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    [RC] navicular horse/vet's prognosis - Rides 2 Far


    > am concerned that the emphasis is on old issues
    > with the coffin bone when this owner really needs to be looking at
    what's happening with her horse right now. From what Angie > described,>
    the horse appears to be suffering acute laminitis,
    
    Well...pretty good guess. Just back from a 6 our trip to the vet. OF
    COURSE the horse was apparently touched by an angel last night and
    decided to show nothing even approaching the amount of discomfort
    exhibited 2 days ago.  Vet thought laminitis too (guess I'll give up on
    thinking the rear should tuck in laminitis). He looked at old x-rays,
    then took new ones. No rotation whatsoever, ever.  No heat in the foot
    either...but he still says some laminitis, along with navicular.  X-rays
    of navicular bone show the worst *looking* one is on the *good* leg.
    Thinks there's some compensatory stuff going on.  Horse showed no
    sensitivity to hoof testers anywhere.  I had to hold him some. Liked him
    much better when he was really hurting. Dragged me everywhere...no sign
    of ground manners.  
    
    Someone today repremanded me for saying vets might think "$$CHU-CHING$$".
     Well...it seems as if they assume that since you brought this horse in
    you want desperately to save him and will do anything you can.  I think
    this is the second time I've gone with someone who simply wanted the vet
    to tell them they *should* put an animal down so they could feel they
    were doing the right thing and the vet never even brought up the
    possibility.  
    
    Surprisingly enough, the owner hinted several times that she worried
    about his "quality of life".  We explained he will never be ridden.  That
    she is moving out of town and will not be here to watch over him.  That
    he has beautiful thick grass on her field.  The vet simply smiled and
    said, "We can manage this.  He cannot have grass.  He needs egg-bar shoes
    every 5-6 weeks, with wedges.  He needs MSM every day, but want him to
    also have bute for a few days till the MSM takes over." 
    
    The problem is they're leaving 4'10 Bekki Crippen the burden of
    overseeing all this.  Bekki has a mental disability and it's a lot to ask
    her to be responsible for both the monitoring of his condition with this
    elephant of a horse, and the carrying out of all this complicated, time
    consuming care in the owner's absence....which could last the rest of the
    horse's life.
    
    The vet's prognosis sounded so optimistic that I stepped in and said,
    "What it means is this. You have to put up a confined area which you plan
    to let him eat down to dirt. Then provide him with some fairly low
    quality hay to subsist on while he lives out his days...Bekki has to get
    medicine into him daily without giving him grain with it...and you've got
    to find a farrier who will work on him, possibly drugging him so he can
    stand on one foot long enough to get all these special shoes."  She
    looked at the vet and he said, "right" as if that was what he'd been
    telling her all along.
    
     The owner repeated her concern that she did not like the idea of him
    being confined in a round pen deprived of food, and was concerned about
    the quality of that life.  The door was WIDE OPEN for the vet to discuss
    the possibility of putting the horse down but he so ignored it that I
    believe now she'll feel guilty to have considered it.  Of course the
    horse was licking hands, nuzzling, and generally laying it on as if he
    *knew* his life depended on it.
    
     The horse did have some white line, but it was caught early and no great
    concern.  No sensitivity to sole pressure.  Looks like a money pit to me,
    and a not so fun life for the horse, which will mean a never ending
    source of work for Bekki.
    
    Angie  
    
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