Wednesday 24 September 2014

How To Treat Navicular Syndrome

By Karina Frost


The navicular region is an area around the front hooves of all horses. Due to various reasons, the navicular syndrome may affect this area. As much as this infection is not terminal, it may make the horse very uncomfortable preventing it from carrying out its activities normally. A horse that catches the disease can get treatment and go back to its normal functions. There are various things that can be done to prevent and to cure the illness.

In order to effectively diagnose the illness, there are various things that the veterinary doctor may do. The detection needs both bodily and x-ray evidence to properly determine that it is a result of navicular infection. The radiological proof is usually important because there are various other factors that may cause lameness. Making straight assumptions may make the physicians issue the incorrect medication therefore complicating the disease.

There are various physical symptoms that demonstrate the syndrome. The most common thing that is likely to happen is lameness on the front limbs of the horse. In some both feet are usually lame but others have only one foot affected. When the lameness happens, the horses will stumble during movement. Horses that are middle aged are at a higher risk of getting the infection. This refers to the horses from seven to fourteen years of age.

Physical tests can also be carried out to detect the problem. One of them is making observations when the stallion is settling down. An infected horse will try hard to put more weight on the hind limbs by extending the front limbs too forward. The infected horses also show a common physical sign of having the front hooves being smaller than the hind ones this is because they have probably been subjected to less pressure since the infection kicked in.

The veterinary physicians can also use anesthetic medications to verify if the horses have any problems. When the stallion is given the medication they will stop any abnormal actions because the drug will prevent them from feeling pain in any of the affected areas.

There are various ways that the disease can be handled after it has been detected. One way is through correct shooing. This will help to stabilize the hooves from all sides making the horse more comfortable. There are also some medications that the horses can be given to widen the blood vessels in the affected area. However, many horses take long to react to these treatments.

The care giver can also subject the horse to some exercises to help in enhancing blood circulation. These exercise routines should be done every day of the week for about an hour. By increasing the circulation in the affected area, the horse will be able to apply more weight on the affected region.

Nonetheless, there are some stallions that rarely react to the methods of treatment above. For stallions that show zero change after all the actions above have been taken, the doctors can decide to conduct a surgical process on them. This action is usually taken to remove the unwanted ligaments that mainly cause the pain.




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