Monday, July 30, 2012

                  Romeo's Day

Romeo my horse has been diagnosed after many months of off and on lameness, with a navicular cyst. It has been a “head scratching” episode because he has successfully over compensated his body so that he was able to mask it up till now. After bouts of false predictions of Lyme’s disease or even arthritis finally broke down and seriously asked my horse to help me and admit I needed help of his intelligence. He in response lifted his right foot repeatedly and kneeled. In response I had tears in my eyes, and called a lameness vet to come look. He took x rays of my horse’s right front hoof. It was then that I was reminded once again how a horse really does give everything to their partner and I was going to do the same back as usual. There are many procedures and medication available and I chose the natural way. I started natural pure calcium to see if we can encourage the bone to fill in and harden. For three months re x rayed and found no change to better or worse and was then approached to try Tilden injection. I did my homework and found no conclusive evidence that would say it works only that horses that were getting it were on a pain management series as well. Then of course there was nerving him and that in my eyes was not an option. Then I approached a farrier who would work with me because I trim naturally, to stay as much in that realm as possible. We decided to place conservatively, egg bar shoes on my horse’s fronts. We didn’t have to square the toe no pads just the shoe. Now I have him on a “Spring Training”to strengthen his ligaments, muscles and allowing time for Romeo to get used to the change of having a shoe for the first time. I will say for the first time in a long time he is walking and tracking well, trotting and cantering straight again!!
Most 'navicular cysts' have been with the horse since birth and are OCD (osteochondrosis dessicans) lesions that cannot be directly linked to unsoundness. Adding calcium to the diet or even using Tildren will not resolve OCD. The offending cartilage has to be surgically removed and the cavity filled with stem cells to resolve the situation. This is a very difficult procedure to do in this area and since this is not a common seat of lameness, would not be helpful for the horse.