Laminitis and horseshoes

Jane&Ziggy

Jane&Ziggy

Jane&Sid these days!
Apr 30, 2010
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A fellow livery's old cob has got laminitis, poor old chap. No surprise to me or any of the other liveries in our field as he was grossly overweight and on far too much grass, but it attacked really hard.

She asked me to say hello to him the other day as she is immobilised after a hip replacement so I went to pet him in his stable and found him with shoes on all 4 feet. Apparently he was in so much pain when they came off that the farrier put them back on again! I didn't know what to say as I thought shoes had to come off at the first sign of lami.

Is there an argument for leaving shoes on, then?
 
Sometimes shoes can be fitted with support to help, ideally to x-rays. This was the approach we took with Little Un when he had nearly rotated through his sole - trimmed to x-rays then wide web shoes with pads and fancy putty underneath. My farrier and vet thought this was best chance since he clearly needed a lot of support if he wasn't to come through his sole, more than pads and a deep bed could give. It worked.
 
Vet advised me to put hearbar shoes on Star when she came down with lami. The idea being that they support the foot.
I refused as Star had been unshod all her life. Luckily my farrier backed me up and we actually did the same thing with frog supports and boots.
 
Lots of people shoe for lami, it's probably half and half. There's lots of different styles and combos that are used too, rarely just a basic rim shoe.
 
@Jessey I think you've just made an important point, it's very rarely a normal rim shoe. And in addition to a more specialised shoe, and often other materials, being used, the trim is vital & hopeful done according to x-rays.
 
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If you can be nosey without offending or upsetting the owner it might be interesting to ask her what exactly they've put on him & why, it can be really interesting & if she's laid up with a hip replacement she'll probably be glad to talk about horsey things.
 
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Don't think we ever left feet unsupported. As soon as the frog supports came off, heart bars went on. We even ventured into imprint (glue on) shoes. A fellow livery left unshod and turned out as normal throughout a laminitis attack as that was what her vet advocated
 
Interesting. I know when sox had lami. Vet actually advised things like glue on shoes s d things like that for support. Rather then nailing a shoe on. Or supporting the foot in other ways. So he had the lami thick foam pads you get buy within his boots
 
I'm sure it depends on each individual case. As I said above LU was shod, however Jim had shoes off & styrofoams taped on that were changed 2 or 3 times a week. Very different horses & different reasons for laminitis, but same farrier & both trimmed to x-rays before any other action was taken. I trust my farrier, his reasons seemed sound & more than once he pulled us out of impossible looking messes.
 
Ziggy has only ever had his shoes off (the first attack - he has never worn shoes since) and soft, deep bedding, no frog supports or heart bars. Maybe it's not been severe enough.
 
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