At the 2017 Iowa State University (ISU) Spring Clinic and Competition, veterinarian Dane Tatarniuk and resident farrier Doug Russo discussed the street nail procedure (navicular bursotomy procedure) and the role of farriery for the horse post surgery. During this clinic, Tatarniuk discussed a retrospective study on the street nail procedure that was conducted by members of the ISU School of Veterinary Medicine https://vetmed.iastate.edu/.

David Suarez-Fuentes, DVM, was the lead author of the paper, “Outcome of Horses Undergoing Navicular Bursotomy for the Treatment of Contaminated or Septic Navicular Bursitis: 19 Cases (2002-2016).” He presented the paper at the March 2017 Veterinary Orthopedic Society Conference in Snowbird, Utah.

The paper detailing the street nail procedure was published in 1986 (Richardson, G. and O’Brien T. “Puncture Wounds of the Navicular Bursa in 38 Horses: A Retrospective Study.” Vet. Surg, 15, 156-160). The paper discussed the poor prognosis for the affected horses’ return to previous athletic function or even survival.

As the paper title indicates, Suarez-Fuentes’ retrospective study looked at 19 navicular bursotomy cases performed over a 14-year period. The primary objective for this study was to look at the outcome of the horses that underwent a bursotomy at ISU. How many of these horses returned to work at the same performance level as prior to surgery or those that returned at a lower level or failed to return to work? All of the horses in these cases survived.

Of the pool, 14 were Quarter Horses, a common breed among what they see in…