Suspecting my horse has laminitus

[Teehee]

I'm heard this thousand of times... and yet I'm not sure what is to be done? Do you call the farrier first or the vet?

I do recall the best thing to do is to take them inmediately of grass, is that not right?

Thanks,

[scoob&lill]

take them straight of the grass and call the vet!!they will advise you of the best treatment.will probably need painkilllers etc and box rest,its a horrible problem that i have LOADS of experience with:mad:
x

[Yann]

How severe is it? If he's just a bit footsore then getting him off the grass pronto is a good idea and he should improve within 48 hours. If you've got the full on lame and rocking back on their heels then getting them off the grass onto a deep bed and calling the vet would be the way to go.

[carthorse]

Stable & vet ASAP!

If you can tape some frog supports on then do (I think the Laminitus Trust site may tell you how to make some emergency ones) otherwise a deep shavings bed will give some support.

No hard feed but don't restrict water & get some hay soaking straight away, that way you'll have something safe to feed him later. Forget any old fashioned advice about walking or hosing feet because it's now thought to do more harm than good.

[notpoodle]

off grass immediately (esp if its only mild at this stage, you do NOT want it to get worse!) and contact your vet who will probly sort you out with bute and some frogsupports, along with assessing how bad it is and how long the horse has to be in for, what to feed it (or not!) etc.

and stop any hardfeed for the moment and stick to eg soaked hay.

Julia
x

[Teehee]

How severe is it? If he's just a bit footsore then getting him off the grass pronto is a good idea and he should improve within 48 hours. If you've got the full on lame and rocking back on their heels then getting them off the grass onto a deep bed and calling the vet would be the way to go.

Howdy, she seems a bit footsore... I notice she's not completely herself and kind of watches where she steps... Yet she spent the whole day pestering her buddy keeping her walking around the whole field? Is it possible that the first bit of laminitus, it actually feels better if they're in movement???

She's not rocking on her feet like some of the pictures I've seen on the net... My parents think I'm exaggerating... But I know her and her ways, and she's not 100% comfortable... supposely the day before she was galloping around, so we're not sure if it's a bit of laminitus or if she just hurt herself farting around, anyways, just to make sure, she's in the pen and with hay... Tonight I'll be giving her some aspirin since we've ordered the Bute, and it has to come all the way from Barcelona, so it won't be arriving until Wednesday...

The thing is it could be a bit of lami, since we've had almost 4 weeks of beautiful weather, and the tender grass has been coming up, it didn't really done on me that they could be gorging themselves on tender clover..., since we are only in February... but hopefully we caught it in time... :o

Depending on how things go... she'll be due for a farrier session... but before I get him to come over, I want to make sure she's not in pain...

[Teehee]

The first vet came, gave her shots... and said she has laminitus... after 5 days she hasn't got any better, so we had to go treasure hunting for another vet...

Now the new vet came, she's on Bute, some calming pills and nitroglicerine patches... She's been in the stall for about 10 days... I personally don't see much improvement... she hardly eats, drinks or moves... Is this normal?

I know it's a very painful sickness... but how long does it take for the pain to go???

[eventerbabe]

sounds like she's on the right meds (i'm assuming by calming pills you mean ACP?). How much of the bute and the pills is she getting? It could just be the ACP quietening her down. Or if the bute doseage isn't high enough she'll still be feeling her feet. At her absolute worst, my mare had to be put on 3 bute a day (for about 3-4 days). Her recovery took anywhere from a few weeks to 3-4 months (she'd a number of attacks).

[Teehee]

sounds like she's on the right meds (i'm assuming by calming pills you mean ACP?). How much of the bute and the pills is she getting? It could just be the ACP quietening her down. Or if the bute doseage isn't high enough she'll still be feeling her feet. At her absolute worst, my mare had to be put on 3 bute a day (for about 3-4 days). Her recovery took anywhere from a few weeks to 3-4 months (she'd a number of attacks).

I'm not too sure what the calming pills are, it's some type of pill that are originally for dogs and cats, but the vet says that they don't make them here for horses... so we have to give her 4 of them twice a day...?¿ He did say it would make her drowsy... it's just that it's like she still hardly moves in her pen... and when she does it's like she's very slow... maybe it's just that she's druggy...

She gets 2 packages of Bute a day, in theory, we had a bit of problem getting it in her mouth... a couple of times we wore more than what she ate!!! :o

But touch wood, the last two dosages stayed in!!! ;)

[notpoodle]

it takes a while for the pain to go away. eg mine only ever had it mildy (according to the vet) eg no 'stance' and not acute. it has talen her between three and six weeks to recover each time. i'd be worried that your pony isn't eating though :o the looking lacklustre may well be the ACP (calming) tablets eg pony is somewhat sedated (and possibly hallucinating!).

hope pony gets better soon :)

Julia
x

[Teehee]

sounds like she's on the right meds (i'm assuming by calming pills you mean ACP?). How much of the bute and the pills is she getting? It could just be the ACP quietening her down. Or if the bute doseage isn't high enough she'll still be feeling her feet. At her absolute worst, my mare had to be put on 3 bute a day (for about 3-4 days). Her recovery took anywhere from a few weeks to 3-4 months (she'd a number of attacks).

She was getting 2 bute a day, for a week. And 4 little pills twice a day also. Now the box of Bute is finished and she's eating a bit better not great though, but her feet are still warm and she limps around in her stall... Is this normal???

I thought that they'd have sore feet for a week and then just out of precaution you had to keep them in... so that they didn't hurt themselves running around until their 100% or to keep them from gorging on nice grass... but by what I'm seeing it is a lot harder to get rid of than I thought!!! :o

What surprises me that the day before she had been galloping around the field like nothing was bothering her... I'm just amazed on how fast it hits... and how hard!!!

[FinkleyAlex]

she may have got stress lammi from all the running around. Does have frog support pads on her feet? My boy started shuffling around better once his frogs were supported.

[Teehee]

No, she hasn't got any frog supports on... I read something about that once... is that where they put a piece of soft rubber tubbing under there foot and tape it???

[FinkleyAlex]

This gives you some info on what it does
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6761224.html

these are the ones my boy had, we taped it to his hoof and then wrapped the area with cotton wool up over the hoof, then a vetrap to hold it all together and then used some tough DIY tape to hold that all together and make it last longer! Every other day I had to unbandage it, clean the support and the hoof a little and then rebandage it.

http://www.valleyfarrier.com/cart/shop/item.asp?itemid=814

They are commonly used in england, quite surprised your vet hasn't recommended them! Maybe ask him if you can buy them?

[Teehee]

This gives you some info on what it does

They are commonly used in england, quite surprised your vet hasn't recommended them! Maybe ask him if you can buy them?

Thanks for the links, I'm in Spain, and my vet didn't say a thing about the supporting the frog, (I'm sure he has any knowledge of such of a thing!) he just told me to phone a farrier in a month's time to put on special shoes... it would make more sense to put these things on now to help her from limping... :rolleyes: not wait for a month ... which she could be worse than better...

[Teehee]

This is the link I had seen...

http://www.laminitis.org/fitting%20frog%20supports.html


Although I'm not too sure what that white thing is... it looks like a piece of soft tubing of some sort...

[FinkleyAlex]

I've never seen the white tubing thing before, did you ask your vet about the frog supports?

[Teehee]

I've never seen the white tubing thing before, did you ask your vet about the frog supports?

I'm in Backwoods of Spain, the vet here doesn't use or don't have knowledge about them... Their advice is give them Bute plus just keep them in on soft bed, hay and water ... and a month later call the farrier...

Hopefully the farrier knows a bit about the frog support things... :o

[redcomet]

remove from the grass
cut out all hard feed
apply a frog support (a rolled up sock inside a nappy is fine in an emergency!)
imersing the affected feet in WARM water may help to alleviate the pain/ increase bloodflow
give an asprin - thin the blood, antiinflamatory, pain relief
feed a prebiotic such as brewers yeast to help rebalance the gut

[Teehee]

remove from the grass
cut out all hard feed
apply a frog support (a rolled up sock inside a nappy is fine in an emergency!)


So, you say a sock will do in a pinch? You just roll it, put it under their hooves and wrap/tape it there? Does it matter how thick the sock is? Is the thicker the better?