Navicular Disease in Horses and How to Treat It
Navicular disease, as well known as caudal heel pain, is a condition that when your horse is diagnosed with, can seem such a devastating condition, and may well prove to be, but the good news is that there are treatment options available. When used, the treatments there are for this condition can be so effective as to allow your horse get back to athletic work. Read on for more on this therapy as the best therapies for navicular disease have been outlined herein.
By its very name, navicular disease is a degenerative disease that affects the navicular bone and the soft tissues there are in the back of your horse’s foot. It has been referred to by many names by the animal health experts but the name that has been currently adopted rather universally is caudal heel pain. Like we have already mentioned, a diagnosis of this condition on your horse can sound so devastating and may send a cold chill down your spine as a horse keeper. However, as we have as well mentioned at the beginning, there are available treatment options that you can pursue which when applied right, can help you get your horse back to athletic work as soon as can be.
By far and large, as far as the treatment for this condition goes, what is most important is for you to have an adjustment to the trimming and shoeing. The aim of the treatment is to reduce as much the pressure on the tendons as the horse moves and the pressure that is applied on the navicular bone. By far and large, a number of horses have benefitted where the farrier gets to shorten or square the toe, a move that gets to create an early point of break-over when the horse makes their stride and as such reducing the tension. Still there is another tension breaking technique and this as well still sees an early breakover, and this is in having the heel elevated using a wedge or with the use of a heel wall. By and large, there are a number of shoes out there that have been designed for the treatment of caudal pain. Given the fact that there is such a detail going into the horse’s hooves and the significance of the same, you need to see to it that your veterinarian and the farrier do work in hand in hand so as to ensure that the best alternatives for your horse are found.
The other alternative for you when it comes to the treatment of navicular disease in your horse is in the use of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. These anti-inflammatory drugs have been formulated in such a manner that ensures that they modify the degree of discomfort on the foot. There are a number of these anti-inflammatory drugs and the most common ones are the phenylbutazone and this has been found to work so effectively for the horses that are suffering from a mild infection of the condition, navicular disease.