I would like to know how the surgery went for your horse. I would like to know how long the recovery took, and things such as how long the horse confined to stall rest, hand walking, when you could start light riding, and then regular riding.
I was also wondering about after care, such as wrapping, cold water soakes, rub on anti-inflamitories, special shoeing, ect.
I also would like to know if anyone who had the surgery done had any bad results, such as no improvement, or worse lameness, or surgical sight pain.
Has any one ever had their horse with navicular disease surgically "nerved"?
Nerving them can be dangerous as they are prone to tripping and stumbling because they can't feel their feet. There is also an ethical question about the rights and wrongs of doing the procedure. The nerves can re-attach and form neuromas which can cause more pain than the original pain associated with navicular. Before exploring nerving as an option, look into isoxoprene, warfarin and gallium nitrate if you haven't already.
Reply:I didn't want your opionion, especially since your "facts" are wrong. I wanted and answer about post-op care from someone that has had the surgery done.... Report It
Reply:If you are a real horse lover and care about your friend nerve him only if that is your last possible move. If you do nerve the horse do not ride him since he has no feelings in his foot that has been nerved. You may injure yourself or your horse. Think of yourself running and not feeling the ground under you. I've seen many selfish and foolish 4-H parents want to win so much that they put their children in danger on a nerved horse. Nerve him if you must and if you love him put him to pasture.
Reply:ok....there are allot of people who scream dont do it....but if you have made up your mind....i had my rope horse nerved.... it was a short surgery and didnt take long for recovery... we also still left the aluminum shoes on him.... he handled really well.. i didnt practice off of him i only roped of him when it was kinda important....and i will say.....this horse never, ever stumbled or lost his footing........he knew where his feet were ... people say that they stumble..... well he never did.... i wouldnt ride him hard every day...i would just keep him in shape w/ the round pin and only use him for important things..... this is not a permanent fix... you will probably have to do it again in a couple of yrs...maybe longer or shorter... as far as taking care of the actual ouchy after the surgery ... all i did was run cold water on it....its not a big incision... nerving does not take care of everything... it just helps with the actual pain at the moment...but it was either do this (because all else failed) or sell him to somebody else... and i know this sounds stupid... but he didnt need to be hauled 7days a week and roped off of every night..and i was afraid he would be abbused... another reason i did this was becuase long term use of bute... i knew the effect of it and really didnt want to create any more issues w/ him..... so i did what i could to keep him... he worked awsome for me.... before and after his little surgery..
if you have made up your mind... go for it...and i always get a down thumb when i say this... but its really not a big deal.... when your horse has navicular problems, he cant ride him as hard or as much... even if he as been nerved...
@tommy
alot of your opinions i do agree....but not this time.... being w/o moral..... please .... how many ropers do you see wanting to buy a horse w/ navicular... not to many.....so i bought him and tried all sorts of stuff w/ him.... never working... so we had him nerved.... and it worked for him.... every horse is different.... just like people.... so dont judge.... i guess i could have sent him to the glue factory.... cause that would have been the easy way out... i dont appreciate you saying what you have said at all..
.like you have said you have never had a horse nerved.... well the question simply stated .... only if you have had it done to your horse.... did you not read and just jump the gun... there are questions out there that want to know the opinion on this... answer those..... sometimes there is nothing more you can do but nerve the horse....
Reply:I would opt out all other treatment possibilities before doing this. The most effective treatment for navicular syndrome is good foot care. Different styles of shoes have been developed to help relieve pressure of the deep flexor tendon, which will relieve pain in a horse with the condition. Horses showing signs of navicular disease should be shod more frequently than other horses (every six to eight weeks). Each horse should be trimmed according to the particular conformation that needs correction. But at any rate this should be done before surgery. Having this surgery done to your horse wont cure it and may make it worse. I would have a very long talk to your vet about this with all of the questions you have asked above and also about prevention if you own other horses.
I have been around other horses that have had this issue and were treated by surgery and it wasn't a pretty sight afterwards. My horses however haven't had the slightest problem with this even my 25 yr old QH is a hoof gem.
Good luck with your choice and hopefully your vet will lead you in the proper direction.
Reply:No, and I'd hope I ran all of my options before it came to nerving...I'm not a fan. The nerve endings can grow back together and that area can be very painful for the horse.
Reply:nerving is a touchy subject, but i have met a few horses that it has really helped. Ask the vet if he can provide references of other horse owners that he has nerved before. i am fairly certain that it is not that invasive of a surgery, but i agree with the others about make sure you are exhausting all other options.
Reply:I've never had nerves severed on a horse - so cannot answer your specific points BUT - I do have a fair bit of knowledge about the condition and I have trimmed a horse that had had the surgery and regained sensation within 6 months.
His heel pain was removed permanently by deshoeing and trimming to allow his his feet to return to a physiologically correct form.
Vets do not all agree on what causes navicular - or whether it even is a disease - and most these days refer to navicular syndrome' or 'sore heel syndrome'.
Many completely sound horses have lesions on the navicular bone; many sore horses don't have any visible abnormalities. The reason that vets increasingly refer to it as a syndrome as opposed to a 'disease' is they cannot explain what causes it, how it progresses, or how to treat it.
I have yet to see a horse with what I consider to be normal feet (in terms of width of heel, ability to expand on weightbearing, toe height, concavity, soft horn health etc) that has sore heels. In contrast, EVERY horse I have seen with sore heels - has had varying degrees of contraction, high heels, under-run heels, atrophied frog, pinched bulbs.
Most people don't get to see normal feet - this is a very sad fact. BUT, most horses feet are contracted and contraction causes pain and the pain is felt most at the point the horse first lands - its heel. (Until the damage to the overloaded toe starts to catch up with them)
Apart from the fact that it isn't permanent and it leaves the horse unable to sense the ground and therefore a danger to itself and its rider, the biggest issue I have with severing nerves is that, like pain-killing drugs, it allows people to keep working a lame animal. The fact that the horse doesn't feel the pain just means the damage goes on getting worse - it just can't feel it.
For me there's a huge moral issue there. I simply cannot accept that it is either ethical or practical to perform these sort of procedures - especially when there's an alternative.
Which is - take his shoes off, get his heels down to where nature says they should be, ensure the bars are not impacted and ensure good nutrition and loads of movement. While he's transitioning from being shod, use hoof boots.
Dr H Strasser's books are a good starting point to find out about the effects of shoeing, the impact on the horse's health of contraction - and the true causes of 'navicular' - and its travelling companion - founder.
Reply:i know 2 different horses who had this done:
one was a horse i was going to lease for the show season (i did hunter/jumper). i asked my trainer why he was only for lease, not for sale, and he told me b/c the horse had been nerved and theyd never make any money off of selling him. i rode him, and you never would have been able to tell. they said he had been nerved the previous year (they didnt say what the injury he had was), but that he had made a great recovery, only about 6 months before he was jumping low fences again. i unfortunatly didnt lease this horse, but he was a great guy, and like i said you would have never known from just watching him go around.
the second horse was a little different. he had a very stubborn streak, pretty difficult horse to get along with (the type that would buck just b/c he was bored), and also a very high energy. he had to have about 2 months of stall rest, and another 2 months of just hand walking. after that, he had to be aced everytime someone would be handling him b/c he was crazy from being couped up like that. even after 2 years from the surgery, the horse almost killed her when she tried to ride him. to this day, all they can do with him is keep him pastured.
after i saw that horse i thought a little differently about the whole nerving process. im not against it, but i think people really need to think about if their horse can handle not only the surgery, but the amount of time that they will not be working. some horses go crazy if left in a stall for 2 days, let alone 2 months or more. so just think of your horse and whether or not he/she would be ok with that
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