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Regular
Posts: 82
| I have a 15 yr old gelding that has been diagnosed as "early onset navicular." Had him injected and he was IMMEDIATELY walking/moving better, with more energy as well. We followed the vet's instructions on shoeing (roll toes, keep heels, bar shoe with pads). The next day he was very tender footed and perhaps worse than before we initially took him in. I am thinking the shoer took too much toe off, but as we're waiting for that to grow back, I was curious what you all have had luck with in regards to maintaining or ideally improving navicular symptoms? Are there any supplements to help keep them comfortable? I have never dealt with this so I'm clueless and shooting from the hip - any and all feedback is appreciated! |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 534
Location: Ohio girl moved to PA | my 12 year old was just diagnosed with "navicular changes" and the vet immediatly started him on Isoxuprine. He lives on 15 pills AM and PM and its made a huge difference for him. Im also looking into getting him the MagnaCu bell boots to help while hes in his stall. Hes still barrel racing and living a good life! I plan on looking into whats going on more when i get a bit more money saved up. Hes happy and sound for now so thats all that matters. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1523
Location: Illinois | When I first started shoeing mine for navicular it took about 3 resets for him to finally respond to how he was being shod. Sometimes it takes time for them to adjust to a new angle like that. So don't just judge what you're doing by the first shoeing, give it time. He may be too short or he may just be adjusting to the new setup, just give it a few tries before full judgement.
PS- I also replied to your PM you sent me :) |
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Veteran
Posts: 155
| I agree with time. It took my horse a couple shoeings to get it right. Also, try not to panic. A lot of times the vet says navicular and we immediately go to worse case scenario, me included! |
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  Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | I keep hearing wonderful things about Osphos |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 889
Location: on the fine line between insanity and geniusness | I've had very good luck with osphos! |
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 No Name Nancy
Posts: 2715
Location: never in the right place | I have had no luck with Osphos, but I know others have. |
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Location: Montana | We have a 16 yr old gelding that was diagnosed with early stage navicular as well and he is on isoxaprine and a supplement called Corta-Flx....this has been great for our horse and my vet also suggested Equi-bone if the corta-flx doesn't help.
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 889
| I have not done any injections yet, as my farrier and vet wanted to get my mare's feet more mechanically sound. I just had my second reset job; we only go 5 weeks between them. The farrier said it would take time, but we are making progress. She is also on Equi-bone, but I don't think it's been long enough to say there is results. She also wears PHT MagnaCu bell boots 24/7. Time, time, time...it stinks but that's what it takes. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1482
Location: on my horse | Fairly severe navicular mare... every 6 months on the dot we do another round of osphos as well as coffin joint injections, she's on previcox, 1 degree wedge shoes (she was at 0 degrees on one foot without it), she gets new shoes every 6-7 weeks without fail. I keep an eye on her sole depth as well, she's got right at half an inch on one foot, and slightly more on the other.
I keep her feet dry, we do a lot of light exercise trying for 5 days a week. NO CIRCLES, they were flaring her up, trail rides and working the track for the most part. I also really monitor her stride length, if she's short I take a video so I have a log of her level of soundness and what she looks like, I also really keep an eye on what makes her uncomfortable, before her last injection she was really protecting herself going down hill so I just switched to flat ground for the time being. She's very good at protecting herself so I just keep an eye on what she's telling me and adjust from there so she doesn't have to work as hard to keep herself comfortable. She's sound... With all the maintenance I'm doing.
As far as shoes, with her good sole depth she hasn't needed pads or anything more than the small wedge, when winter hits she will get snow pads and I'll start buying iodine in bulk again to keep her feet as dry as possible. Basically we don't want anything to compromise the integrity of the foot while we manage the disease. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 629
| I started mine on Aspirin at first when we found out, but within 2 years, he was fully retired. As long as he's wandering around the pasture he's fine. If he gets to running and playing, he struggles a little more, and I'll give him some, or some bute, but otherwise, he's not on medication for pain. He started in new balance shoes to help his roll over, but eventually needed wedged egg bars, and that's what he lives in now. I tried previcox and noticed no difference.
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Expert
Posts: 1336
Location: Central Arkansas | Nitroxide from Total Health Enhancement (THE) |
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