Help please

[xavier14]

I have a 14 year old gelding that I have been barrel racing and gaming for about 9 years. Last week I took him into the vet a had him x-rayed and he was diagnosed with navicular. I immediatly had my new farrier speak with the vet and they came up with a plan to raise his heels and roll his toes. The poor horse has really no heel at all. The farrier came out about a week ago and put on a raised heel alluminum shoe as well as bevelling the heel on the shoe to allow growth and try to expand the hoof. This week my poor horse has been lame when he first comes out of stall in the morning. It goes away when he gets moving but he must be in some pain. He is not himself at all, very mellow, hangs his head, looks painfull. I contacted the vet this morining and he suggested that I have the farrier come back out pull the shoes and just put on a raised heel shoe, no bevelling. This horse wasn't lame until I started the new shoeing program last week. ( well, he was lame on tight corners but not lame coming out of the stall). Is this normal? Can I expect some pain when we are trying to get is hooves to grow a way they aren't used to doing? The farrier is coming out tomorrow to pull the shoes and just put a raised heel on him. Will that help? I am worried about my horse, I don't want to see him in pain like this. Thanks.

[Rick Burten]

>I have a 14 year old gelding that I have been barrel racing and gaming for about 9 years. Last week I took him into the vet a had him x-rayed and he was diagnosed with navicular.

Why , if he was sound, did you take him for radiographs? On what things did the vet base the diagnosis of Navicular?

>I immediatly had my new farrier speak with the vet and they came up with a plan to raise his heels and roll his toes. The poor horse has really no heel at all. The farrier came out about a week ago and put on a raised heel alluminum shoe as well as bevelling the heel on the shoe to allow growth and try to expand the hoof. This week my poor horse has been lame when he first comes out of stall in the morning.

Wedging up the heels without some form of support for the frog, bars and commisures, allows the foot to prolapse. This also can be responsible for the lameness you are seeing. Then, as he moves about, gets the circulation going and gets the back of the foot filled with some dirt or the like, he gets the support and movement he needs to palliate the pain.

It sounds as though he may be more heel sore than a true Navicular Syndrome horse.

>It goes away when he gets moving but he must be in some pain. He is not himself at all, very mellow, hangs his head, looks painfull. I contacted the vet this morining and he suggested that I have the farrier come back out pull the shoes and just put on a raised heel shoe, no bevelling. This horse wasn't lame until I started the new shoeing program last week. ( well, he was lame on tight corners but not lame coming out of the stall).

You still have to support the structures in the back part of the hoof. Now, determining how much support, that is the 500 pound gorilla.

>Is this normal?

Lameness, regardless of the cause, is never normal.

>Can I expect some pain when we are trying to get is hooves to grow a way they aren't used to doing?

I wish I could answer definatively, but the answer is,"depends..."

>The farrier is coming out tomorrow to pull the shoes and just put a raised heel on him. Will that help? I am worried about my horse, I don't want to see him in pain like this. Thanks

If the breakover is incorrect, if the heel support(and here I mean both the length of the shoe and the additional support to the hoof structures) is inadequate or incorrect, if the trim is not correct, then no, putting on a raised heel shoe will be of no value.

You might want to check out www.hopeforsoundness.com and read about the EDSS approach to managing hoof pathologies.

Rick

[dzavatto]

Xavier - don't give up hope!

I'm not a farrier, I'm a consumer, like you! Ricks quote is sooooooo true - :)

My good show mare (lost her a year ago Dec at 29) was diagnosed with navicular. She slowly got pretty lame - I did the X-rays, Isoxuprine (sp), bute; the whole deal. What saved us and gave me 15 years without drugs was my shoer. The same things don't work on all horses,and you may go through a few shoers (no fault of theirs) till you find one that will "click" with your case. Your goal is to get your horse to the place where it will stand square on its feet, which will give it good circulation. Their heels hurt, and they want to stand on their toes to take the pressure off of them, and that causes their heels to contract, which is NOT good. It took my shoer and I about a year (that's like 9 shoeings) to get the right formula of angle, frog support, shoe weight, padding, etc. And when we finally hit the mark, it was like a miracle. To get to this place, I took pictures, traced the feet and kept a diary of good days (no bute) and bad days (needed bute) and what we changed with each shoeing. All the data enabled us to slowly chart our course. Granted, there was still the issue of chronic low-grade pain (your vet should have told you about this aspect of the condition) and our days of 4 hour trail rides were definitely over, but I could go for two hours and was happy for that (and the 15 additional years I got with my horse after what seemed like a "death-sentence" diagnosis at the time!).

I'm sure if you attached some pix to your correspondence with the farriers on this bulletin board, you'd get some AWESOME feedback. Looks to me to be a pretty sharp group that are dedicated to the trade.

Hope my testimonial helps you to keep the faith. Communicate with your farrier. You guys are partners.