NAVICULAR SYNDROME - PIP AND MEL

 Pip was in fairly light work on a weekly basis but began to fall lame

occasionally over a period of two years. The lameness would always be

prescribed box rest and bute by my vet and after a short while Pip would

become sound again. These intermittent periods of lameness increased in

frequency until the summer of 2006 when I demanded more from my vet as I

felt that the problem was not being solved sufficiently through bute and box

rest. The vet agreed to x-ray him and diagnosed him with "heel pain", and

more bute and remedial farriery were prescribed to bring him back to being

sound. My farrier began with putting on heart bar shoes, then full frog

shoes when Pip's frogs began to deteriorate. On each of his visits my

farrier would lengthen the heel plate at the back of the shoe in order to

compensate for Pip's heel pain, and what the vet had called his "upright

pasterns". Still, Pip continued to go lame and I continued to spend more and

more money to make him comfortable.

It was at the point I reached the limit of both my finances and my tolerance

of watching my horse go through these painful processes that I contacted

Lindsay.

Lindsay sat me down and calmly explained to me about AEP, gave me lots of

things to read and made me feel safe, and that someone finally understood

the heart wrenching rigmarole of watching your horse in pain and not knowing

where to turn to.

She explained to me that if I decided to take the AEP route it would be a

long journey to Pip's recovery but the recovery would be one that was

maintainable, not one that would just be another quick fix. 5 months on and

I am riding again, Pip is a totally different pony and we are both happier

then we have ever been. It took a lot of hard work and we still have a long

way to go but I know that we are going to get there now.

5 months ago I was considering putting Pip to sleep as I thought that it

would be the only way to stop the pain that he was in. Now I am back in the

saddle of a pony who is livelier, happier and more at ease than I have ever

seen him.   MEL WITH PIP