Sunday, November 18, 2018

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 inflammation is triggered by laceration as the horse ages while the lameness is mostly seen in nags. The syndrome affects all equine breeds but with varied extremes. The intensity is high in some breeds whereas in others is mild or insignificant. The intensity of the ailment is also influenced by excessive weight and minimized hooves sizes. These features place some horses at a higher risk of navicular syndrome and other related foot maladies.

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 palmar foot pain basically affects only the front feet but with varying intensities. This makes one foot to experience more pain than the other. This attribute is vital in that it enhances the visibility of lameness. It is clearly observed during short-striding where the horse negotiates sharp corners. This is examined through observing the landing posture of feet which should be the heel-to-toe landing and not its complement.

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 caudal heel pain syndrome can be managed to reduce the pain and significantly minimize the excessive stress that affects the deep digital flexor tendon. This management can be achieved by staging the equine in a layup period in a stall with a small paddock. This allows the painful structures to have a serene rest for their recovery. The equines should be kept at the correct body weight. Regular hoof trimming should be practiced to maintain the correct hoof angles and pasterns.

In addition, appropriate shoeing exercise is also essential in the remedy since it improves the horse comfort through balancing. Hormonal steroid medications are also channeled on some breeds. In some cases, the pain may be obstinate and uncontrollable, this forces the veterinarians to adopt the neurectomy therapy. It involves getting rid of nerves leading to the affected area. As a result, it makes the horse not to feel bruised cavities, lameness and other related conditions.

Therefore, the navicular syndrome in horses is usually accompanied by irritating symptoms that discomfort the equines. The adverse condition can be calmly suppressed by use various management strategies. They are usually administered to make the hoofed animals more comfortable and decrease stress and inflammation in the affected structures.




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