It seems that there is a rise in laminitis early this year according to the vets and the farriers!
I noticed one morning when arriving at the field, Pip, standing with her back to the hay! This was so unlike her. She loves to eat! I thought she was full and seem to their water and checked them all over to make sure they were OK and Pip, didn't want to walk over to me, which was usual.
I was worried now and tried to get her walking. She was standing slightly forward and that scared me. I felt her hooves and they were warm!
I knew straight away what the problem was.... Laminitis!
After finding, Milly, in my old field a few years ago, I knew the signs what to look for.
Milly, was in a horrible state when she was left in my field by her owners and Pip, was nothing like that at all apart from how she was leaning forward!
I took her straight up to a friends stable at the top of the lane. The stable had a thick bedding of shavings and soaked hay! That was on the Sunday and I got the vet out the next day to examine her the vet said I had caught the laminitis in good time.
I was pleased to hear this but upset at the same time knowing it was laminitis. The vet gave bute for pain, twice for that day and then once a day for just over a week.
The vet said to also make sure she got exercise and not left in the stable 24/7 for two weeks.
I was surprised to hear this. Milly, had to be kept inside at all times and not allowed out when she was suffering from laminitis! No exercise at all back then.
With, Milly, I had X-rays taken to show rotation of the pedal bone. Pip, was lucky, the vet said she had no rotation of the pedal bones at all.
Things have moved on and now the vets say they should have exercise to take down the weight and they heal faster. I didn't have to have such a thick bedding has I did with, Milly and I didn't have to soak the hay over 12 hours this time. I did have to give the hay a good soaking with the hose pipe so it took the calories out of the hay.
I had a full large round bale in the field and went in and fulled two haynets up every night and put the hose pipe on them until they were soaked and leave them to dry over and take one into, Pip, every morning and one every night. Plus I had to feed her a bucket of bran to keep her guts moving. She loved it and ate every bit of it. I noticed she started to slow down eating the hay and her weight started to come down. The vet wanted the farrier back out to trim back her hooves more and to get the heel's trimmed more and to do that the over a period of time every four weeks. My farrier was to busy and I used one at the yard and he did a great job on her. Now I will have to wait until he says she is OK to go back to every six weeks instead of four weeks.
Two weeks pasted and I called for the vet to come out and examine her again before allowing her back out. The vet was very happy with her but was still concerned about her weight. She said, 'She's still a big lass!.'
I knew she still had a long way to go before she is fully back to full health and a lot of that is for her to lose more weight.
Now, Pip, is out of the stable and been in a dirt paddock with hay to eat. Pip, looks so much better in herself! She is walking and back to good health.
Today she is going to be in a field with very little grass. Tracey, calls the paddock her 'Fat field' She puts her horses in with no weight problems in the paddock first so they can eat the grass right down and then puts the 'fatties' in afterwards!
This is from the Laminitis page. Click on this link to take you to their page. They are amazing!
I phoned them when, Milly, had laminitis and the lady I spoke to on the phone explained everything there was to know about laminitis. She reassured me and said I could phone at anytime if I was worried......
Please call your vet if you have any worries your horse may have laminitis. If they are rocking back and forth or leaning forward and don't want to stand upright, notice an increase in heat in their hooves or if there is a digital pulse, then you know they will need a vet ASAP!
Check out this video on how to feel for the digital pulse in your horse.
LAMINITIS is a disease associated with ischaemia of digital dermal tissues, it is not primarily an inflammatory disease; hence lamin-itis is a misnomer. The bond between the dermal and epidermal laminae (the inter-laminar bond) is the only means of support of the distal phalanx within the hoof. If sufficient inter-laminar bonds are destroyed the animal becomes FOUNDERED ie; the pedal bone moves distally within the hoof.
A SINKER is an animal whose foot has suffered complete destruction of the inter-laminar bonding and the pedal bone is totally loose within the hoof.
FROG SUPPORT means providing support over the frog of the foot so that it acts as an arch support when the limb is loaded. It does not mean using such a thick frog support that the horse is forced to bear most of the weight on his frog. This will worsen the lameness in most cases. The frog should be trimmed before fitting frog supports.
Causes.
The cause of laminitis is unknown; the following situations are known to frequently precede an attack of laminitis. Animals in these situations can thus be regarded as at HIGH RISK from laminitis. These situations may occur singly or in combination.
1. Obesity / Overeating.
The most common type seen in GB. Many animals perform no work and are used as garden ornaments by people with limited understanding of horse management. Horse owners are encouraged to overfeed their animals by feed companies, show judges and peer pressure. Native ponies require very little to eat and are unable to cope with fertilised cattle pasture.
2. Toxaemia.
Any systemic disease involving a septic or toxic focus i.e., pneumonia, pleurisy, diarrhoea, colic (particularly following colic surgery), purulent metritis. Effective treatment of the initiating cause must be accomplished before improvement in the laminitis can be expected. Bacterial, viral, plant, chemical, and fungal toxins have been implicated.
3. Trauma / Mechanical.
Fast or prolonged work on hard surfaces i.e., jumping ponies in summer, racehorses on firm ground, inadequately fit endurance horses are at high risk.
Following overzealous foot dressing or improper shoeing causing sole pressure.
Following a non-weight bearing lameness, the contralateral limb may founder.
Improper foot dressing of chronic founder type 1 cases allowing either, a build up of hyperplastic laminar horn beneath the front part of the wall, or excessive heel growth leading to a broken forward phalangeal axis; both these will lead to chronic or recurrent bouts of lameness.
4. Iatrogenic.
The administration of corticosteroid drugs to susceptible or stressed animals can induce laminitis. Although corticosteroids do not induce laminitis every time they are used, there is a real risk which should be made clear to the animal's owner before treatment. Corticosteroid induced laminitis usually rapidly progresses to acute founder or sinking. The administration of long acting corticosteroids, such as triamcinolone and dexamethasone, to fat ponies to treat sweet itch is particularly dangerous. Even mixtures of drugs containing corticosteroids can cause laminitis. The use of corticosteroids to treat laminitis is absolutely contraindicated.
5. Hormonal.
Some laminitis cases appear to be hypothyroid although the indiscriminate use of thyroxine supplementation without testing is not recommended.
Elderly animals often develop neoplasia of the pars intermedia of the pituitary gland. This manifests as a failure to shed the hair coat in the spring, the coat becomes long and fine or matted. The animals are often polydipsic and may be diabetic. Laminitis is a common sequel to such tumours. Measurement of T3, T4, insulin and cortisol following injection of thyroid releasing hormone is a useful test for both thyroid function and pituitary neoplasia.
6. Stress.
Any stress such as overworking unfit horses, prolonged travelling in hot (or cold) conditions, anthelmintic treatments (particularly double doses of pyrantel) or vaccination may result in laminitis in some animals. Certain cream treatments for the treatment of sarcoids seem to be related to the onset of laminitis and founder.
Some myths refuted.
Drinking cold water after exercise may cause colic but not laminitis.
Allergies; there is little evidence that hypersensitivities are causally related to the development of laminitis.
Pregnancy; pregnant animals can develop laminitis just as easily as barren animals.
Oestrus; there may be a relationship between oestrus and laminitis in some animals, however these cases are rare and changes in diet and management may prevent such cases.
Heat in the feet; a very unreliable diagnostic indicator. Foot temperature normally varies throughout the day.
Standing in streams or cold hosing; although the numbing effect of cold water may appear to make the animal more comfortable initially, prolonged cold will exacerbate vasoconstriction and further reduce dermal perfusion. It is doubtful whether hot or cold applications makes a significant difference to the outcome of a case. If the owner must do something, it is preferable to use warm fomentations.
Hereditary predisposition to laminitis; in this country is unproven. However families of animals often have the same owner whose predisposition to recurring poor management is certainly proven.
Laminitis does not just affect the front feet. Just the hind feet may be involved, or one foot or all the feet.
Pathological Anatomy.
The important features seen in a sagittal section of a normal digit (Figure 1a) are;
1) The top of the extensor process of the distal phalanx is slightly below the top of the dorsal hoof wall, range 0-10 mm, (Cripps and Eustace 1999).
2) The coronary groove (cg) containing the coronary corium and coronary plexus is oval in shape.
3) The dorsal cortex of the distal phalanx is parallel to the dorsal hoof wall.
4) The horn tubules (T) in the dorsal hoof wall run in straight lines down to the ground surface.
5) The solar margin of the distal phalanx is at an angle of 5-20 degrees to the ground.
6) The apex of the trimmed frog extends dorsal to the dorsal limit of the insertion of the deep digital flexor tendon.
7) The horny sole is concave.
Initially during the prodromal phase of laminitis the laminae stretch resulting in a sagging down of the distal phalanx within the hoof. If the laminar insult is severe enough, or the animal is forced to walk, interlaminar bonds will break and cause further downward movement of the distal phalanx i.e., the animal founders. The force of this downwards movement is most dramatically seen in the coronary papillae. These will either be bent through an angle of up to 150 degrees or actually be pulled out of their sockets in the epidermis (Plates 1a & 1b).
In the early stages of acute founder it can be seen that the 'rotation' of the distal phalanx is in fact a reverse rotation of the hoof in relation to the distal phalanx. Following stretching and detachment of the inter-laminar bonds fluid extravasates into the spaces created between the dermal and epidermal laminae. The parallel relationship between the dorsal cortex of the distal phalanx and the dorsal hoof wall is lost. However the alignment of the three phalanges has not changed i.e., there is no true rotation.
The haemorrhage and serum accumulation below the hoof wall is under pressure and creates great pain. A dorsal wall drilling procedure will remove this fluid. In some laminitis cases the deep digital flexor muscle appears to go into spasm or actually shorten. It then becomes impossible to re-align the phalangeal column by foot dressing. Surgical division of the inferior check ligaments or deep digital flexor tendon will be necessary.
A sagittal section of the digit of a foundered horse (Figure 1b) shows that the coronary corium has become squeezed between the top of the hoof wall and the front of the distal interphalangeal joint and extensor tendon (E). Unless the dorso-proximal hoof wall is thinned, or a groove drilled below the coronary groove, to relieve the compression on the coronary corium the blood supply cannot re-establish and create new wall horn. This is why untreated foundered feet have divergent growth rings with less horn formation at the toe than the heels.
Many neglected animals survive an episode of acute founder to be left with the distorted feet of chronic founder. If finances preclude more effective treatments then the gait of these animals can be vastly improved by correct foot dressing and shoeing. It is important to dress the feet forward properly so as to restore the parallel relationship between the dorsal cortex of the distal phalanx and the dorsal hoof wall. This often means rasping right through the wall proper into a mass of hyperplastic laminar horn which then shows as a buff coloured crescent at the toe of the foot (Plates 2a & 2b). If having dressed the foot forward there is no wall left at the toe, leaving the animal standing on it's sole, you must fit a shoe with good cover and length with upright heels and aseated out toe.
Case Assessment ; Laminitis and Acute Founder.
Palpate the digital arteries for increased volume of pulsation; increase in volume indicates either an inflammatory condition within the foot or laminitis. Palpate the coronary bands for the presence of depressions; an abnormal depression indicates that the bone has moved due to weakening or loss of inter-laminar bonding. If a depression extends to the toe-quarters, the animal has started to founder. The farther back the depression can be felt towards the quarters and heels the worse the degree of founder. If the depression exists all the way back to the heels the animal is a sinker and requires immediate specialist shoeing and possibly surgical treatment within 72 hours if the animal is to have any chance of resuming an athletic career. Sinkers do not adopt the classical laminitis stance and are often misdiagnosed as azoturia.
Most laminitis cases will respond to treatment with frog support, NSAID, Phenoxybenzamine (or acepromazine as second best) and confinement in a well bedded stable. Concurrent advice on feeding and management are usually necessary.
Most acute founder cases will be helped by the above treatment but will require more energetic treatment (including surgical) if the feet are to be restored to functional organs.
Please send in any experiences you have had with your horse and let us know how you handled it and what the out come was!