Ridecamp: [RC] navicular horse

Too many posts this morning from me...but I need the expertise of the
list.

Got called in as the "neighborhood professional" yesterday to look at a
really lame horse.  This is about a 1300 lb. 15.2 Walking Horse...16
years old, THICK crest, bad case of navicular (diagnosed by radioactive
scans at UT) on beautiful lush pasture.  The horse is in pain. He's
standing stretched way out with his forefeet well ahead of his nose.
(Hindfeet out too as if "parked" *not* a founder stance.) Then he drags
them back towards him banking up sawdust so he can stand on it with his
heels up, toes down. (smart trick).  After 30 seconds or so he'll stretch
them forward again.

  I look at the horse and say, "he's in pain, he doesn't have anything
he's looking forward to...grandkids etc. I'd put him to sleep".  This
lady has only had him 5 years and hasn't been around him all that much so
I really don't think he merits extreme sentimental steps...except he has
a habit of licking her hand which is apparently good enough to get her to
drop major bucks.  I think she can afford pretty much whatever will help
him and is willing to spend it.  For instance, when she said she knew he
could benefit from hand walking 15 min. every day but that she wasn't
around I made a joke about buying him a mechanical hot walker and putting
sawdust under it and her eyes lit up. :-P So since she's determined to do
something for him...all I could think of at this point was nerving him.

I just *happened* to be trying to thin my 10 year collection of Endurance
News yesterday and read an article on nerving.  The vet was taking a
stance that AERC needed to mention that in addition to no drugs we
shouldn't be racing nerved horses but didn't want more rules. >g< (some
things never change)

 He said one risk was that the horse would get an abcess and not know it,
letting it get out of control.  The lady who owns this horse seems to
read a lot and knew that, and seemed to consider that reason enough to
rule out nerving.  I see a horse who is *constantly* shifting his weight
and in pain and if the person is determined to force him to live out his
life this way would benefit from the procedure.  I'd probably prefer good
ammunition for convincing her to put the poor thing out of his misery but
since she's not willing...

Soo...any experiences out there with this (I'm ASSUMING say...for a horse
you had with sentimental value, not a competition horse)

Angie

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