Saturday, November 14, 2015

Navicular Disease And Some Of Its Outcomes

By Mattie Knight


It is one of the most common causes of chronic forelimb inside wound in horses. It is associated with swelling of the boat-shaped bone and leads to significant problem for the horses. Since there are various of dealing with navicular disease, infected horses can still head back to their normal health conditions.

Horses with this ailment tend to exert most of their weight on their toes which are usually Iong. This a common indication of the illness where such animals try to avoid using their heels. Another symptom is that horses with condition take long to stop the slides they take. They also shift their weight often to decrease pressure and pain on their heels which tend to be under slung. Similar indication of this ailment is presence of an inside wound in the shoulders since horses exert much weight on their toes making the gait rough. The lameness tends to disappear with rest.

A major cause of sickness is interruption of supply of blood to the bone. This damage occurs to the deep flexor tendon, the burse and the bone tissues resulting to mild pain. This condition is often found in horses with five years or more. However, the illness is manageable with time.

Diagnosis of navicular ailment is based on both clinical and radiographic signs. This simply means physical and x-ray diagnosis respectively. Veterinarians use hoof testers to conduct physical diagnosis. The testers are applied on the front legs of the horse and if the sickness is present, the horse flinches. The same is done on the hind legs to compare how the horse reacts.

Medication of the complaint is done through various techniques. Appropriate shoeing is one of the techniques of dealing with this illness. It is simply balancing of hooves forward to backward and side wards. Since the most experienced impact of this affliction is long toes, this can be corrected by trimming the front hoof.

The third aspect of controlling scaphoid bone sickness is using drugs. A drug that has successfully been used is isoxsuprine. This drug helps in enlarging blood arteries surrounding the scaphoid bone hence allowing free flow of blood. Eighty percent of horses treated with isoxsuprine have responded to it. This is according to the latest studies conducted.

Exercising of horses by riding them at intervals of thirty to sixty minutes six times a week is a recommended way of dealing with scaphoid bone complaint. This highly improves blood circulation in the navicular bone. With this technique, horses are trained to use their back legs in supporting most their weight. The last way of dealing with navicular illness is through operation. Horses who fail to respond using drugs, exercise and correct shoeing, surgery is recommended.

In summary the disease is not fatal. With the mentioned ways of controlling it, infected horses can return to their healthy lifestyles. Masses should be educated on how to control the ailment to save horse species.




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