Why Horses Experience Navicular Pain

By Ida Dorsey


Navicular infections are perhaps the main reasons behind lameness of front limbs in many horses presently. These infections lead to navicular pain which mainly restricts the way the horses perform. The key reason why this occurs is not very clear because locating the exact basis of this pain has been difficult for many scholars. Over the past few years, many stallions have been diagnosed wrongly as many vets classify front limb distress as being caused by the navicular syndrome.

The navicular region can be found in the front legs of horses around their hooves. Sometimes, this area gets affected by some infection that makes them experience some distress which makes them perform very poorly. However, it is not a terminal disease and therefore cannot disable or kill the animal entirely. It is just a mild infection that one can easily prevent or treat.

There are many other reasons why stallions may be lame henceforth there are some particular tests that assist to determine if this syndrome is accountable for the distress. There are some bodily tests that should be done along with the radiographic tests so that the disease is not misguided for another.

In order to know if a horse is experiencing lameness, its owner will realize that it stumbles when moving and also lands in a weird way that puts more pressure on the hind legs. When this has been noticed, there are various physical tests that must be carried out. For example, hoof testers can be used to examine the animal and check out its reaction to infliction. The size of hooves can also tell if the animal is affected because the front ones are likely to be smaller because of the less pressure usually exerted on them.

Anesthesia can also be a good medicine used to detect if a horse has this illness. Once the anesthesia has been injected on the feet, the will become numb and the animal will not be capable of feeling anything. This means that they will stop acting weirdly because they are not distressed anymore. This will prove that pain is the main reason for their unusual behavior.

After the infection has been correctly detected, immediate medical actions should be taken. Correct shooing is the best thing to do. The caregiver should make certain that the shoe is balanced on all sides of the hooves and that all sides have equal pressure. Later some medications can be given to the stallion to ease their pain.

After the medicine has been administered, various physical examinations can be carried out on the stallion to help rise the blood stream of the front legs. Better blood stream will help the stallion to have better equilibrium that will apply the same weight on all legs. These exercises must be done for an hour each day.

Not every horse has the same response to the treatments. Sometimes the horse might even be resistance to all treatments leaving the only option being a surgery. The surgery helps to cut out the extra ligaments that make the horse uncomfortable thus causing distress.




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