Can someone describe a bounding/raised digital pulse to me?

[goldypops]

As the title says! I am getting a bit digital pulse obsessed at the moment! For the last month I have had 2 on box rest with laminitis for different reasons. One day I can feel a pulse the next I cant and I get my hopes up that we are improving. I am sure I have a bouncing pulse that jumps stables (lol) as one day one horse will be ok but I can feel it in the other and the next day it swops to the other horse!!!
Now I am beginning to question whether I am actually feeling it correctly or this is their normal pulse. HELP please!!!!!!! I dont use my thumb as I understand you will feel your own pulse if you use that but how hard do you press and what is normal?????

 

[Fransurrey]

I can't answer for everyone, of course, but I can't feel Henry's normal pulse unless I cut off the circulation. Therefore, if I can feel a pulse, it's bad news and I act accordingly. I feel for it every day from Spring until November and like you, it's a little temperamental, but then so is the English weather!!! I know that if it's a sunny day with showers (in the summer), I need to muzzle.

If your horse is getting laminitis and isn't obese in the winter, it might be worth doing the ACTH test and checking if it's hormonal (Cushings).

ETA: The vet who attended when Henry had lami three years ago told me you CAN use your thumb. I, like you am a bit unsure, but maybe it's because the bounding pulse overrides our feeble human one.

 

[eggs]

Like Fransurrey I usually can't feel a pulse on my horses. I would describe a bounding pulse as one I can feel and it is always a cause for concern for me.

 

[goldypops]

Thanks - pretty sure that there is a pulse there now! Fransurrey - my mare is being tested this week for cushings though we are pretty sure she has it though this is her first ever laminitis attack.

 

[Chunkie]

I feel for my laminitic mare's pulse every day and sometimes can't find it.

On the days I do find it, it always seems that the area surrounding it is a bit puffy. If there's no puffiness when I run my fingers down her leg, there is never any pulse - does anyone else get that?