Can I have opinions - Laminitis & Mare in Foal

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Eaglestone

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Scenario

A Highland mare that is in foal (due in a couple of months) has been diagnosed with Laminitis.

She has been out over 7 hours a day (I believe) on very poor grazing, about 2/3 acres with 3 others horses, so the new grass is stressed! She has been getting hay when she 1st goes out on her own.

The Vet has attended and I see that she is on a nice thick bed and looks happy and content, and is now on box rest for 10-14 days.

However the Vet has not recommended (I believe) soaked hay ... so she is still getting really good hay all the time .... not sure of quantities.

I was quite surprised about the hay situation ... so thought I would ask anyone out there who cares to give their opinion
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PS I do not know the owner and in fact is none of my business, however as a 'sufferer of Laminitis' I do care
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Depends on if the grass has caused her laminitis or by being in foal ie weight bearing; If she is fat I would def recommend soaking the hay, then she can have ad-lib.
I think 10-14 days box rest for a horse with laminitis is not long enough, more like 20-30 days.
Just my opinion. I would keep her in until the foal has been born.
 
Chances are that the laminitis has noting to do with the grass. As has been said, could be the extra weight. Could be anything!

During the later stages of pregnancy the entire system is under great change strain. Hormones are flying about as the mares body prepares to give birt and feed the foal..... stress of any sort is enough to cause lami.

If I was in this situation I would be treating it as an emergencey and I would be seriously concerned about loosing the mare, amy be the foal, or ending up with an orphan foal.
 
Thank you Jakesmydog and Yorkshirelass

I wondered too if the weight of the foal may be a trigger factor for Laminitis .... she is not really overweight as far as I can see and she looks happy as I said.

I am also a distant observer and was curious as to what others may think.

Also not party to everything Vet and owner have discussed
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I value your opinions
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Thank you very much
 
Difficult to cut her feed anyway as the mare needs specialist feeding in the third trimester to ensure a healthy foal. I'd talk to a specialist feed merchant as wella s take veterinary advice.
 
Well I was at a talk from Margaret Wharmby last night on Laminitis and she was saying that horses should be given enough to eat and that soaked hay was the best thing. Keeping them without food and fibre can lead to even more trouble.
There was also a lady there with a similar problem of horse getting it when in foal.
 
My mare had laminities in her later stages of pregnancy which was caused by a combination of the excess weight she was carrying & the stud mix I was feeding her! The vet advised a month's box rest with an hour a day out when she was feeling better & obviously cut out the stud mix. Come to think of it though he never advised me to soak her hay...
 
As with any laminitis case, finding the trigger is paramount to recovery. What works for one case of laminitis, doesn't necessarily work for other cases. In my pony's case, movement was a huge part of her recovery, so if this mare has the same type of laminitis as mine, then the worst thing they could do would be to keep the mare in a stable for weeks/months on end.

Is the vet absolutely sure it is laminitis? Has the mare had laminitis before? And has she been x-rayed to confirm that what she has is actually laminitis and not something else? Abscesses are very common in pregnant mares and can mimic laminitis and navicular.
 
I have no experience of in-foal mares with laminitis, but when my mare was diagnosed, my vet never suggested I should keep her in, nor did he advise me to soak her hay.

The advice was - ride, ride, ride (or drive, drive, drive in my case!) 4 lbs of hay twice a day and Happy Hoof twice a day.

I know I'm no expert, and different vets have different approaches, and the effectiveness of any treatment can vary from horse to horse, but I would query the effect that keeping an in-foal mare in a stable would have on her.
 
How can you ride, ride, ride a horse with laminitis!!!
thats like walking on your fingers after your nails have been ripped off! Sorry but I don't think your mare could have had it, its an inflamation of the laminae which is very very painfull; they need to be kept on a deep shavings bed until 30 days after they are sound without painkillers.
A slow recovery is best for those who have it; my shetland was so bad it took 3 months box rest before he was sound; He hasn't had it for over 4 years now, and is fit, healthy and lives out on grass 24/7 with my other laminitic.
It can be managed, but you need them to recover slowly.
 
Thank you all for you replies .... it is a very emotive topic isn't it
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I must admit that I think the ride ride ride 'treatment' was perhaps one choice at some time
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. However like Jakesmydog says how can you ride a horse with it
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...
but if it worked for that particular horse then that is really good news
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Similar to Jakesmydog's horse, my horse was on box rest for 5 months with it and there was no way he could even walk out of the stable for most of that time, due to the extreme pain he was in
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Fortunately for me, also, he has been ok now for over two years, but he is on a very strict regime, but is happy and well
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. Although he did have a mild attack of Laminitis at the end of July last year and the treatment for that was, strict box rest on a deep bed, for 10 days on bute ... really it does depend on the reasons and how soon you catch it
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My Vet also said that the horse should be boxed rested for 30 days after they are pain free and sound ... but my old boy had to start coming out of his stable before that time, very very slowly ..... it is so painful to me now just thinking back at that time
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Anyway my original thoughts were the hay soaking business, as I thought that this was common practice, as it cannot hurt
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I will have to try and find out how the mare is getting on ... and report back
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How can you ride, ride, ride a horse with laminitis!!!

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Sorry but I don't think your mare could have had it,

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The x-rays show that she did. Also she was perfectly sound on grass, and as I was fortunate enough at the time to be able to ride on bridlepaths without going on the roads, I was able to do enough to get rid of the excess weight she carried, as advised by the vet.
 
My little pony mare was not carrying any excess weight so that was not our reason for keeping her exercised. Movement is essential for recovery of the feet of laminitics as it increases the blood flow. I bought Old Macs for our pony and this jump-started a fairly speedy recovery.

My pony had rotation in 2 feet and acute laminitis in all 4. She came down with it suddenly when I was out of the country. She was a whisper away from death and the day I flew back to have her put to sleep, I changed my mind and started to look into alternative methods of helping her recover. The Old Macs combined with plenty of walks every day, ad-lib Dengie Hi Fi Lite and Farriers Formula were her saviour.

When I had her x-rayed again prior to having her flown out here to Canada, her rotation had not only stopped, but everything had reverted back to it's original (and normal) place.

This happened in 2004 and my pony has lived out 24/7 and has had a foal since then, all without any relapse. I make sure she is always well exercised, even when she was pregnant she was ridden right up till about a month before giving birth.

Good bloodflow is crucial to good recovery; and just to answer the OPs question about hay, no matter how nice the hay looks, it can't possibly have many nutrients left in it as it will easily be older than 6 months old by now; so I wouldn't bother soaking it to be honest.
 
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