Ridecamp: [RC] navicular horse

 >>then the kindest thing would be to put the poor animal out of its
misery. 

Hey, my sentiments *exactly*.  I very carefully brought this possibility
up.  At first she seemed to think I was suggesting selling him to which
she replied, "but who would *want* him?"  Which makes me think it's not
that she's so in love with the horse, it just she's one of those people
who don't understand that death can be a good ending and isn't something
to be avoided at all costs.  I explained to her that selling is *not* an
option because he's worth a lot by the pound and will hurt every bit as
much no matter where he is.


>>First thing is get some weight off this horse. Easier said than down
with some "air-fern" walking horses. Have his thyroid checked to see if
he he need medication. 

This horse is cared for by Bekki Crippen, my handicapped friend, so he's
had a full time caretaker.  Bekki went to a great deal of trouble this
Spring, taking him on and off the pasture daily to get some weight off of
him. These people were bragging what a great job she'd done and I could
only look at the horse and think, "how fat WAS he?" since he's obese now.
 They bought the horse a brand new Featherlite trailer which they've only
used to haul him to the dump to check his weight on their scales. :-P

I agree with what you're saying about taking off the weight Truman, but
think about it.  You're a horse standing around with feet that hurt, and
no reason to *want* to see tomorrow and now they want you to stand around
feeling your stomach growl too? (I'd shoot myself!)  The testing the
thyroid thing is an option. 

 I wouldn't have asked about the nerving thing if I didn't think it was
an absolute last option.  The horse has had regular trimming and has a
nice upright foot with a short toe and plenty of heel.  I have NO idea
how they trim or shoe him since he was unable to stand on one foot for
over a couple of seconds so I could use testers to check for an abcess.
Looked like he might have seedy toe or white line disease, but I honestly
couldn't check very well in the 5 second glimpses.  He had done some
strange damage to the toe folding/chipping it back *under* his foot
instead of up.  His shoes had come off though he wasn't due. I doubt
they'd been nailed on very well due to having to hurry to put the foot
back down.

Heck, you can't even say she selfishly wants him "just to look at" since
she's getting married and moving over 500 miles away.  Her parents have
this *gorgeous* huge farm, board fences, he's got a big nice shady shed
with plenty of soft sawdust to stand on and Bekki putting on his fly mask
and keeping it clean.  The owner also has 2 mutt dogs that have an
auto-immune disease which causes her to have to rent in an area where she
doesn't want to live just to have them inside.  We're talking about a
"lost cause" mentality. She was very well informed on all the treatments,
etc. for navicular, had done extensive internet research on studies of
results. So if anyone knows of an article encouraging putting one down at
some point, she'd probably read it.  She honestly says she thinks his
quality of life is still good, comparing it to her own back pain, and
doesn't think it's time yet.

So, in this crowd this may be a useless question, but does anyone even
*know* of a horse that has been nerved? I know it's wrong, but it's
probably the least wrong of the options I see.

P.S. I gave my vet a heads up that the call is coming and am hoping he
may be able to talk her into putting the poor thing down.  She really
does want to do what's right.  We just have different views of what's
appropriate.  What I'm afraid of is that a vet's going to take one look
at this client and hear, "
$$CHU-CHING$$!"

Angie

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