Laminitis - care and management of horse? Advice please.?

Question

My TB suffered a bout of mild laminitis this winter gone, no signs of pedal rotation etc. on his x rays. However, he is not a particualry good doer (typical TB, worries off the weight) and I'm wondering about how best to care for him this summer with the grass etc.? I'm used to caring for your typical laminitics (fat ponies!) but unsure about how to go about preventing him from relapsing. He suffered his last bout after a terrible summer (out on loan) and too much haylage (he was box rested) in the winter. He has all year turnout, living out in summer and in on a night in the winter. He has mild artheritis and has to be stabled when cold, he does feel the cold in the field when he is bored in the winter. So...any advice on what best to feed him and how to treat him re: turnout. He is 12 years old but has had a hard life. He was backed at just 13 months old as he was a late foal bred to race. He raced only twice and was then left to starve in a stable for 16 weeks.

Answer 1

Go to VetAmerica.com and buy Power Horse Trace minerals and follow the instructions for laminitis. This stuff saved my horse from a bout with it last year. I had two vets and a farrier say he would be on bute for the rest of his life. In one month on this stuff and a good trimming, he was already a different horse. In three months you could hardly tell anything was wrong and he is no longer on bute! Six months he is running and prancing again. He has good strong hoof walls now and our farrier says his feet are stronger than most he sees and can't believe he ever suffered from laminitis. This will save your horse! I will not be without it as long as I have this horse and I will try to make sure any new owners know about it.

Answer 2

Here are some websites to help you:

www.animalherbcompany.com/articles/lam...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laminitis

www.olympus.net/personal/pvd/pvd.html

www.acreageequines.com/horsecare/horse...

Answer 3

Oh I am so sorry.

I live in germany and my now 9 yo WB mare developed laminitis in 2005 from bad shoeing in one foot, then through standing on the other got it inthe other.

She developed a hollow under the hoof wall and had to have 3/4 of the complete wall removed upto 1 inch under the coronet. Then her foot was put into plaster.

She was lame for 1 and a half yearsbut slowly but surely she got better. I fed Farriers Formular to promote hoof growth and a very strict diet. The Vet also prescribed Equipalazone which she had to take for 9 months. With corrective laminitis shoeing we managed to get the pedal bone back up and all seemed to be going well

The end of last year I even started to work her again.

Now she has had another attack - very severe. The vet prescribed Metacam which reduces the infection and is a pain killer - GREAT RESULTS!! She has shoes on back to fron th relieve pressure on the sole in front of the frog, with a thick pad und and a bar welded across leaving a 3/4 inch tip of the frog showing. She has a rotation of 13 degrees and the hope of getting it back up are very slim. BUT she is not lame now and is on no medication. Yesterday she galloped down the field and bucked for the first time.

I am feeding a special feed from a company called Eggersmann called ReVital which is especially devised for laminitis cases, also for feeding afterwards.

Don't give up hope - you can get through this.

by the way - laminitis is not only caused by feed or grass. Bad (too tight) shoeing as in my case, infection through a sandcrack - and sugars converted from starchy food in the gut. Short grass is a killer - it has too much fructose in it. Long gone to seed grass is much better.

Answer 4

Have you had his teeth checked?  My Arab X lost a load of weight while she was recovering her last bout of laminitis and part of that weight loss was due to several of her teeth - periodental pockets.  Now have all been sorted out.

It is difficult to get the balance right with laminitics, I found with my two it was a matter of trial and error over the years to get the right diet. High Fibre is the key.

I have one that needs to keep weight off and one that needs to keep weight on. I always use Dengie HiFi Lite and Speedibeet which is also Lami approved.

Have you spoken to the Laminitis Clinic?  I would spend time googling various sites which is all I did and also speaking with my vet.

I do know what you are going through, I have spent the last 4 years dealing with attacks.

E-mail me if you want to talk

Answer 5

12 isn't real old, in spite of his hard life.  Still, if he hasn't been laminitic before, you might have him tested for Cushings syndrome.  These horses are often EXTREMELY prone to founder, even when they don't have the other well known symptoms (curly fur, won't shed out, cresty neck, fat pockets, etc.).  They're also prone to lose weight.

If he's cushingoid, try Pergolide.  I've got two on it, and both have improved amazingly.

For these horses, I don't like haylage, and I'm careful on the grass.  I introduce them to it slowly, and I keep a close eye out for heat in the feet - they'll develop that before other symptoms.  Any heat, and they get some time off the grass till it clears up.  So far, since putting them on the Pergolide, it hasn't been a problem.

This winter I'm going to be trying a new product.  I've always liked Purina Equine Senior and still recommend that, but I'll be trying Purina WellSolve L/S, a Low Starch horse feed especially designed for laminitics.  My vet gave me some free coupons.

I definitely would keep him in at night in winter if he feels the cold, but reasonable turnout is always good.  In the summer, I might keep him in during the day.  One of my old mares frets her weight off to nothing, even on the best pasture, stamping and swishing away flies.  She'll even gallop herself into a lather to get away from them.  Once I let her in in the daytime, she started to gain weight nicely.  She's out all night and not fed any supplemental feed, but in good condition now.

Good luck with him!

Answer 6

You have asked this before, so clearly weren't happy with the answers. However, laminitis is a medical condition and advice needs to be sought from professionals - especially the vet who treated the original condition. Nobody else has the knowledge to advise properly. I could tell you feed x, y, z and you get more laminitis - then it is my fault and the trouble follows on from there.

There are general rules you can follow, such as feeding a high-fibre diet, but other than that only someone who has seen this horse, knows his clinical history and has the right info is qualified to give you the advice you want.

Just speak to your vet to start with and go from there... this is not one for free advice when you then have to guess who is right.

This is also a legal issue - only vets can treat sick animals - and even they have to see the animal before they can treat it. So whatever you are told, you should not accept advice from someone unqualified to give it.