One of the most common diseases that could affect your horse is navicular disease. Navicular disease is a type of disease that affects the feet of horses, creating a bilateral lameness that grows gradually. This lameness, brought about by the navicular disease is experienced or witnessed mostly when the horse is walking or running on hard grounds, which then must cause more injuries. The disease not always affects both feet. In most cases, the navicular disease affects one foot, hence resulting in lameness. If untreated, the diseases develop affecting both feet of the horse, and in extreme cases, you might end up losing your horse.
Even though the primary cause of the navicular disease is not in the limelight, trauma on the horses’ bones or interface within the supply of the blood within the horses’ body has something to do with navicular disease. Trauma, which arises mostly from damages and injuries experienced by the horses on their feet may affect their bones, hence increasing the chances of the navicular disease. Navicular bursa, intense flexor tendon, and ligaments are the major target areas of the damage, and may eventually cause a lot of pain to the horse. The pain gradually develops causing lameness to your horse.
The major symptoms of navicular disease in horses are lameness and injuries to the feet of horses. However, there are other signs and symptoms that may indicate navicular disease on your horse. Lameness on a small circle of a horse’s feet and shortened strides are other early signs you may experience in a horse suffering from navicular. You may as well note that your horse is hesitant on placing one foot on the surface, which may then indicate pain. The hesitation of placing the foot on the ground, especially on a hard surface is always due to the pain caused by the trauma, which develops into bone navicular.
If you have observed the above signs and symptoms with your horse, the next thing you should immediately consider is diagnosis and treatment. Early diagnosis and treatment will prevent the severity of the navicular disease which might result in death. You might consider radiography, evaluation of the history and background of the symptoms as well as checking the nerve blocks in the horse’s feet for the disease to be diagnosed. Though acting fast is recommendable, many cases of navicular diseases are not entirely cured. However, there are multiple treatment solutions that you might consider to reduce the pain, severity, and heinous side effects of the disease. Heel support is a home remedy that you can consider on horses affected by navicular disease. The heel support helps avoid lameness and allows the horse to comfortably place their feet on the surface, even on hard surfaces.
Another treatment method you can consider for navicular disease in horses is the use of gallium nitrate. Gallium nitrate acts as a pain reliever to the horse, hence allowing it to comfortably exercise, walk or even run on hard surfaces. You might as consider desensitization of the horse’s feet if the navicular disease has developed to the extreme.