Saturday, March 23, 2019

The Navicular Disease Treatment Alternatives

By Carol Bell


Heel illnesses affect numerous horses worldwide. Common symptoms of this condition are vessels enlargement at the heel area, flexor region degeneration among others. Even though there have been efforts by researchers to invent curative measures, no positive results have been seen yet. Fortunately, with proper management, animals can live normally even without Navicular disease treatment. Precisely, management involves therapy, medical intervention, and surgery. Each of them is discussed below in detail.

Slightly affected animals can manage with simple therapy which involves proper shoeing. The broken axis between coffin and pastern bone is a major reason for lameness. It affects how the pastern is aligned to the heel front and back. Gradual realignment reduces pain temporarily. Otherwise, trimming may be done to abnormally long toes to reduce break over.

If the size of toes does not require trimming, then specialists can try padding affected area to raise angular positioning. Ideally, if back and front hoof areas lie flat, more pressure will be exerted on flexor tendons. As pressure increases, blood circulation reduces. Ultimately, horse movement is affected. Padding reduces tension by maintaining normal pastern-heel axis. It works gradually depending on how much angular distortion had happened. Additionally, some horses do not respond positively to this form of therapy.

Therapy is not completely sufficient to reduce heel pain. This is why medication will be advised to supplement therapy. Medication differs depending on the cause of an ailment. Most commonly, veterinary officers use anti-inflammatory dosages. Phenylbutazone or simply Bute is a common medication which has been approved in most States. Drugs must be taken as advised by a veterinarian. To reduce medication frequency, dosage may be done during workdays of an animal. As a matter of fact, this is when pain is extreme.

While most heel-pain responds positively to therapy coupled with Bute, some do not go away. If experiencing that, a variant form of medication is Isoxsuprine. Vessels contract with continued exertion of the pressure reducing blood flow from the heel area. Isoxsuprine works by dilating these vessels to allow more blood to flow within a given time. However, the effectiveness of this medication is in question since constriction continues to happen as long as heels are under tension.

If therapy coupled with drugs fail to relieve a horse of heel pain, the last option is surgery. Pain is felt through nerve endings on affected regions. Cutting these nerves tends to reduce pain during movement. Surgery has progressively improved from a simple cutting of nerves using a blade to more developed procedures using laser equipment.

A different form of surgery is Neurectomy. If all these methods have failed, there is no optional medication to curb further damage. Neurectomy only makes horses more comfortable by reducing pain. Interventions to heal hooves are stopped.

Not even the nerving provides a long lasting solution. Markedly, it may end up to more complications. As an owner, supplement therapy with other medications depending on condition of your animal. With proper management, the affected animals can operate more comfortably as pain is eased.




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