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Tuesday 24 November 2015

Navicular Disease And Some Of Its Outcomes


By Mattie Knight


The disease begins with inflammation of the bursa between the navicular bone and the tendon of the deep digital flexor. It is a common cause of lameness in horses. If the navicular disease is treated with the prescribed drugs this condition can be contained and horses return to their healthy conditions.

One of the main symptoms of this sickness is where the horse places its weight on toes most of the times. The horse does this to hinder pain and pressure on the scaphoid bone. Another sign is that the horse delays to stop the strides it takes. Horses who are victims of this illness keep on shifting their weight when standing to reduce pain on the heel area. This makes the horses to place most of their weight on the toes making the gait hard resulting to pain mostly on the shoulders. Such condition disappears after the animal rests. Presence of long toes and under slung heels is another symptom found in horses with navicular sickness.

Interference with blood vessels surrounding the navicular bone is a major cause the navicular ailment. Damage appears to the deep flexor, tendon and the tissues causing pain. This illness is often found in horses between five years and above but the ailment can be controlled using different measures.

Diagnosis of navicular ailment is based on both clinical and radiographic signs. This simply means physical and x-ray diagnosis respectively. Veterinarians use hoof testers to conduct physical diagnosis. The testers are applied on the front legs of the horse and if the sickness is present, the horse flinches. The same is done on the hind legs to compare how the horse reacts.

Treatment of illness can be done through several ways. The foundation of treating any horse with the above mentioned symptoms is correct shoeing. This means following the essential tendency of balancing the hooves front to back as well as sideways. The most common problem in horses bearing this ailment is presence if long toes. To correct this problem the long toe is trimmed.

The third aspect of controlling scaphoid bone sickness is using drugs. A drug that has successfully been used is isoxsuprine. This drug helps in enlarging blood arteries surrounding the scaphoid bone hence allowing free flow of blood. Eighty percent of horses treated with isoxsuprine have responded to it. This is according to the latest studies conducted.

Exercise is also another way of navicular condition treatment. As explained earlier, the main causes of this illness is decreased circulation and trauma to the bone. Riding infected horses with intervals of thirty to sixty minutes six times per week helps in the exercise treatment. The horses are trained to bear more weight on the hind legs. The last kind of treatment is surgery. This is highly recommendable to horses who fail to respond to drug, exercise and correct shoeing treatments.

To conclude, the illness is not terminal. With treatment and care, the large majority of the horses that have been diagnosed with this ailment can manage to go back to their normal level of performance. Creation of awareness among masses on how to manage the sickness is recommendable to ensure healthy horses.




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