Timescale for chronic laminitus recovery ?

Stormin

Stormin

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Jun 28, 2007
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Well, not really sure if this is where I should be posting this - mods please feel free to move if necessary.

I was wondering how much time it would take for a horse with chronic laminitus to "get better".

One of my friend's horses contracted severe laminitus, not due to feeding issues but due to stress after a bad accident. The horse jumped out of his field (through electric fencing), galloped to his stable but slipped on the cobbles. He skidded on the yard and ended up in the barn door, head first. He lost a couple of teeth, concussion and a few bad gaping wounds (plus a very bad abcess on one of his forelegs). He spent the first few weeks at the vet clinic between life and death (not sure for what reason) and melted to skin-on-bones during that time. Nobody seemed to notice him contract laminitus though. :confused:

He's basically been "ill" for 18 months :eek:
His pedal bone has rotated twice, passing through the sole.
My friend has insisted on feeding him up with vitamin and mineral supplements since he came home. The horse has put weight back on and has a shiny coat.
He's now got a new farrier who is apparently shoeing him with very long heels... and every 4 weeks maximum. I know the horse has cost a fortune and he's still not "put right".

I don't have much experience with laminitus but I would have thought that feeding up on vitamins wasn't a good idea as the horse feels fine but his feet just can't follow the horse goofing around. I would have been inclined to corrective shoe to counteract/support the rotation, and then leave unshod (if possible) to let nature mend.
My farrier tells me that he's had to treat a worse case which even the vets gave up on. He tells me that the horse has only a couple of degrees rotation (from the last X-ray) and you'd find it hard to see he had come through chronic laminitus.

SO I guess the question is, don't you find 18 months LONG for a horse who is still in a bad way with laminitus ?

Maybe I should add that the horse is over 17 hands, 7 or 8 yr old anglo arab. He was a top eventing prospect and my friend still believes that he'll make it back on the circuit, but I think she'll be very lucky if she ever manages to ride him again...

What do you think ?
 
the problem with laminitis is that it is a systemic issue (i.e. the whole body) not just the feet. So while you can treat the *symptom* of the foot problem, you won't get healthy growth until the laminae stop being inflamed.

The feet will be sore enough that "goofing" around because of a few vitamins is not the point. Appropriate nutrition is needed to support the horse's general health, the foot health, and immune system. But at the same time you need to avoid any "trigger" foods (our chap went cereal free for example).

But even once the underlying cause is sorted out, the laminae are going to take a while to recover. And it takes a while to get proper hoof/horn growth far enough down the hoof to mean it is all structurally sound as well.

With our guy we erred on the side of caution and he didn't start work until *all* the poor growth was gone. If you assume half inch per 8 weeks - you can see he was off for a while ! Most people start work before that.

And he was still "at risk" after that so was on a carefully controlled diet and watched like a hawk.
 
Vitamin supplement is a good thing, needs a balanced diet to have everything needed for the feet to grow and heal. Its quite normal to take months at least to recover after getting the cause, diet etc, of the laminitis under control. But by 18 months if the underlying cause of the laminitis is under control and the trimming/shoeing is being done well there should be significant improvement.

Leaving the heels long in most cases is a bad idea, tips the pedal bone onto its tip which presses onto the sole. Though sometimes the heels need leaving slightly higher than ideal because the tendons might not be able to take lowering the heels to the ideal height.
 
I don't think there is one answer to this as all cases are different and this horse sounds quite severe.
My own experience, if any help, is that my mare had quite bad L in june 2004. She was kept barefoot, and has been ever since. She rejoined normal herd life in January 2005 and since then has been driven barefoot trotting out happliy on roads. My farrier attended her every two weeks to begin with and her feet gradually grew out normal with the 'slippers' (stretched front bits) finally coming off in spring 2005, at that point her hooves started to grow level tubules again.
I keep her out all the time in a poor paddock and she lives on hay and a vit and min supplement. At present she still gets those 'event' lines from time to time but is very sound.
I hope your friends horse gets better.
 
I think you can end up in a permanent state of semi crisis unless the diet is addressed, which will almost certainly mean no more cereals or mollassed feeds and possibly even no more grass either. Unless that's addressed you're never going to re grow good attached wall.

However even if that is addressed my guess would be that you'd probably looking at minimum of 12 months or more to completely remedy the situation in a serious case.
 
Oops, sounds like my friend's not out of trouble yet.

I know she feeds her horse Spillers cool mix coz he put on condition but it's less fizzing than what she feeds her other event horses. When I say she gives him vitamins, I forgot to mention that she rarely does things by half, especially when it comes to her horses. I mean she's giving the most expensive vits she can find and not in "rest horse" doses ...

She was also painting some kind of mixture twice daily on the horse's feet which made them grow really quickly but a bit too quick to be of good quality.
As for the grass, the stable door is open during the day and the horse wanders to the field as he pleases (though maybe a bit less in winter ?)

I feel really sorry for her because she's putting everything into this horse but I just think it seems odd that the horse finally hasn't evolved much in 18 months. He still stands strangely, especially with his fronts pushed out in front. I'm worrying that his new shoeing won't help the tendons, especially if she's hoping he'll jump big jumps in the end ?

Is there a known cause for laminitus, like too much protein in the diet for example ? I've known it to strike "overweight" equines but this is apparently stress-related ?
 
Once they've had laminitis for any reason then they're more prone to getting it other ways, so even though the original cause wasn't diet its still something to be very careful with. Spillers Cool Mix is nowhere near suitable for laminitics. He might not be at all sensitive to grass but while he's not making progress it is worth trying him off grass.

Being shod with heels left far too high can cause contracted tendons if left that way a long time, but if he's been having problems for 18 months there may already be issues with tendons that mean the heels can't be lowered all in one go. Much worse is that high heels puts far too much pressure on the tip of the pedal bone, encouraging damage to the sole and even sole penetration and damage to the tip of the bone.
 
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