Friday, August 8, 2014

Navicular Syndrome In Horses At A Glance

By Annabelle Holman


This degenerative condition mostly affects the horse at the foot. The position of the navicular bone is at the back of heel. The deep flexor tendon runs down the foot wrapping the bone below anchoring to coffin bone. The navicular syndrome in horses results from changes in bone, tendon, bursa and ligaments on this area.

This ailment is characterized by lameness. Mostly the signs start appearing soon though a gradual process is also common. Horses suffering from the ailment usually feel lots of pain on frontal feet. In a bid to relieve itself from pain, the affected animal usually holds it foot forward so as to reduce pressure. The ailing horse usually shows uncooperativeness at farrier visits.

There is no assurance on which kind of horses mostly get affected. Nevertheless, the stock type stallions usually are highly affected even though a significant record shows warm blood breeds and thoroughbreds being also affected. Diagnosis of lameness is mostly carried out on horses ranging between seven and fourteen years. What really causes the problem is still out in the dark.

For those horses with bulky bodies, upright pasterns and even small hooves, conformation seems to come out as ideal. Most of the affected animals usually have a history of front-leg impact. A more common trend seems to show a combination of both high stress level and limited oxygen. The cause that exactly damages the tissues and brings about inflammation is yet to be determined.

Consulting with a veterinary or a farrier should be the initial steps in combating this disease since prompt diagnosis is able to allow treatment. Trimming properly and therapeutic shoeing provides some pain relief for most horses. Providing essential vitamins without calories overabundance is of great help. Ensure you increase exercises on the horses to keep them in trim condition.

The main aim of employing farrier care is correcting broken-back or even broken-forward pastern angles. In order to reduce pain, the wide-web shoes or even egg bar is used. Sometime injection of anti-inflammatory medicines or oral drugs is provided. Combining medical treatment and therapeutic shoeing aids up to sixty percent on the affected horse. In place, is a recently discovered medicine known as Tildren that is waiting to be approved.

This syndrome is usually not as a result of feeding practices. Nevertheless, a horse that is overweight puts more strain on the musculoskeletal system. Common sense ought to warn the owner not to let the horses fatten too much. Minimize pasture intake by dry-lotting or muzzling the horse. You can maintain the animal easy by providing it with low-calorie supplement pellets which may include All-phase.

A horse with such kind of condition should be well taken of. Most a time, the stallion fails to return to its former competitive level and sometime retired. With proper management such as reduction of hard work there is a possibility the stallion returns to normal state. Turnouts and some light exercises are mostly advised to stall rest these animals. Maintaining the horse at mid-range body weight, it is possible to delay its onset and also keep affected animals more comfortable.




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