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 Expert
Posts: 2308
 
Location: Viola, IL | After your horse was nerved did you change your preventative maintenance protocol? Did you start doing extra special things to help make sure they didn't get injured, specifically the ligaments/tendons? Any tips you recommend?
Please no, don't nerve comments, etc. Just looking for suggestions for care. | |
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Expert
Posts: 3147
 
| Keep a close eye on the hoof. Thrush, abscesses, etc can destroy it before you know there's a problem since the horse won't feel pain. | |
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Expert
Posts: 2308
Location: Viola, IL | This particular horse will need to continue with corrective shoeing, so that shouldn't be a problem to keep an eye on. Thank you! :) | |
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 Night Watchman
Posts: 5516
 
Location: Central Montana | I've talked to a few different vets about it. Not quite ready to go down that path yet as it is a very last resort. | |
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 Expert
Posts: 4121
Location: SE Louisiana | I worked for someone that had this done to a wonderful paint mare.... It was great... until they sent her off to be bred... and the owners of the stallion didn't know she had been nerved.... They let her feet go to ****... They had to put her down.. | |
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 You get what you give
Posts: 13030
Location: Texas | You will always have to be aware of that foot and check on it more than you would a normal horse. They won't be able to feel if there's an abscess or a puncture wound or a hot nail, etc… so they aren't the kind of horse you can just turn out in a pasture and pull up months later. They will continue to perform and they won't guard themselves anymore so that is a risk as far as tearing ligaments/tendons goes.
Usually, if they already have compromise of their DDFT they aren't considered good candidates for neurectomies anyway for that reason. | |
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Expert
Posts: 2308
Location: Viola, IL | casualdust07 - 2014-10-30 10:08 PM
You will always have to be aware of that foot and check on it more than you would a normal horse. They won't be able to feel if there's an abscess or a puncture wound or a hot nail, etc… so they aren't the kind of horse you can just turn out in a pasture and pull up months later. They will continue to perform and they won't guard themselves anymore so that is a risk as far as tearing ligaments/tendons goes.
Usually, if they already have compromise of their DDFT they aren't considered good candidates for neurectomies anyway for that reason.
The xray series didn't show anything that would compromise the ddft, but I want to do my best to keep it that way. For example, I am no longer going to use polos. I want to buy her some iconoclast boots. Is there anything else I could do? | |
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 Expert
Posts: 1482
Location: on my horse | I would keep a super close eye on her, check legs every day, limit turnout or situations where she could injure herself, run on good ground, ice and poultice tendons etc. Protect her legs that she can't protect. I would also suggest annual or biannual X-rays and scrutiny by your vet and farrier preferably together. As long as you are extremely vigilant about her care I think you'll be ok.
I had an extremely navicular gelding I chose not to nerve this spring and ended up putting down. I chose not to nerve for personal reasons (he was only 6, had DDFT involvement, bursitis, etc. and wasn't patterned and didn't have a job), but had I made the choice to nerve I would have taken the steps that I outlined above. | |
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Expert
Posts: 2308
Location: Viola, IL | You said what I was quietly wondering, if it would be smart to do xrays! They are only $120 a series on a joint, so I definitely think that it would be money well spent. He said I could still rodeo, as long as I used my head. Which she has been on and off lame for the last three years, and in egg bars. So, I have grown to be hyper vigilant about when, where, and how we run. She doesn't get turned out except in a sand indoor, or sand round pen. I want to make sure we are good and legged up before we go anywhere. Just want to do my best and never really been in any situation like this.I have a pony plate and game ready, and if they thought they got used before, they have a whole new world coming to them! | |
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 Expert
Posts: 1258
Location: MN | I am running a horse now that is nerved. I check his feet often, he does not require special shoeing, nor does my vet say to do so, although we are now having trouble with him stumbling because of no feeling his fee under him. It's not all the time, but can get dangerous, I would never put a young person on him. | |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 503
| I had a nerved mare and she ran just fine. Just watched her closely. Went lame again about six months later and after we put her down, found out it was because of a broken navicular bone. Not sure if the nerving and the broken bone were related or not, but she had no bone changes. | |
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 Oh excuse me!
Posts: 2473
Location: S. California Beach | My horse was done twice. I do not take any special measures for ligaments... | |
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boon
Posts: 2
| Have seen several, owned a few, and owned one that I personally had done myself and he was done over nine years ago. He headed for probably six of those and now still runs barrels. He was BRATs youth champ (in 2012 I think). Hes still going without fail and has not had to have it done again (although this is not necessarily the norm). My biggest suggestion is pick the vet and shoer carefully. Good quality shoeing is vital. As he is getting older, he is on joint supplements, but I dont know if it helps for that, but cant hurt. It is TOTALLY INCORRECT that they cant feel their feet. That is an old wives tale that persists. Ask your vet about this. I thought this was the case too, until discussing it with more than one vet, and now seeing it for myself. They only cut one nerve, and there are plenty of nerves in the foot. I can tell you for sure that is true as I, myself, have had this surgery on both of my feet. Yes, humans can have it too. !(We have a navicular bone and a sesamoid in our foot surprisingly enough!) And I assure you, I stumped my bare foot just this morning on a metal wheel and my WHOLE foot felt it, including the nerved area. My vet told me that he would rather ride a horse that was nerved than to ride one that hurt, because the horse that hurts doesnt want to put their foot down properly, and is more prone to stumble. I can say that has proven to be the case for us. He does not trip, stumble or fall, (anymore than any other horse) and way less than before the surgery. Shoe him regularly as you would any navicular horse and hopefully you will have many years together. | |
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 Proud to be Deplorable
Posts: 1929
| theheadlesshorsewoma - 2014-11-02 10:01 AM
Have seen several, owned a few, and owned one that I personally had done myself and he was done over nine years ago. He headed for probably six of those and now still runs barrels. He was BRATs youth champ (in 2012 I think). Hes still going without fail and has not had to have it done again (although this is not necessarily the norm). My biggest suggestion is pick the vet and shoer carefully. Good quality shoeing is vital. As he is getting older, he is on joint supplements, but I dont know if it helps for that, but cant hurt. It is TOTALLY INCORRECT that they cant feel their feet. That is an old wives tale that persists. Ask your vet about this. I thought this was the case too, until discussing it with more than one vet, and now seeing it for myself. They only cut one nerve, and there are plenty of nerves in the foot. I can tell you for sure that is true as I, myself, have had this surgery on both of my feet. Yes, humans can have it too. !(We have a navicular bone and a sesamoid in our foot surprisingly enough!) And I assure you, I stumped my bare foot just this morning on a metal wheel and my WHOLE foot felt it, including the nerved area. My vet told me that he would rather ride a horse that was nerved than to ride one that hurt, because the horse that hurts doesnt want to put their foot down properly, and is more prone to stumble. I can say that has proven to be the case for us. He does not trip, stumble or fall, (anymore than any other horse) and way less than before the surgery. Shoe him regularly as you would any navicular horse and hopefully you will have many years together.
I agree I have had several nerved horses over the years and the statement that they can not feel their feet is not true. In most cases your vet is talking about just heel nerving which means that the foot still has all feeling in 2/3. Yes proper shoeing is important and more attention should be paid to the hoof but to me it more important to find a top quality leg and hoof vet to do the procedure. | |
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Expert
Posts: 2308
Location: Viola, IL | jbhoot - 2014-11-02 10:34 AM theheadlesshorsewoma - 2014-11-02 10:01 AM Have seen several, owned a few, and owned one that I personally had done myself and he was done over nine years ago. He headed for probably six of those and now still runs barrels. He was BRATs youth champ (in 2012 I think). Hes still going without fail and has not had to have it done again (although this is not necessarily the norm). My biggest suggestion is pick the vet and shoer carefully. Good quality shoeing is vital. As he is getting older, he is on joint supplements, but I dont know if it helps for that, but cant hurt. It is TOTALLY INCORRECT that they cant feel their feet. That is an old wives tale that persists. Ask your vet about this. I thought this was the case too, until discussing it with more than one vet, and now seeing it for myself. They only cut one nerve, and there are plenty of nerves in the foot. I can tell you for sure that is true as I, myself, have had this surgery on both of my feet. Yes, humans can have it too. !(We have a navicular bone and a sesamoid in our foot surprisingly enough!) And I assure you, I stumped my bare foot just this morning on a metal wheel and my WHOLE foot felt it, including the nerved area. My vet told me that he would rather ride a horse that was nerved than to ride one that hurt, because the horse that hurts doesnt want to put their foot down properly, and is more prone to stumble. I can say that has proven to be the case for us. He does not trip, stumble or fall, (anymore than any other horse) and way less than before the surgery. Shoe him regularly as you would any navicular horse and hopefully you will have many years together. I agree I have had several nerved horses over the years and the statement that they can not feel their feet is not true. In most cases your vet is talking about just heel nerving which means that the foot still has all feeling in 2/3. Yes proper shoeing is important and more attention should be paid to the hoof but to me it more important to find a top quality leg and hoof vet to do the procedure.
Yes! I took her to Iowa State University. I wanted someone good, and had the vet there that does nervings quite often do my procedure. I did x-rays, nerve blockings, etc, even after knowing from my local vet and all of the things we had done that we needed to nerve. The only thing we didn't do was an MRI. There was one small lesion in the hoof, that is barely viewable on the x-ray but not near the tendons. There are no changes to the navicular bone or coffine bone. We did find the prior impar ligament injury. We are continuing with corrective shoeing, just because of some things we can fix.
Due to the amount of nerve the vet cuts out during the procedure, typically he doesn't have/need to do them again.
Because of the amount of detail he went into about the danger to the ligaments, I just want to make sure I do the best for her and to sustain her for the long term. I typically run in polos, but am going to run her in some iconoclasts. Things like this, that might make things better for her, are some suggestions I'm looking for.
He also spoke about how he would rather ride a nerved one then one that had problems, because they are FAR more prone to tripping and stumbling. | |
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