adovr_d87389c80da99bef8f38776d3f905184 Articles medical and health: Understanding The Navicular Disease In Horses: Diagnosis And Management

Understanding The Navicular Disease In Horses: Diagnosis And Management

By Francis Riggs


Whenever a horse is labeled as suffering from the 'navicular', there is a tendency of people to shy away from him, making it look like he was suffering from some deadly malady like the Typhoid Mary or other similar diseases. Many people are in the dark when it comes to treating or even visualizing the navicular disease in horses. This is a condition that the feet that normally results in lameness and is most likely to appear as the lameness in one of the forelimbs.

Unknown to many horse owners, a horse with the said condition can easily be brought back its former perforce level, all that is needed is proper management by someone who fully understand what it take to manage the condition. In order to understand the situation better, compare the horse with an athlete that has been diagnosed with bad feet, the athlete can go back to its former level of performance as long as it is well managed; the same goes for the horse.

In order to diagnose this syndrome, one needs to look at the forelimbs of the horse. More often than not, the horse will normally have mild lameness at the forelimb. This may be noticed at different limbs at different times. The anti-inflammatories and rest may provide a short time solution as the problem reoccurs later on.

There is no particular cause of the condition as several factors can contribute to the diseases. In the same way, it is rare to find one treatment procedure that is successful. Bute is widely used as it is known to reduce pain as well as inflammation, particularly in the early stages of the syndrome.

However, the injection with the steroids is resorted to when the pain is suspected to be originating from the coffin joint or the navicular bursa. The steroids do not cure the underlying pathology issues and is therefore not a cure.

In order to reduce symptoms, vets usually resort to techniques that target to increase circulation to the navicular area. This includes the administration of isoxsuprine hydrochloride as it helps in dilating the small blood vessels. The magnetic hoof and the anticoagulant warfarin are both used to increase local circulation, which in turn reduces pain.

When it comes to treatment, most veterinarians usually go for bute to manage navicular and other lameness diseases. It is considered effective as it helps to reduce the pain and inflammation in the early stages of such conditions.

There are a number of techniques that increases blood circulation to the affected area and thus reduce symptoms. The administration of isoxsuprine, for instance, helps dilate the blood vessels. The other methods include the use of the magnetic hoof and the use of anticoagulant both which target to boost the blood circulation.




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