Farrier Reckons my horse has laminitus?Help

[Hazel]

My farrier after shoeing my horse rang me and said that one of her feet seemed to be showing signs of laminitus. He said he would be back in a week to check. 5 days later out on a ride, whenever i trotted she would be lame but fine in walk. My farrier thinks as he said before it would be laminitus.
However she is a 15.2hh thoroughbred which i didnt think often got laminitus. She is no longer on hard food and the grass in the field is quite poor. The shetland pony in the field who got it really bad last year is fine and so are all the others? Why has she got it when she is the only one in the field ridden?
What have i done wrong?

[raggydoll]

dont beat yourself up about it, it sounds like its probably not anything youve done wrong. Its not only rich grass that can cause it i know stress is one other cause and being turned out on frosty grass (probably not that tho eh) someone else like eventerbabe will be able to tell you better than me. Have you spoken tou your vet and started treating it/pain management??

[Hazel]

My farrier is coming tomorrow so thought i would wait to see *** he says before ringing the vet? I will ask the other person, Thanks for the reply i not ever had a horse which has got laminitus before so didnt no whether to worried or not

[raggydoll]

If it is laminitus you need to act fast and get your vet and farrier working together to help her. Is being lame at trot her only symptom?? Does she have heat in her hooves? is she standing oddly? is she moving and eating ok in the field? does she have a strong digital pulse?

Dont blame yourself tho, which if your anything like me is easier said than done! You probably couldnt have prevented it :)

[Hazel]

Thank you. Her lame leg is only a small bit warmer but not a huge amount, and she eating in the field fine and seems to be walking fine, she only noticably lame in trot. She stands fine also?

[raggydoll]

is it her leg or hoof that is warm?? You would expect to find heat in the hoof for laminitus, if her only symptom is heat in the leg somewhere then i would be thinking its an injury to her leg maybe she could have pulled something. Also it usually but not always starts in the front feet. However if it is laminitus then it sounds like you will have caught it very early on with her having only mild symptoms. Let us know what the farrier says and i hope it turns out to be nothing much :)

[clipclop]

It could very well be in the develepmental phase. Have you checked her digital pulse. Does she tend to shift her weight about or is she lying down more frequently? Thoroughbreds can get laminitis as well as ponies.

A large warmblood got a very sever case of laminitis on our yard a couple of yers ago. It can happen to any breed.

[Cochise]

My appaloosa X TB got it last year. He wasn't on much grass, was being fed a tiny bit of crushed barley, was in decent work, but he just wasn't losing weight due to an iodine imbalance. (goiter)
He started off a little bit lame on the Sunday when out riding. By the Tuesday he had a full on acute attack of laminitis. Vet came out, gave him bute and we removed all possible causes. (grass, grains etc, and prescribed an iodine suppliment.)
He's great now, still on little grass, but I'm being careful! Try to get your farrier and vet working together on this.

[eventerbabe]

My friends pony (a TB/conny type) got laminitis when he was 100% fit and doing PC ODE's. You can't faff about when laminitis is involved, GET THE VET NOW. The horse needs to be box rested immediately, shoes taken off if necessary, frog supports on and the appropriate medication given (usually bute, ACP and asprin). Its vitally important that its caught and treated early. take a look at www.laminitis.org for further helpful information.

I've spent 5 years battling laminitis with my welsh cob and its the most hiddeous, unpleasant disease a horse can get. you need to act fast and get your horse on the road to recovery.

[Big Ears]

I rode Rosie one Friday night and she was unwilling to go - but then this is how she is normally. When we got home, she was holding up a front foot, vet came next day, thought it might be abscess, treated if for that for one week came out again, still lame, nerve blocked her, showed it was below fetlock, took her in for x rays and it was laminitis in both front feet - but if we had box rested her immediately and treated her for laminitus at once, she might not have been off for 9 months and nearly die on us. She had rotation on both fronts, and minor rotation on both hinds. She also had slippering on all four feet to show she had had a previous attack.

Without x rays, you don't know what you're dealing with. for safety, I would box rest on a deep bed and pack the frog area on all four with shavings to support the foot and make it more comfortable - my farrier didnt do frog supports, he just packed the foot with shaving and told me to leave them in which we did for six months - as he said if we get thrush deal with that later - in the event she didn't

Rosie in her previous home had been 'a lamintic candidate' but never had had a full blown attack, or been x rayed, or had the vet out - but when we had her x rayed 2 years afterwards, there was clear damage to all four feet, so her mild attacks, which had been untreated, had caused changes to the feet after all.

If in doubt, be ultra careful as if the bone is not stabilised by box resting, then you can get further damage after the initial attack - when Rosie didn't come sound as expected, we x rayed her again and there was further rotation, more severe than the first x rays, which explained why she was still unsound. The x rays also enabled the farrier to trim her radically to correct the angle which you couldn't do without seeing how it was sitting in the x ray - he chopped off all the toe as despite it looking normal, it was actually very long if you looked at the structure under it. It took her almost a year to come right and we have to watch her like a hawk.

I hope your horse doesn't have it - did the farrier do sole testing? Why does he think it is laminitis?

[martini55]

For a horse to have laminitis, they don't have to be extremely lame. Early signs can just be slight lameness or a horse being a bit unlevel. The important thing is to catch it early- phone the vet as soon as you suspect it to try and minimise any damage to the foot. If it is laminitis it will only get worse and leaving it untreated will do more harm than good. If I was you, I'd phone the vet now and get them out immediately. Even if it turns out not to be laminitis it is better getting the vet out than taking the risk.

I had a similar situation to Big Ears. Horse was a bit unlevel, called out the vet who said it was an abcess and treated her accordingly. She was box-rested from the Tuesday and was diagnosed with laminitis on the Thursday. I now believe it was actually laminitis from the onset but there was nothing I could do about that as she only showing minimal signs and I trusted the vet's opinion.

My mare was off work for over a year and I would often be in tears when I went to the stables- it is a horrid horrid disease and I don't wish it on anyone. Please get the vet out just to check. It will be better for your mare in the long run. I hope it isn't laminitis.

If you want more info on it you can read about it on my site here: http://www.horsesharesuk.com/pages/page/15

[mogadoga]

Laminitus can be because of anything. Too much grass (fat horse), too rich grass (any horse) Stress, too much feed, the wrong feed, DONT WORRY! It is common, and although not nice, its treatable, especially sinse it was obviously noticed early. CALL THE VET!!!
Dont feed any heating food etc.
Best recomended is Spillers Happy Hoof. And a plain bag of pony cubes/mix. But feed very little of that!
Dont feed apples, they are full of sugar, but feed as many carrots as you please.
But like i said, DONT WORRY. Its awful i know, but its common so therefor not the end of the world and in time everything will be fine again!!
Good luck! xxx

There is i know extreme cases as above, but 9/10 times its stoped if you catch it quickly. Theres 14 horses on our yard over the last year diagnosed with it, because of different reasons, and only one is bad, but thats got many other reasons behind it! xx

[raggydoll]

Dont feed apples, they are full of sugar, but feed as many carrots as you please.


carrots are full of sugar too

[mogadoga]

Not as much though, the vets from different practices who have been to the yard said feed as many carrots as you like, but not apples.

[eventerbabe]

just a note on feeding. we were never told to restrict our pony's access to succulents. a carrot a day is absolutely fine. just don't go giving them bucketfuls of apples and carrots. Happy hoof is rubbish. it contains 5% sugar so how on earth it got laminitis approval i do not know. you cannot take it as read that a 'laminitis approved' product is safe. always read the label for yourself or look up the manufacturers website. i feed hi-fi lite. during an attack, my mare was on a scraping of hi-fi lite and her supplements and meds. It is very useful to feed a probiotic. after all, laminitis starts as a gut malfunction so a probiotic will help this. Dengie triple XP is very good.

i agree with big ears that x-rays are essential. its often in the milder cases that the most damage is done (horse isn't in so much pain so moves about a lot which then causes greater rotation of the pedal bone.)

[c2b]

I have just been through this a week ago.

symptoms...hot hooves back ones only and one worse than the other. digital pulse pounding. No other signs at all!!!!

because it's early signs and she wasn't lame or showing any signs of pain...
I was told to:-

treatment..stabled on very deep bed and feed soaked hay only for 48hrs.

After 48hrs she seemed ok. No symptoms at all. Have been introducing her to grazing starting with only an hour. She is now out all day and in at night.

I think I have been very very lucky catching it when I did. I am a newbie owner and this was one of my fears that by the time I recognised symptoms it would be advanced. I have a policy of anything that is different from normal I check out with one of my experienced mentors.....thank heavens I did.

[MelanieD]

If she has laminitis right now then you don't want to leave it a week before checking on it. Learn how to check digital pulses for yourself and do something about it straight away if she does have laminitis.

Carrots aren't okay for laminitics, maybe the occasional little bit but not something you want to give lots of or too often.

This time of year it's worth checking digital pulses on just about any horse as if you can catch it early enough then it's much easier to deal with and less unpleasant for the horse.

[Hazel]

Thank you all so much. I have had her checked and i have been told the the lamini or whatever its called has swollen but no damage has yet been done, however it has caused slight softening of the fett which has caused bruised and therefore sore feet. This is why she was so lame.
She is now in during the day on lots of hay and little grass. Thank tou all so much! You helped me out alot and i really appreciate it.
xxxx