How is laminitis diagnosed?

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Delta99

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My boy was diagnosed with navicular about 2 months ago but now he's really lame in one leg with heat in the coronary band, a strong pulse and the foot has got a laminitic ring so the farrier suggested that the horse might have laminitis in addition to navicular.

As the clinical signs for both diseases are so similar, i'm just wondering what the vet would do to diagnose laminitis in this case?

I'm taking the horse for an MRI anyway because of the navicular, would this show laminitis too?

Also, if it is laminitis, it would have come on as a result of concussion or the navicular (rather than too much grass or hard feed) - but should I keep him off the grass anyway? Does he need to be on box rest?
 
I think it depends on the Vet's idea of laminitis tbh.

My pony's symptoms.
Footy, reluctant to walk, difficulty turning in a curve/circle, standing still or lying
down more often than usual, seeking out softer surfaces such as mud, heat in hooves, big pedal pulse, rather 'depressed' and I notice other horses become more bold with her.

Only once when she has had an acute attack have I seen her adopt anything like the founder stance and then she rocked back to move not standing that way constantly. At this time she also shifted weight from one hoof to another.
I believe if horses get to the stage of being in the founder stance or lying down most of the time they are in excruciating pain. Not in any way to say those with slightly less overt symptoms are also not in very severe pain. :(
I now believe my pony was suffering long before I could actually see she was. :(

One way to get an idea of lamina involvement is to ensure she is on a conformable surface such as deep shavings, soak hay minimum one hour and rinse. Stop all hard feed and feed salt, magnesium in a small amount of un mollassed beet. Providing there is no cushings involvement imo you should see an improvement within a week. It may only be slight and may take longer for some horses but less for some.
 
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Laminitis simply means inflammation of the laminae. Founder/rotation of P3 is what can result from laminitis.

There will be heat in the feet and the digital pulse will be greater than normal.

There are recent studies to show that if you catch laminitis soon enough and ice those feet, you can prevent further damage. It's a very old fashioned remedy which actually works.

http://homesteadvet.net/pollitt.pdf

Good article above from a leading research vet.
 
When your horse has the MRI they should be able to tell you definitely as navicular affects the navicular bones and laminitis affects the pedal/coffin bone. However very early laminitis will not show up on an x-ray.
Another way that you can tell the difference between laminitis and navicular is that while both will be lame to turn and on a circle (this is how you know that it is pain in the foot rather than higher up in the leg), the laminitic will be more lame on hard ground and more comfortable on soft ground. The navicular horse will be more lame on a soft surface like an arena. The vet might also do nerve blocks and x-rays to confirm. You could also look for other signs which might or might not be present such as a digital pulse or heat in the feet.
When my horse had laminitis in June that is basically how we diagnosed her - we knew that she has a history of laminitis, she was lame to turn but sound in a straight line showing that the pain was in her foot and she was only lame on hard ground indicating laminitis. She responded to bute and a low sugar diet as recommended by my vet.
Laminitis doesn't always present in two front feet with the horse rocking back like you see in articles about it - it might be in all four feet or in one foot for example. If you suspect laminitis treat it as an emergency, call the vet and in the meantime get the horse off grass and onto strict box rest on a deep shavings bed to support the pedal bone and feed nothing but hay which has been soaked for a minimum of 12 hours, and preferably 24.
Laminitis has a multitude of possible causes and it isn't always brought on by too much lush grass. You're right, it could be caused by concussion. It can also be caused by systemic things such as EMS or Cushings disease or toxaemia in pregnant mares. It can be caused by stress on a limb e.g. if the opposite leg is broken and the horse is standing on one leg all the time or by steroid treatment. There are probably other causes as well that I've forgotten.
Good luck for your MRI anyway, I hope I've been helpful.
 
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I've been reminded of this interesting article today. http://www.bodrwyn.org/articles/lowgradelaminitis.php

Read along with this one might explain a possible link between low grade laminitis and navicular in some horses. Long term, consistant toe first landing seems to be a big factor in Navicular from my reading both in the strain it puts on the DDFT rubbing un-naturally on the navicular bone and poor development of the back part of the hoof making a good landing uncomfortable so avoided by the horse.
http://www.hoofrehab.com/NavicularSyndrome.htm
 
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My mare has just ( 2 weeks ago) been diagnosed with laminitis in off fore only Never had it before she was lethargic in may and i put it down to asthma, she was sound in july but came back from a weekend off and lame.

I treated it for tendon as that's what i thought it was but then abscess. Still lame so vet scanned her food with xray and it showed laminitis. Hers was either concussion or rich food i was giving her as i thought it was the asthma.

I would bring him in now, yes keep him off the rich grass, make his bed very deep to support the pedal bone . They recommend bedmax is the best bedding for laminitis. Soak his hay too , depending on how big he is give his hay in 3lbs morning 3lbs lunch and 9 evening.

No treats polos carrot's herbal treats nothing .
 
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unbalanced said:
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If you suspect laminitis treat it as an emergency, call the vet and in the meantime get the horse off grass and onto strict box rest on a deep shavings bed to support the pedal bone and feed nothing but hay which has been soaked for a minimum of 12 hours, and preferably 24.
Click to expand...

I disagree you don't want to soak the hay for any longer than 1 hour I spent 25 minutes to the http://www.laminitisclinic.org/ and they told me don't soak it that long. So i soak mine 1/2 hr hour which they said was fine . Feed 1.5 kilo hifi or other lami feed with 200 grams of speedy beet with 2 1/4 pints water and formula for feet depending on height and weight of horse.
 
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