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Essential Details About Navicular Horses

By Cynthia Peterson


Equine animal species usually experience a number of health conditions that are greatly affected by their activities. The commonly pronounced condition is the navicular horses syndrome which is a progressive condition involving the navicular bone. This special bone is usually located behind the coffin bone in the hoof. It also affects the bursa and the deep digital flexor tendon. It results in lameness and inflammation of the hoof due to the tension created as the stallion moves.

The swelling is fueled through wearing and tearing as the horse ages whereas the syndrome is commonly evidenced in nag ones. The lameness can affect all horse breeds. However, the impact is usually seen more in some breeds like the warm-bloods and thoroughbreds among others. Overweight horsey animals with reduced hooves are usually at a higher risk profile of palmar foot pain syndrome and other foot conditions.

Poor hoof care also fuels the chances of developing the ailment. This centers around the increased use of inappropriate pastern angle that mismatches the hoof shape and its angle. This mismatch is havoc and causes overstretching of the deep digital flexor tendon. As a result, pressure builds up over the scaphoid bone, the bursa, and other proximate structures. Delays in regular hoof trimming and resetting of shoes also pose the same risk of impacting pressure on that bone.

The caudal heel pain typically affects both front feet but in varied degrees making one foot to be more painful than the other. This feature is essential since it easily unveils the condition for easy visibility. It is vividly observed through short-striding in both limbs majorly when the horse is navigating tight corners or circles. This results to the foot landing in a toe-to-heel posture which is contrary to the normal heel-to-toe landing.

The owners and other personnel have ventured in the use of the radiographing technique in a quest to minimize the adversity of this condition. However, the process has piled continued failures over the decades since it does not account for the relationship between therapeutically altered bones and heel pain. Therefore, this has fueled the use of magnetic resonance imaging which clearly gives finer details of soft tissue structures surrounding the scaphoid bone.

The syndrome is managed with the aim of easing the pain and minimizing tension in the DDFT. This approach is done by offering the horse a resting period either in a stall or a customized paddock. This enables the painful points to rest and recover. The equines should be reared at an optimal body weight to avoid tension creating at the tendons. Regular hoof cutting should be adopted to establish correct angles of hooves and pastern.

Additionally, therapeutic shoeing also improves horse comfort by enhancing balancing and break over. Some lamed equines benefit from corticosteroid injections at the coffin joint. In some scenarios that are featured by severe and intractable pain, the owners may adopt neurectomy which involves severing the nerves of the affected region. This procedure allows the horse to work without discomfort.

Thus, the horse navicular syndrome is usually a collective of varied symptoms that cause discomfort to the equines. These conditions can be managed accordingly by use of treatment management techniques. They are designed to increase striding comfort and relieving swelling and tension on the affected areas.




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