navicular/isoxsuprine question

Rachel's gelding that she shows is 28 and was diagnosed with navicular syndrome 11 years ago. He also has sidebone in his rt front foot. That little piece of calcified cartilage is broken off and floating around. With some mild corrective shoeing, he has been very sound. 3 weeks ago, he got new shoes. He was overdue by about 3 weeks because of the farrier's illness. I think he had pneumonia. Anyway, he was s hod on Sunday, just a tiny bit gimpy on Monday and Tuesday. I gave him bute on Tuesday and Wed. He was great Wed-Saturday. We even went to a fun show on that Saturday with him. He was very, very sore ever since. At first, I thought, well he's just old and navicular so I gave him bute and used surpass. He improved, but was not completely sound...still a little tender. This past Monday, it had been 8 days and I thought he was alot better. I told Rachel she couldn't ride, but she needed to get him out and practice SMS. He was very lame at a trot. I called the vet and they came on Thursday morning. They wanted to wait and let all the bute/surpass I had given him get completely out of his system. Xrays showed navicular bones looked "pretty good", but he has arthritis around all the little bones in his feet. Vet recommended some changes in his shoeing. The farrier is coming this weekend to reset him. We also started him on isoxsuprine. Has anyone had experience using isoxsuprine? How long did it take before it was effective? We're giving it 2 weeks and if he's not comfortable at that point, we're going to inject his coffin joints with a steroid injection. If for some reason that fails, she said we can try chemical nerving. She recommends that over actual surgical nerving because you don't have the risks/complications and it's not as invasive. Also, it's easier to repeat if needed. Anyone have any experience with this? I think the drug they use is called Serapin, but I'm not sure. Input anyone??

I have no experience but wish you the best of luck he seems like such a neat horse in those pics those old guys are such wonderful animals I hope you find the solution to his comfort and happiness.. Keep us posted

Lynn M. wrote:

I have no experience but wish you the best of luck he seems like such a neat horse in those pics those old guys are such wonderful animals I hope you find the solution to his comfort and happiness.. Keep us posted

Thanks Lynn. He is an awesome boy. My vet seemed pretty confident that we can get him sound again. It just may take a few weeks. The next show that we really don't want to miss is june 2 so I'm hoping for big improvement by then. The vet's assistant trotted him up and down our driveway 2 or 3 times. He's such a good boy that he never hesitated to trot off even though he was hurting.

What vet are you using? stone? Will you vet work with your farrier? That is such a great help when they do when it comes to the trouble you are having.

No, I don't use Dr. Stone, but I have heard great things about him. We are quite a bit closer to Owensboro than to Evansville so I use Wills Animal Hospital. My understanding is that one of the vets was the farm vet for Calumet Farms in Lexington for awhile. They have several vets that work there and so far I have liked them all. My farrier is from Boonville, but the vet made copies of the xrays, said he could call anytime and gave me detailed instructions as to how she wanted him shod. He got his new shoes yesterday and he wasn't favoring that left front at all when I fed this evening. He'll get a final gram of bute in the morning and then we'll see how it goes. If he's doing well, I'll probably let Rachel do some SMS stuff with him and see how he does. If he is not 100% by a week from tomorrow, we're going to inject him. He's too old and he's been too good to be in pain.

Denise