Did you know that 15 percent of horses develop Navicular Disease sometime throughout their lifetime? Navicular Disease in horses is in the navicular bone that is placed next to the back of the coffin joint. In human terms, this known as the heel of the horse’s foot. This disease causes the horse to have pain in their feet because of the decaying of the navicular bone. Unfortunately, Navicular Disease is becoming more of a popular diagnosis for Equine. The real question is, why? Why is Navicular Disease numbers rising from a span of 20 years and how can this disease be cured?

            This disease has been becoming a more of a popular answer to why horses become lame. The symptoms of navicular are obvious to catch. Such as lameness, tripping frequently, and lack of willingness during physical activity. This is due to decaying of the bone which creates rough edges on the bone that rub on the horses’ ligaments and tendons and cause pain. Sadly, there hasn’t been a 100 percent definite answer to why horses develop this disease. Theories have been discussed as genetics passed on, over working, or breaking horses too early where they aren’t fully physically developed yet. The only question that has for sure been answered, is that this disease is not curable, but as the numbers of diagnosis for Navicular rise, there has been more treatments created to manage this disease.

            As there isn’t a cure for navicular, there are a few medical and obtainable ways to manage the pain from this disease. Some of the main ways are, certain horseshoes, anti-inflammatory medicine, reduction on physical activity, operation of cutting nerve, or steroid injections. All these options are not solutions to curing Navicular, they are just options to keeping the horse comfortable.

            This disease is not proven to be curable or know answered on why this disease develops in horses. As numbers rise over the years, scientist and veterinarians have been able to come up with new ways to treat this disease and start to open theories of how and why the navicular bone decays. With years of more research, there is hoped to find a cure to Navicular disease.