Postby angela9823 » Thu Dec 17, 2015 2:15 pm
I'm revisiting this because I thought someone might be interested. One of the horses I trim was diagnosed with a cyst in the navicular bursa area many years ago. The horse was on meds for it when current owner bought her but none of us knew that at the time (found out later). I told current owner I thought the mare had some jewelry (ringbone and possibly sidebone) and she may want to steer clear or get vetting done but she bought the horse (very well schooled and was sound at the time) that very day without knowing much history. So owner takes on horse and six months later, horse is dead lame. That is when vet #1 comes in and finds the cyst. I have no idea what they did to make horse sound at time as I was not trimmer (partner was) and didn't get in the middle of it. Horse came up lame again two years later, vet #2 comes out and she once again is sound pretty quickly but then starts a gradual decline for the next two years until a recent episode where she was three legged lame. Vet #3 comes out, misdiagnoses her the first time with founder, goes back to office and sees her history and starts a new regimen. Two (maybe three?) days later, horse is 100% sound again. So I go out to talk to owner to find out how a horse so lame comes up sound that quick three times. We finally get to the bottom of all three times they increased her Isoxsuprine. I had no idea this entire time that she was on it. They put her on it twice a day with the initial flare ups and then about three months later, they back her down to once a day. The mare starts slowly declining. But when they put mare on it twice a day, she's sound again very quickly. This is my first experience with a horse being on the stuff; I had no idea that she was on it and still noticed a remarkable difference with mare. I'm not sure how this compares to other uses. That cyst rubs the navicular bone and the tendon and causes inflammation. She does also have ringbone and some slight sidebone (confirmed with xray). Don't know exactly which is ailing the mare most, but in this case, the Isoxsuprine does its job and very well. Mare will probably be on it permanently twice a day because no one is sure what to treat when the mare has several issues going on.