Diagnosis: Navicular

[Lauren & Allan Horn <4horn@home.com>]

I am so devastated. Our arab gelding was just diagnosed with navicular.
Three vets dismissed the symptoms and instead focused on a sore hock. I
finally insisted on front feet x-rays and there it was for all eyes to
see; large vascular changes in the navicular bone. Poor guy - he is such
a giver that we never knew how much pain he was probably in. He did 6 LD
rides the past year and was pulled, for the first time, 2 weeks ago at
30 miles while trying his first 50.

So now we are treating an arthritic hock with some bone degeneration and
deposit which the vet says was probably caused or aggravated by him
shifting his weight to the rear, off the front. We are treating the
resulting sore back with muscle relaxers AND NOW we are treating the
navicular with wedge aluminum bar shoes and major changes in his hoof
angle/balance and will try ixosuprine. Poor guy. Poor us. We had such
high hopes this season.

I'm expecting that this is the end to his endurance career. I know he
would do fine in any other discipline, as he is well trained, and I
expect that his navicular can be managed well. I have to find him a new
home as I can't afford 3 horses. That also means we are on the search
(again) for a new horse.

If anyone has any thoughts or similar experiences I would love to hear
them. 

Lauren


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