Navicular Treatments Studied by Washington State Vets

Navicular disease, or inflammation of the heel, is one of the most common causes of performance-limiting lameness in the front legs of many different types of horses. Although it is common and veterinarians have long recognized and treated it
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Navicular disease, or inflammation of the heel, is one of the most common causes of performance-limiting lameness in the front legs of many different types of horses. Although it is common and veterinarians have long recognized and treated it, the cause of navicular disease is poorly understood.

"A wide variety of treatments have been used on horses with clinical signs of navicular disease, which can be described as heel pain," said Sarah Sampson, DVM, BSc, a Washington State University equine veterinarian with a special interest in navicular disease and MRI. "But most treatments have proven ineffective in stopping the chronic, progressive degeneration that occurs in the navicular bone of affected horses. Many treated horses have repeated episodes of lameness that eventually result in retirement if they are performance horses."

An important advancement in diagnostic technology is changing this scenario–the use of MRI. WSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine pioneered the clinical use of MRI in live horses beginning in 1996. It is currently one of only a few veterinary hospitals in the world equipped with this technology, and it has moved WSU to the forefront of veterinary medicine in the evaluation of lameness and neurological disorders.

In recent years, veterinarians have evaluated many bone and soft tissue problems with MRI technology, many of which had not previously been diagnosed in live horses

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