The nerving would not worry me, as those nerves will eventually regenerate. I'd want to find out WHY it was done in the first place, and what he has going on with his front feet.
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 678
Location: Canada | We're having a horse nerved (who's much older) and here is what our surgeon has told us. The nerving of a horse lasts roughly 3-5 years and then the nerves start to regenerate. Problem is that they don't always grow back in a nice orderly fashion so not all horses are candidates for another surgery and not all second surgeries are successful.
As this horse is 8 and has been nerved he may stay sound until he's 11 (maybe longer) and then you may be looking at a second surgery if he's a candidate. If it was me, and unless it was the deal of the century, I'd probably pass. If the horse was 18 and recently nerved I'd probably buy it but at 8 and already done his career length is greatly shortened.
I'd also be asking additional questions about why he was nerved. Did they try shoes or injections? What treatments were tried, and abandoned before they decided that nerving was the only option.
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 695
Location: Windoming | I had a friend whose horse had both fronts nerved. She was gone one weekend, and when she got back, flies had chewed him raw above his hooves. Apparently he couldn't feel it. |
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 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | I would not buy one thats been nerved, now if ITS my horse and he needed it done and there was no way around it then I would nerve he/she but buying one that you do not know the history on and its been neved in both are one front hoof/leg well there would be no way..I would be passing  |
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Expert
Posts: 2122
Location: The Great Northwest | r_beau - 2016-01-23 10:42 AM allaboutme2 - 2016-01-22 12:00 PM Im looking to purchase a fantastic 8 yo gelding but he has been nerved in both fronts. Very skeptical but wanted some opinions. I have never owned one or had it done so i dont want to be worried for nothing. My understanding is he had sore heels but nothing structuraly wrong that could be found. I think the biggest thing is to find out WHY he was nerved and what the real reason was. Sounds like they never found out what was wrong?
My Red has heel pain in both front feet (worse on his left) from a bursitis. He gets it when he is ridden hard (AKA during the rodeo season). For now, I am managing it with a 3 degree wedge pad under his front shoes, and doing coffin injections when he needs it, and doing Previcox if we are going to have a long multi-event weekend. He does NOT have navicular. He has good feet, all-in-all, and I have a good farrier. I could have done an MRI to figure out exactly what is going on with the soft tissue but it would not change his treatment so I opted not to spend the money for that reason.
Red would be an excellent candidate for nerving, according to my vets. However, they agree that's something to look at ONLY if the injections quite providing him with relief. You can do the nerving maybe twice, but then after that you can't really do it again b/c there is so much scar tissue that it is difficult to locate the nerves.
If it comes down to it, I would have no problem nerving him IF he needed it. It doesn't make the whole hoof numb as some people incorrectly think and doesn't make them any more prone to falling/tripping. I highly doubt I will ever need to go that route but it is an option.
So long-winded story short; I would want to look deeper into this gelding's history to see what is going on. The nerving would not worry me, as those nerves will eventually regenerate. I'd want to find out WHY it was done in the first place, and what he has going on with his front feet.
You use a wedge pads on the front. Have you looked into a bar wedge? That would allow the foot to breath and for more feel of the ground. I felt full pads were too slick. |
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Expert
Posts: 2122
Location: The Great Northwest | You will probably have this horse vetted. Then, you can have the vet go in debt as to why the heels may be sore. I would have an MRI done if the horse is amazing. Good Luck! |
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 Expert
Posts: 4121
Location: SE Louisiana | Only if you want to use the horse for breeding... No nO NO for a performance horse... The pain is there for a reason... The reason is to make them STOP doing that to avoid further injury. |
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