Buying a horse that has had Laminitis

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NicolaC

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While looking for a replacement for Max i have come across a very nice Section D for sale that has had Laminitis in the past. I am not totally sure that I could buy one that has had it.

So the question is Would you buy one that has had Laminitis?
 
No I don't think I would, once they've had it I think the chances of them getting it again are very high.
 
I just did. He had it once 2 years ago after being very overfed. Very honest seller didn't try to hide it and says he has never had it since. Just has to be managed weightwise, which I do anyway.
 
Never. Not unless you like heartache and have a very cheap and danceable vet. And only then if he's single. Laminitis is very rarely a one off and is not always/ usually controllable with diet exercise. Just as type II diabetes isn't in humans
 
Yes! Providing you are aware of it the condition is quite manageable. However, having said that I think that I would have a 5 stage vetting and possibly x-ray feet just to make sure that there was no rotation. So - having said yes - it would have to be a horse that I really wanted!!!
 
No I would not as it can be hard to find a livery yard which is suitable and also hard to sell on should you need to.
 
If t was the right horse, and if I felt I was experienced enough to manage that horse well and the laminitis had not been serious - yes. But as someone else said, I would want to know exactly what I was getting into, with full vetting and x-rays.

It can be managed, but you have to be up for managing it, whatever that takes, and go into it with your eyes open.
 
One thing to consider is whether he has good feet to begin with.

I have a horse who had laminitis about 4 years ago, it just got too fat. By monitoring its weight since then I haven't had a problem. However, it did have excellent feet to begin with.

So if it has brilliant feet, then possibly. I think there always is something with everyhorse. Never met one that was 100% perfect.
 
We got a pony (welsh B) that had it in the past. The previous owner was very up front about it, and I've learned all I can about laminits and management of it. The mare has been fine since, but we are lucky in that she is at home and can easily be monitored.
 
Like the others have said, as long as it's the one, you have a 5stage vetting with x-rays and you are prepared to manage it properly. What ever you decide, good luck.
 
yes!! have done so before and would do again - but the price has to be right!! I bought a lovely 16hh anglo mare who had had it really badly for meat money, such a horse would have been well out of my league if she hadn't had the condition, her problem was that she was overfed for the show ring, so it's not just little ponies that can't cope with lots of food!
I had her for 10 years sound and fit until she broke a leg in the field, so it wasn't even the laminitis that got her in the end. I would NEVER buy anything with sweet itch though, so it's horses for courses!
 
Those who said no, that is totally unfair. Yes it is like T2D but is managed and is a cheap horse if you care to delve deeper and manage the condition!!

Would rather buy a laminitic and a than a horse with other defects - at least you know it is reversible.

Even if you bought a horse with a clean bill of health, there is no guarantee it would not get laminitis... esp in this country.

eta: I have a laminitic, had more trouble with things other than his laminitis tbh. Despite the laminitis, he does what most competition horses do... barefooted :D
 
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I personally would rather not, after having my old lad with it I had a few occasions of the vet coming out, once was VERY bad for him... his pedal had dropped slightly...(although didn't stop him from escaping his stable and bolting it up the concrete drive to his field)... that was my Merlin..

If the horse was right for you in every other way, then I would think about it, but would also get xray's of feet too...as I said my lad's dropped slightly on his last severe bout..and believe you me he was on a very restricted diet and turnout...he had this nasty bout in winter!
always had muzzle on or on limited t/o diet was special he also suffered COPD...ahh!

does your yard have a restricted turnout or bare paddock? etc
 
I think that it depends on how you are able to keep a horse. If you have your own place, where you can turn out when and where you want, and manage the grazing, then its not half as much of a problem as it would be for someone who had to keep the horse at a livery yard with fantastic grazing and haylage..

Don't write a lami off- many times it is easily managed.
 
Yes, if a) I had the right facilities and b)it was due to being overweight, not a metabolic disorder.

Many livery yards can't provide suitable grazing with friends and I would never take a horse if it had to live on it's own.

There are also degree's of laminitic sensitivity; some get it just looking at a blade of grass, others have been allowed to get too fat.

Like someone else said, all fat natives are 'potential laminitics' so this horse may just need the same kind of management anyways.
 
We had a sec a who had had lami every year with his previous owners we owned him for 11 years and he never had it once despite being also diagnosed with cushings and when he was PTS it was for something totally unrelated.

So if you know how to manage it then yes.
 
If the horse/pony does not have cushings or EPSM or EMS, but was food related laminitic only, and if you have complete control over its access to grass, then there should be no problem at all owning a laminitic as aside from the metabolic diseases I have listed this is a management issue and completely controllable.
 
Yes, i would if i had enough experience to deal with it and the facilities to manage it.

Like someone else said, there is no such thing as a 100% perfect horse and at least the owner has been honest enough to mention it.

I would find out why/how the horse got Laminitis (not all laminitis is due to the horse getting fat) and as part of the vetting, get the feet x-rayed.

Yes the horse might get it again but then there are 1000's of things that can go wrong with a horse from handing over your cash, however you could have years of fun together and no issues with laminitis or anything else.

A vetting like an MOT on a car, as it is only good for that day, the next day something could happen and the horse that previously passed could fail.

Your lucky that you are armed with the facts...There are many people who buy horses with problems that they don't even know about?

The choice is yours at the end of the day but i wouldn't dismiss a horse because of a previous problem as long (as above) i knew how to deal with it.
 
tallyho! said:
Those who said no, that is totally unfair. Yes it is like T2D but is managed and is a cheap horse if you care to delve deeper and manage the condition!!

Would rather buy a laminitic and a than a horse with other defects - at least you know it is reversible.

Even if you bought a horse with a clean bill of health, there is no guarantee it would not get laminitis... esp in this country.

eta: I have a laminitic, had more trouble with things other than his laminitis tbh. Despite the laminitis, he does what most competition horses do... barefooted :D
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I've just come across this post and have to agree with tallyho here. I found myself getting more and more upset with some of the resposes when people were saying no. :( It felt like people think once a horse has Lami it should be PTS :(. (I know thats not egsactly what they were saying and prob not what they ment but i'm feeling alittle over sensetive today :o )
Many of you may know about my old pony Lucy. She was the most amazing pony ever (in my eyes anyway ;) ) We did everything together right upto the very end. Hunted every week in the winter, Showjumped, Did dressage, showing and we even did endurance rides of upto and inclu 80km :eek: Why am I telling you all of this? well that amazing mare was a laminitic. She wasn't when I bought her she had her first attack when she was around 11/12. Her first attack was horrific she had rotation in all four feet :( The vets wanted to right her off and give up but I refused. They said even if she became sound she would never be 100% right again. I nursed her throw it and she recovered :) then we went on to do more things than we had done pre Lami. I lost her last July aged 23. :( To a very very rare illness that was controlled for 8 months with steroids :eek: in those 8 months she showed no signs of lami at all due to the way I managed her care :)
I guess what i'm trying to say is don't right a horse off just because it has had lami. Lucy was an extreame case but she still came right in the end.
I have taken on another Lami pony recently (He was free to a good home with expereance of Lami) He was very very overweight when I got him (14.1hh and he weighed 469kg :eek: ) He has lost all the extra weight now and is living out 24/7 unmuzzled. (I monitor his weight daily and if he starts gaining he will be muzzled)
If you have the expereance to deal with a lami pony and don't mind putting the work in then I would say go for it. If he is a nice pony and what you are looking for don't let the lami put you off.
 
tallyho! said:
Would rather buy a laminitic and a than a horse with other defects - at least you know it is reversible.
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Thats very true, unless of course it has pedal bone rotation, then nothing in the world is going to reverse it.

OP providing xrays showed no rotation, and there was no underlying reason for the horse being laminitic, then yes I would buy. A carefully managed laminitic, is far less of a headache than some other conditions out there!
 
No. I have a laminitic (once had a mild attack) and I wouldn't want to go through the constant worry again.
 
No! and Laura I think you are over reacting saying we are saying they need to be pts. My horse currently has acute laminitis and yes I am extremely sensitive to this at the moment. he is not obese and fed very carefully due to other issues he has had. It completely broke my heart to try and lead him in from the field yesterday when he couldn't actually walk and stumbled every time he tried for me a max of 5 min walk from field to yard took over an hour. He fell out of his stable for the vet and we then couldn't get him back in. The vet also told me it was more likely to be a death sentence and more problematic for a horse than a pony as they have so much more weight going through their feet than a pony. My chap is 16.3 and full ID probably about 750 kilos.

So in definite answer to your question No I would not put myself through this heartache knowingly, yes it can happen to any of them, which it has to my lad, but I wouldn't go out and buy one knowing it had it even if it was free. Also with the best will in the world and perfect management it can still occur.
 
Given the choice I think that most folk's initial reaction would be not to buy a horse that has had laminitis.

Personally, I think that in lots of cases, it is a bit of a short sighted view.

Most horses kept in the accepted UK way of keeping horses are suseptable to laminitis.

This is because, the grazing is not right for horses, in the majority of cases. The hard food they are given is also not right for horses. The lack of exercise and hours spent being stabled is also not right for them. Shoeing also masks low grade laminitis.

The fact that many horses do not show symptoms of laminitis is probably due to the fact that some horses tolerate mis management better than others.

I would buy a horse that had had it in the past, because it can be managed in such a way that the liklihood or it re occuring can be minimized, and you do know what you are dealing with.

Pedal bone rotation can be reversed given time, and is not the death sentence many presume.

There are a few enlightened vets and farriers about, who can give proper valid advise and support.

Basically the way to prevent laminitis is through education of the horse owning comunity. Many people manage their horse and laminitis quite successfully, others of course are still thrashing around in the dark.
 
I too am surprised by the severity of some of the replies here! Please don't write them ALL off so quickly, there are some laminitics who go on to be amazing (like LauraWheeler's pony, and my own!). If too much damage hasn't been done to the pedal bones the condition is manageable and I'd certainly consider it.

My Welshie was laminitic as a youngster, when I was young too and very foolish (24/7 turnout = no mucking out, yay!!). Fortunately it was very mild as we spotted the signs very early and I have guarded him against it ever since. We are lucky to be on a yard where the livery staff are happy to bring him in after 2 or 3 hours - it would be impossible without them, he would have to be in 24/7. He has never gone out for longer than 5-6 hours at a time (and that's in winter) but that's playing it very safe - if I'm honest we could probably get away with more, especially over Winter. He is on the same feed as everyone else, is in great condition, and is quite happy. I've had him about 15 years and never had a problem with laminitis since that first summer (touch wood!).

I have to say though that I would NEVER sell him on in case he ended up on a yard without such great livery staff, or where people were too ignorant to adhere to his turnout limits. I have been very lucky but a lady on my last yard spent well over £15000 trying to save the life of her horse before accepting it had spent its last years in agony and having him PTS.

I would consider another laminitic pony if the 'right' pony came along - as others have said though, get the feet x-rayed and consider whether you really have the resources to keep him. But please don't write a horse off just because the word 'laminitis' has cropped up :).
 
Oh, I should add - in my experience a good farrier is essential. Even - dare I say it? - more so than a good vet, when it comes to laminitis. As they see your horse's hooves regularly they will tell you if the slightest thing has changed, so that you can stay ahead of any changes.

Times to look out for are end of April/May and September - what does the Welsh D look like now, is he a reasonable size? What's his crest like? (I know there are other signs, but these ones can be useful indicators).
 
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