Bought pony that became lame 5 days after buying her

helew

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Hi,
I bought a pony for my daughter and 5 days after buying her she became very lame , the vet thinks it is laminitis , the vet says she probably has a history of laminitis due to the rings on her hooves but the previous owner says she didn't have laminitis when they had her . Is it possible the rings are caused by something else ?
 
What was your management the pony for those first five days? How does it compare to how they kept it? Many owners don't care to realise their hores have lami cause it can be mild in their management but in another persons care will go full blown (stress, new grass, treats cause its new)
 
Rings are otherwise known as event lines and can be produced by lots of things.
No matter, focus on the laminitis as it is now .... shoes off, deep bed, soaked hay, minerals, salt, pain relief.
In future keep the pony off lush grass, never ever feed sugar [Lickits, pony nuts, carrots, apples, chaff with molasses]
 
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I regrettably didn't get her vetted , so I don't have any come back . I asked if she had laminitis and also any other health problems and was told she had none .
 
She was on grass , they caught her from the field , when we went to view her . She went on grass when we got her , I haven't given her anything else , maybe the grass we put her on was richer , she's now in a stable and being treated for laminitis .
 
I regrettably didn't get her vetted , so I don't have any come back . I asked if she had laminitis and also any other health problems and was told she had none .

You can ask them to take pony back, citing your inexperience, and you are out of your depth, or that the facilities at your yard are not appropriate. However it unlikely they will agree, even if you agree to taking a loss.
It is not easy to see a way forward by going to court, as you have to prove they misled you. And you still have the pony.
 
I've already asked them to take her back but like you said , she refused , stating she didn't have laminitis when she had her and basically we have caused it .
 
It may well be that the pony has never had laminitis before, but the stress of a move and different grazing could have been enough to trigger it.

I don't think that you'll have any comeback as with horses anything can happen at anytime with them, even if the pony was vetted she could have still developed it. Rings can be caused by a change in diet, laminitic rings tend to be wider at the heel, so could be an indicator, but whether that alone would be enough evidence to say she was miss old I don't know.

Is the pony overweight or older? It may be worth testing for Cushing's if she's an older pony, but careful management will be the key to keeping her healthy.
 
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