Bought a new mule at livestock auction. Mule was pricey $7800. Livestock place gives 1 day soundness guarantee. Had mule for 2 months now and he comes up lame. He is only ten and I took him to the vet who did radiographs and nerve blocks to diagnose. He said it is severe and recommended some corrective shoes and Bute. He felt denerving was in order. Any comments on this procedure. I would like to be able to ride him for a few more years. Any comments on how to get my money back from the seller who I am sure was aware of this condition and he is a DVM and that is likely why they sold him.

I've had a good many horses 'nerved" over the years. A couple are still in the area and going strong 20 yrs later.
2 months is a long time to go and ask for your $$ back. I doubt the Mule was fixed to stay sound that long. You could call the seller and be polite and ask questions.
Good luck !!

Must have bought it at the big Billings sale. Get promo for that right up here and how wonderful it is. Lot of money to pay for an animal that is meat value. Think you got suckered. Guy goes to buy a horse from an auction. Auctioneer says it's a good horse, just doesn't look too good. Guy buys the nag, takes it home and finds it's blind. Calls the auctioneer who tells him, told you so, he doesn't look too good.

Grizz

Personally I wouldn't ride a nerved horse/mule in the mountains or anywhere that footing is an issue. Shoeing can help some. I've worked on a lot of them and some respond very well but most don't.

They may not have known he had navicular as it is a tricky diagnosis but they may well have known too.

Feel bad for you.

i came across something about using selenium as an aid for navicular. we have 3 out of 4 with small feet and as a result navicular. im willing to try anything...

http://naviculardisease.com/

http://theequinist.blogspot.co...vicular-disease.html

Nerving a horse for Arena work is one thing; but as already said above, for a 12 " trail at 12,000 feet is quite another.
You mention "3 out of 4 with small feet and as a result navicular" you have both identified the likely cause and taken your ability to claim back on the two month old sale away.
I am sorry for your loss though. Navicular treatments have poor odds. The problem is the result of poor structure and that can't be changed so the outcomes are not responsive most of the time.

I think That nerving a horse has a lot of misconseptions about it. I'll bet a lot of people are riding horses that have been nerved and dont know it. Your not numbing the whole foot. Also a lot of horses have nerved them selves with wire, culverts etc.... In the early stages Isoxoprine can be a very good way to treat it. Its not a good problem to have. Just not the end of the world either (sometimes)....

Send a PM to LEDVM-here on AR he is as good a horse vet as walks.

A Nevicular horse can be "managed"...The best results I have had over the last 60 years is to shoe them "flat" and resort to Bute when you need to...Many roping and barrel horses or any fast event horse may end up Navicular as the legs and feet take a pounding. Not sure why or how a Mule would be Navicular, maybe neglect of the feet or blood flow or hreriditary.

I have tried most methods of shoeing, the use of pads, clips and bars, but standing one up flat at the accepted angle has worked best for my horses over the years..95% of the Navicular horses I have owned came about from age and hard use in the arena, not form pasture or rough country riding.

For me, an egg bar shoe with a wedge pad has been as successful as anything. The real key seems to be get the hoof angle a bit steeper than natural.

Wapiti had farrier come over and trim his feet today. He feels feet are sound and no white wall or thrush. Going to leave bare foot for now and go to see vet next week who specializes in lameness. Hopefully the trim will will help and resolve the problem. Will keep you guys posted and thanks for the help.

Sadly the condition of the hoof is no indicator of navicular. If he truly has navicular a trim won't resolve anything but with that said, keeping his feet trimmed and the hoof angle slightly elevated is important.

Wapiti is doing well after the farrier trimmed his feet. The symptoms went away and I just got back from the mountains with him. He did a 5 mile ride in and showed no signs of lameness. Glad I did not heed the vets advice and have him cut !!

Maybe your vet was just having a slow day?

quote:

Originally posted by twilli:
Wapiti is doing well after the farrier trimmed his feet. The symptoms went away and I just got back from the mountains with him. He did a 5 mile ride in and showed no signs of lameness. Glad I did not heed the vets advice and have him cut !!

Unless the vet specializes in equine they miss more diagnosis than they get correct in my experience. If I need a vet for my horse I skip the local vets and drive 2 1/2 hour to one that specializes in horse not dogs and cats

It's a hard condition to diagnose under ideal conditions with the best equine vets looking at the radiographs....sometimes it's a best guess scenario. On the other hand, lameness from navicular can be intermittent and sometimes a good trimming can help the symptoms for a period of time.

Hopefully you dodged a bullet but I wouldn't say the vet is a quack just yet.

The vet is a large animal vet. My farrier states he has taken care of several animals that this vet has diagnosed as navicular but has been corrected with proper trimming and shoeing.

Navicular can't be corrected.... trimming and shoeing can help alleviate the pain and take some of the pressure off but once the damage is done...it's done and the condition will worsen with time. You can slow that deterioration but you can't correct it.

quote:

Originally posted by sheephunterab:
Navicular can't be corrected.... trimming and shoeing can help alleviate the pain and take some of the pressure off but once the damage is done...it's done and the condition will worsen with time. You can slow that deterioration but you can't correct it.

Curios. How did your quartercrack patient ever turn out ?

Grizz

quote:

Originally posted by Grizzly Adams:

quote:

Originally posted by sheephunterab:
Navicular can't be corrected.... trimming and shoeing can help alleviate the pain and take some of the pressure off but once the damage is done...it's done and the condition will worsen with time. You can slow that deterioration but you can't correct it.

Curios. How did your quartercrack patient ever turn out ?

Grizz

I'm working on two right now and both are about 50% grown out.

quote:

Livestock place gives 1 day soundness guarantee. Had mule for 2 months now and he comes up lame. He is only ten

Seems that 99% of the horses and mules that get sold have problems, otherwise they wouldn't be up for sale.

Sorry about your mule. I got a lame one too. Wanna buy it?

Have the Navicular bone X-Rayed then you will KNOW if he is Navicular. If so then he can usually be managed with proper shoeing and Bute.

quote:

Originally posted by Atkinson:
Have the Navicular bone X-Rayed then you will KNOW if he is Navicular. If so then he can usually be managed with proper shoeing and Bute.

That's one of the problems with navicular...getting a diagnosis. Radiographs may show it but they may not too. Reading x-rays for navicular is 50% science and 50% guessing...even with the best equine vet looking at them. Anyone who tells you that you can get a 100% diagnosis from an x-ray isn't feeding you the straight goods. The combination of a temporary nerve block and an x-ray is best but still a long ways from a reliable 100% diagnosis.

He has been xrayed and trimmed. The trimming seems to have corrected the problem but he is going to need more off the toe. The farrier did not want to take off to much all at once. Wapiti did a 12 mile hike in the back country and did well. No signs of lameness. I guess he just needs to keep his hooves trimmed more often. Thanks for all the replys.

An egg bar shoe with a rolled toe may help him as well if the trimming isn't enough. I've used wedge pads on many of them too with fairly good results. If it is navicular the whole trick is getting the hoof angle fairly steep.

Sheephunterab,
I agree with you, but with an x-ray you can see some deterioation that is comprable to Navicular..

Your right, there is no cure, but there are different methods of shoeing that help and the use of bute to ease or even eliminate the pain.
One method of shoeing may work on a horse and not on another it seems, as I have used several different methods on a horse until I found the one that work best on him or her..

I have managed Navicular horses for up to as much as 10 or perhaps more years with success with proper treatment and shoeing, but sooner or later they succomb to it as they get older. But old age does the same thing to horses and humans.

Most of my Naviular horses are my older rope horses, kids barrel and rope horses, horses that get pushed to the limit and take a constant pounding on their legs and feet..Just off hand I don't recall any of our ranch horses over the years having navicular problems, probably because their daily routine is long walks and trots, with only an ocassional run to catch a calf or turn a cow or whatever.