All four legs swollen - what on earth is it...

Barklands said:
I was wondering this - she’s a horse who is often on high alert in the field, she had somewhat a bumpy start to life. So I do wonder if it is stress induced plus the perfect storm of frost, cold and an increase in sugary chaff
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This describes the situation before my horse got lami some years ago. He tested positive for EMS. He did recover thankfully but I have to be very careful about his turnout and food. I love the lami app.
 
smolmaus said:
A friend of a friend had a horse take stress induced lami from fireworks a few years ago. If everyone else in the field is fine that's maybe a big swing to left field but something could have scared the life out of her and set something off. You're going to cover all bases anyway but just something else to keep in mind rather than looking for ways to blame yourself!

Hope the pain relief is kicking in quickly for her ❤️
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Stress laminitis is caused by physical stress on the feet, not emotional stress.
 
marmalade76 said:
Yes, stress on the feet because one of them is favoured.
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This is from the Blue Cross- under the heading of causes-

Stress​

There are a number of reasons a horse can become stressed. Sudden changes in environment, diet or routine, frequent travelling and overworking can trigger laminitis. Overweight horses and mares who have recently given birth are particularly at risk.
 
Tiddlypom said:
My now 24yo had a lami attack as quite a young horse, under 10 yo, in the snow. Saw her barely able to walk in the field and presumed she’d had a fall of some kind. By the time the vet had come out and seen her on box rest on a deep fluffy bed she was much happier and the vet didn’t spot the lami. It was months later that the characteristic vivid bruising that lami leaves appeared on her soles.

She was not long after diagnosed with early onset Cushing’s. With Prascend she has managed very well, even now when I’ve had to cut the dose of Prascend down as she was beginning to react to it.

She sailed through her 6 monthly chiro vet check earlier this week with a frankly wicked and cheeky glint in her eye as she showed off her still spectacular paces in wtc on the lunge.

Fingers crossed that you can get the lami under control and can manage your horse’s ongoing care going forward.
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Sorry to jump on this thread but do you mind me asking what reaction your mare has to the Prascend? My gelding has been on it for 10 years, since he was 9 and I'm pretty sure it's that that causes his loose stools. His recent test showed an ACTH level of 32, so well controlled, and I was thinking of dropping his dose from 1.5 back to 1 tablet a day.

OP, sorry to hear about your mare. I have no experience of laminitis (touch wood) - my Cushings gelding has never had it. Incidentally, the signs he had prior to his diagnosis were changing shape so his saddle didn't fit - I now realise it was the Cushings causing muscle loss. It was months, before he started feeling 'flat' which prompted bloods pulling. The vet only included the Cushings bloods because it was free at that time of year, we were all very surprised when it came back positive.
 
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Chianti said:
This is from the Blue Cross- under the heading of causes-

Stress​

There are a number of reasons a horse can become stressed. Sudden changes in environment, diet or routine, frequent travelling and overworking can trigger laminitis. Overweight horses and mares who have recently given birth are particularly at risk.
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Overweight, overworked horses and pregnant mares will have extra physical stress on their feet.
 
Hackback said:
Sorry to jump on this thread but do you mind me asking what reaction your mare has to the Prascend? My gelding has been on it for 10 years, since he was 9 and I'm pretty sure it's that that causes his loose stools. His recent test showed an ACTH level of 32, so well controlled, and I was thinking of dropping his dose from 1.5 back to 1 tablet a day.
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She became very dull in a similar way to the Prascend veil. I gradually cut her Prascend dose down from a max of 2.0 tablets a day to cutting it out altogether. It’s not unknown for PPID horses who have hitherto tolerated Prascend well to begin to react to it after a number of years.

After a few months of no Prascend at all she is back on 0.5 tablets/day (with vet’s approval) which seems to be the ideal compromise. Her last ACTH assay a few months ago on that dose has her in the low end of the grey zone, so not a bad level.

It’s a case of judging the horse in front of you with these compromised oldies, I’d much rather that she had a shorter but happier life. She is comfortable and is still well enough to be pretty gleeful and cheeky, so I’m happy with her for now, though every day is a bonus at this age.
 
Hackback said:
Sorry to jump on this thread but do you mind me asking what reaction your mare has to the Prascend? My gelding has been on it for 10 years, since he was 9 and I'm pretty sure it's that that causes his loose stools. His recent test showed an ACTH level of 32, so well controlled, and I was thinking of dropping his dose from 1.5 back to 1 tablet a day.

OP, sorry to hear about your mare. I have no experience of laminitis (touch wood) - my Cushings gelding has never had it. Incidentally, the signs he had prior to his diagnosis were changing shape so his saddle didn't fit - I now realise it was the Cushings causing muscle loss. It was months, before he started feeling 'flat' which prompted bloods pulling. The vet only included the Cushings bloods because it was free at that time of year, we were all very surprised when it came back positive.
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Thank you x Just had absolutely no signs of cushings, if anything she’s built muscle over the last few months - waiting for the blood results with bated breath!
 
smolmaus said:
Fair point, maybe thats the wrong terminology and I'm hearing this second hand, but I've definitely read that adrenaline, cortisol etc from mental stress can also have an impact.
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Yes. It can. My mare had just about finished her box rest and had been sound from her tendon injury for some time when she went lame again and it was laminitis. There are so many reasons for it and they aren't all diet related. That's what makes it such a horrible condition.
 
Lois Lame said:
I am confused about sugary chaff. Can you tell me what it is?
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She was on a sugary mollichaff - the apple one, it's high in sugar as it contains molasses. I only feed it to her in winter as it keeps her in good condition, she came to us rather underweight. In the spring, summer and autumn she's on a low sugar low starch chaff. Had I known there was ever any chance of her getting lami, she would not have been on it at all regardless of season
 
There's a pony here with Cushings. He was diagnosed after showing mild laminitis signs, aged 12. His hormone levels were ten times what they should have been so he must have been brewing it for a while yet he had none of the classic symptoms (apart from being a bit footy one day). What he did show, for months before his diagnosis, was frantic itchiness. I thought he had lice, maybe it was sweet itch, we tried all sorts to fix it. But as soon as he went on Prascend the itching stopped so I have concluded that it was was his own weird symptom (he is a very odd pony anyway so I shouldn't have been surprised by this!).
That was 9 years ago and he's still bouncing round the field and doing very well.
 
SEL said:
Anything else in bloods like an infection? No chance of a tick bite?
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It wasn’t a full blood panel, just EMS, cushings and insulin. Funnily enough I had been wondering about Lyme disease - we get loads of ticks that we remove and she had one on her the other day. Vet reckons as she was well in herself right up to her going lame that it is unlikely to be the cause - if her progress starts to plateau we will of course do full bloods to see if there’s anything else we could be doing
 
Barklands said:
It wasn’t a full blood panel, just EMS, cushings and insulin. Funnily enough I had been wondering about Lyme disease - we get loads of ticks that we remove and she had one on her the other day. Vet reckons as she was well in herself right up to her going lame that it is unlikely to be the cause - if her progress starts to plateau we will of course do full bloods to see if there’s anything else we could be doing
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So her insulin and cushings were both normal per bloods? Hopefully she's on the mend but it doesn't sound like stereotypical laminitis. I did know a Lyme positive horse who had all sorts of quirky symptoms before someone mentioned testing for it so worth keeping on your radar. That was hammered with antibiotics but was pretty poorly.
 
SEL said:
So her insulin and cushings were both normal per bloods? Hopefully she's on the mend but it doesn't sound like stereotypical laminitis. I did know a Lyme positive horse who had all sorts of quirky symptoms before someone mentioned testing for it so worth keeping on your radar. That was hammered with antibiotics but was pretty poorly.
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Yep - insulin was ever so slightly elevated but not enough to be abnormal. Cushings completely normal - and I would have been bowled over if she had it as she doesn’t show any symptoms at all otherwise. She is definitely showing all of the signs of laminitis: hot feet, bounding pulses, she was very rocked back, lying down, swollen legs etc but it came on super quickly. Essentially one day she was fine, the next she wasn’t.

She is definitely improving being in, on soaked hay, bute etc. but will certainly be keeping Lyme on the radar, given how many ticks we get too
 
Please definitely keep Lyme disease at the front of the line. A horse at our yard got it and it didn’t have a happy outcome I’m afraid. They didn’t know when he had the infected tick, whether it was this year, or last year or a few years ago. I can’t remember everything that happened to him but the muscle wastage was crazy, he was constantly under the weather with abscesses etc and just not himself. It wasn’t until an American vet came out to him that she suggested to run tests for it.
 
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