Max has laminitis

[alwaysfallingof]

The thread I hoped I'd never have to write. :(

He came in fine yesterday, but had a digital pulse in all four feet after excercise. I noticed it, but thought that because he'd been as sound as a bell when working that it was just because he'd been worked quite hard.

This morning I brought him in, checked him over. His feet were ice cold, no pulse and he came striding across the yard like anything.
I turned him out in his muzzle just in case.

At lunchtime I went down for a visit (I was working at the yard), brought him in and although not lame he was slightly reluctant to move, and had a pulse again in all 4 feet. He did look uncomfortable, so I went up and phoned the vet. Put him in a box and gave him well soaked hay.

2 hours later the vet arrives, watches him walk out his box, has a poke with her hoof testers and confirms that he does have laminitis.

He is wearing frog supports and is on danilon. She said that ACP was probably unnecessary, but to give her a ring if he got stressy and she'd drop some round.
I put another 5 bales of shavings in his box, and he's on very, very well soaked hay.
The vet said that I'd caught him early, but even so it's disappointing. He was working really, really nicely, he was fit and in good shape and hasn't had laminitis in the 2 and a half years I've had him, even though he has been obese at times.

So please...good vibes for a swift and complete recovery for him.

[Rarah]

Poor Max :o

I bet you're gutted.

Sending healing vibes your way.
xx

[Joyscarer]

That's just what you didn't want but you know what you are doing and keeping a close eye on things so it shouldn't get out of hand and you should have no major problems if you remain vigilent :)

[Big Ears]

it's so disappointing, i was gutted when Rosie got it despite having got a lot of weight off her - she went into summer mode last week, so on restricted grazing as she got laminitis in early April before

you can be so so careful and still get caught out.

[alwaysfallingof]

Thanks for the good wishes.

I just can't believe it, it really was my worst nightmare and although I always treated him as lamanitic because I didn't know his history, I just can't believe he actually has it. Poor boy. He was just standing in his box this evening going "my feet hurt mum" :(

However, it's at times like this that I'm so glad that I am paranoid about him and check his digital pulse before I turn him out and as soon as I bring him in. His front feet weren't even particularly warm:confused:

Anyway, some piccies of the boy. He'd even lost weight since these pics (the one of him grazing was taken a few weeks ago and he'd been worked *hard* since then.

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u199/MrMaximillianMoo/Max017.jpg

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u199/MrMaximillianMoo/Max015.jpg

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u199/MrMaximillianMoo/Max008.jpg

[Bronya]

You've caught it early which is the main thing, and he will get better. I cannot believe the difference in my girl already, and it hasn't been long. She lost her 'ouch I'm in pain' look quite quickly after being in, as the soft standing really helped, and once they look comfy everything starts to be less worry. The best day is the one where you realise that your horse looks alert and cheerful once more, rather than just not in too much pain, and then you know they're on the mend. It's just the mucking out twice a day that's the killer - I'm sure I could do it in my sleep now, and there's so MUCH bedding to sift through!

Give yourself a pat on the back for catching it early, and look forward to the future. Plan some nice things to do when he's better (I'm aiming at the end of the summer for my goals), and look forward to those.

[Cochise]

I'm sorry to hear that about Max! I can sympathize having been there with Cheeky. Sounds like you caught it really early. He's lucky to have such an observant owner. :)

[alwaysfallingof]

He's a very very sore boy this morning. :( :(

He's just standing in his box, not moving, shifting his weight from one front foot to the other occasionally.

For some reason I'm finding it harder to see him today than yesterday.

I'm just so terrified I'm going to lose him, even though the vet was positive. He's such a special boy :(

[Sam_22]

Aww, poor Max. I completely sympthasize with you, I brought my horse in with laminitis two weeks ago - he was on bute for one week and has stood this past week on box rest. Is a little bit sore but defiently a whole lot better, though is still on box rest. He was the same, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. It's awful to see them in pain :( . You seem to have caught it in time so just hang in there. You are defiently very observant, my horse could do with spending a bit of time over with you :) No matter how much I watched for the signs and restricted his grazing he still got it - there's no winning!!

[LokiSofi]

so sorry to hear max has lami.
i completely sympathise, Loki has been on box rest with it for 5 weeks now, he has a mildly rotated pedal bone and is driving me nuts as he is now feeling better is off the bute and insisting on getting in the way and attempting to escape at every opportunity:rolleyes:
Luckily you've caught him early enough and hopefully it won't be too long before he's feeling better again.
sending you good vibes

[alwaysfallingof]

Completely agree about the no winning Sam. And it seems so random too - before I was as clued up as I am now (the first summer I had him) I let him get ridiculously obese:o and he was fine. Now he's a nice weight, fit and he goes and gets it. Horses:rolleyes:

Sounds as if you've got your hands full, Dakota's mum. I'm really lucky that my pony's a saint when stabled 24/7, it doesn't seem to stress him at all.

He seemed a lot, lot better today :franticallytoucheswood: he's moving around happily, all but one foot has cooled right down, and there are no more pulses. He's a much happier boy:D

My boss/RI/friend told me that I should take him for a quick turn around the yard in hand (with his pads on) to reduce the chances of him getting colic, but I wasn't convinced - he's only been in for 3 days - I'd be inclined to keep him on strict rest for another couple.

Opinions?

[Bronya]

My girl was much milder than Max, and I didn't walk her at all until she was 100% happy standing on concrete while I mucked out, and she wasn't on bute. I'd agree with you, not your RI - it is safer not to, not yet at least.

[Big Ears]

best not to let them move as if the bone is potentially going to rotate and move further then yo u are just letting them do more damage.

we let rosie out before it was corrected fully and she had a set back and was off for 9 months - the second set of x rays showed further damage which explained why she hadn't come sound.

[alwaysfallingof]

Thanks, that's what I thought. He'll stay exactly where he is 'til the vet's attacked him with her squeezy hoof clamps on friday:cool:

[Big Ears]

if there is any doubt when she visits again, get an xray as without it you don't know what you're dealing with

when we had rosie x rayed all 4 feet showed slippering, so she had had it before, but never been properly diagnosed with it or treated for it.

it also meant that the farrier could trim her properly when he saw the rotation. good luck, fortunately she was a model patient and did very well.

[alwaysfallingof]

Thanks for the advice. :) The more I can nag my vet when she comes next the better. Although she is FANTASTIC, I don't feel happy unless I've given her a Spanish Inquisition about the treatment she's chosen:o (You should have heard me quizzing her about why she didn't want to give him ACP, and why she was using the particular frog supports she had:o )

I'd be quite interested to see xrays anyway. I'm just so perplexed about how this happened, I'd be interested to see if he actually has had it before or not.

[Jessey]

Good vibes coming your way :p I hope he is feeling better very soon.

You are so lucky you caught it early, and remember that you have done everything you can to make sure it didn't, he doesn't look fat and it doesn't look like there is that much grass in that field either. Lami can be brought on by more things than just being over weight, My anglo arab got it from running round like a twit on hard ground.

[alwaysfallingof]

Thanks Jessey. Yep, I have been thinking of other possible causes, but...:confused:
Never mind. As I said, he seems quite a lot brighter today but we'll see in the morning because when I went up to see him for a last check, someone (trying to be helpful) had given him more hay. Think I got most of it back out though:rolleyes:

[Scarlett 001]

Oh dear. Your poor horse and poor you. So sorry.

I might have missed it, but were xrays taken in all of this. I'd want xrays to know the rotation and to help with the remedial shoeing. The more information, the better.

[alwaysfallingof]

Thanks Scarlett:)
X-rays haven't been taken because he's only had lammy since thursday, and the emphasis has been on keeping him still and his frogs supported so that the laminae repair themselves.
The vet also seemed to think that I'd caught it so early that there would be no problems at all. However...once he's less ouchie, his pulses have gone and his feet cooled down then I will push for x-rays if there's any sort of doubt whatsoever.

Best case scenario though is that there has been no rotation and he gets back to normal without remedial shoeing. The vet seems to think that this is most probable but...we'll just have to wait and see. Things tend to end up being complicated when Max is involved:rolleyes:

[eventerbabe]

i'm suprised she's not given him ACP, it's not given soley for the sedative effect, it will improve the blood flow to the feet. What was her justification for not using it?? And definately get x-rays. Your farrier needs something to work from.

Fingers crossed for a speedy recovery, give max a hug from me.

[alwaysfallingof]

EB, even if he comes sound, could he still have some rotation?
Another question actually - he's due to be shod at the end of the week, but my farrier's in Oxford and Max might not be able to travel. I do have a farrier here I can use though.
Hammering new shoes onto a lammy foot really isn't a good idea, is it? But then if he's left and his toes are getting longer (they're alright at the minute) then that'll put more strain on his laminae, so :confused: could I ask the farrier to pull his shoes, trim his fronts and leave the shoes off while he's on box rest, and is there any point in doing this before xrays?

Re ACP, she said that in her opinion the mechanical support and anti inflammatories were by far the most important, he's very very difficult to get meds into.

[eventerbabe]

our vet usually pulled bonnie's shoes herself and during recovery our farrier would only gently trim/rasp her feet. I would get max's shoes removed and just have gentle trimming until he's back on his feet again. once you've got the x-rays then your farrier can decide what needs to be done next.

He might have some rotation, he might not. X-rays will tell you this for certain. Don't fret too much :)

[alwaysfallingof]

Thanks EB, that makes a lot of sense. I'll give my vet a ring tomorrow, let her know how he's doing and harass her about what she's going to do on Fri:o :)

[alwaysfallingof]

I love my pony. Acute phase over, no more pain in the hoof, so it's hopefully just a case of keeping him quiet until the laminae are back to being as strong as they'll ever get.
Gonna call the vet and arrange xrays for early next week because even though she said I almost certainly don't need them, I've just called my insurance company...basically I'm going to run up the biggest bill I can because they won't let me claim again:D

[Jessey]

Go for it, you might as well get everything done now cause if it happens again they definatly won't pay - do you have a nice vet - get her to give you lots of vetwrap and gamgee and stuff like that....well you had to make frog supports didn't you!! :D ;)

[Big Ears]

quite agree, when Molly had COPD we threw the book at her, getting a nebuliser and all sorts of things as you have 1 year in which to cover all eventuallities!

[notpoodle]

same with angel when she had her RAO diagnosed last year

[eventerbabe]

claim as much as you can :D we did that for bonnie's first attack. She had umpteen x-rays, a hoof resection, everything the vets deemed necessary. am so glad he's on the road to recovery. give him a big hug from me!

[taffy's mum]

Thanks Scarlett:)


Best case scenario though is that there has been no rotation and he gets back to normal without remedial shoeing. The vet seems to think that this is most probable but...we'll just have to wait and see. Things tend to end up being complicated when Max is involved:rolleyes:

Sorry to hear about max taking a bout of the dreaded lam, Taffy suffered really badly with it although i have managed to keep him free of it for the last 2 years :)

When he first got it we had xrays taken and his pedal allignment was out badly but i have a fantastic farrier who cut back his toes and put shoes on the came out quite far past his heels (looked like he was on ski's) and he is now fine.

Just keep him comfy and give him lots of hugs and i'm sure he will be fine...:)

[gingeremmie]

Hope he gets better soon. My cob has been on box rest since January and has plastic shoes on his front feet as his xrays showed rotation. My vet advised against having him shod during a laminitic attack as it would be painful for him and as he is normally barefoot I didn't want to shoe him anyway, hence we went for the plastic shoes. He's now totally sound walking on the concrete and in the school and the vet says I'm allowed to walk him gently for a couple of minutes. I like taking him in the school so he can have a roll. He still has to stay in for 23 and three quarter hours a day though!

My vet is also supportive of the fact that I don't want to go down the remedial shoeing route and I want to go back to barefoot. Having no shoes on means he will be able to be trimmed as regularly as he needs and you also tend to have more of an early warning system with barefoot horses as they tend to go ouch sooner with any sort of slight lami symptoms. I've also heard lots of bad things about remedial shoeing for example heart bar shoes cause contracted heels and most people I've spoken to who have tried them have said they worked for a couple of years but then the horse got worse again so I am definitely going to avoid those! I'm sure other people have good experiences though, it's just amongst my friends they haven't.

I am very bored of not riding now, I've barely ridden him since October, I think once since then, as I knew there was something wrong but didn't know what, and laminitis wasn't diagnosed til January.

I had xrays of the 2 front feet done, I think they were around £150 and the plastic shoes are £150 a pair too!! :eek: I would definitely get him xrayed so you know what you are dealing with because otherwise you might decide he is sound (my cob is sound now, even though we know he has rotation) and work him too soon and make him worse in the long run.

Are you feeding him magnesium? Would definitely recommend this. And taking his shoes off (carefully - don't let farrier rip them off!) so you can then get the farrier to trim him regularly whilst on box rest. Bear in mind he may not want to hold up his feet for the farrier so you may have to give him extra bute on the day the farrier is due.

I never had ACP for my cob either, I asked the vet and in his opinion it wasn't worth it. He was on bute for about 5 weeks in total, and is now on nothing.

Good luck!

[alwaysfallingof]

Waiting on X-ray results now...

My lovely vet took them at 4.30 today, and said that she'd call through in the evening with the results. Pretty good, huh?

[gingeremmie]

Have you heard anything yet? I got Bailey's xray results within a couple of hours and I was v impressed too!

[alwaysfallingof]

:D :D :D

No rotation, no movement of the bone at all and the vet said that because I caught it so quickly, there's a good chance that his laminae will completely repair back to their normal strength as well.:D :D

My pony is a superstar.

[Big Ears]

lucky you, i only hope rosie is as fortunate

[gingeremmie]

Really pleased to hear this! My cob has slight rotation in one of his feet, as seen on an xray in January. He is being xrayed tomorrow so I will cross my fingers that they show some improvements from 3 months ago...