Hyperinsulinemic laminitis

[Ranyhyn]

I have been doing a lot of my own background reading, regarding my horses ongoing lameness.

I have picked up on some posts here regarding this and wondering if anyone can shed some more light on this? It's been something my vets haven't even been the slightest bit interested in, constantly saying - its not lami. But I am right smack bang up against my wits end with the vets and the diagnosis of this horse. My trimmer was the first one to take it seriously, so I ended up looking this up.

Anyway enough waffling.

June/July of last year, horse moved home onto what we now know, is our very lush, very calorific grazing. Stupidly I let her get fat, far too fat now in hindsight.

She wasn't ridden the whole summer really, she appeared to me "pottery" but different factors kept making me ignore the possibility of lami.
*very hilly fields made me think the laboured gait was lazyness
*she never struck that classic lami stance
*she never really grew a crest and heat from feet seemed ok all round.

Anyway crawl through to Nov, where I decided I had to do something with her so took her to livery. Where we think she injured herself, exposing very bad feet (I had trusted farrier when I asked him - are her feet ok? Does she have thrush?? are her feet good quality?) I was given all the right answers. But now I wonder whether the warning signs were there, but I just didn't recognise it right.

I was faced with these feet:

A horse stood like this:

But vets saying, she's not laminitic.

FFW to earlier this year horse had shoes taken off Jan, field rested and her weight brought down from 575kg (tape weight) to 535kg currently. She was her soundest after trimming, start of March time.

FFW to April, lame again.

Came in with this stance, vet out - again told NOT lami. Told next step was blocking the joint. Left with that option we considered taking her to horsepital.

A week later trimmer comes and exposes it's an abscess and hey presto, horse is no longer on 3 legs and is looking better again.

Anyway, through all of this I have lost ALL my faith in vets, 5 vets have seen her, 5 vets have told me different things, 5 vets have failed to fix the problem - I'm so sick of going to her and finding her "not right" so I'm considering other options.

Reading a previous post on here by Oberon, I am now considering HL. She seems to fit in with all the symptoms listed so wondering where you guys think I should go next. I am very happy with trimmer, but very unenamoured with the vets at present - but all ideas taken on board.

Thanks

 

[Flame_]

You could do with a really, really good vet. IME, they are in the minority.

Could be anything really, if there's nothing to see on the outside of the foot. Foot problems are very frustrating.

 

[Ranyhyn]

Yep I really could! Sadly after 5 recommendations I don't think the mythical good vet seems to exist in this case!
I could potentially travel her miles, to go to the next recommendation and get exactly the same results and sadly if I'd trusted my own vet I'd have taken her for bloody joint blocking a few weeks ago when she had an abscess!!! And this is the vet that again, comes highly recommended

 

[popularfurball]

Your field makes me want to quiver and shake violently!!!

My pony would be unable to stand out on that for a few hours.

IMHO laminitis (Particularily the early stages) are massively ignored and passed off as "thin soles" or "crap feet" so are shod. I have nothing against shoeing, it is a solution to a problem - however in this scenario it masks the problems - not solves them. Thin soles, brusiaing easily, bruises, flare, event lines, under run heels, heading for grass verges (easily passed as being a piggy!) are all signs that are often ignord until too late

With anything that might be foot, removal from grass and the emergency diet is the way to go - it doesn't do harm to return to a simple forage based diet and will help make big differences to laminitis.

Accesses alongside laminitis is also very common due to the weakness in the good structure

Hope you get some answers xx

 

[twinkle]

Have you tryed to restrict her grazing or even muzzle her?

Or if you have facillities to not have her out on grass and just in a big area with soaked hay to see if taking away the grass makes her better? and feed low or no sugar diet.this would at least try to rule lami out if she improves or dont.

You could also get some feet xrays to see if everything is good/bad.

I have a very bad lami pony that now cant have any grass and is out in a bark paddock with soaked hay and is sound!

In some of the pics i would say that was a lami stance. Im not saying she has it there could be many other things. Also bare in mind that lami ponys/horses also can suffer from more abscess's as a course from the lami.

I really hope you find whats going on with your horse i would maybe try to get another opinion from another vet maybe ask on the forum fro recommendations of excellent vets in your area that specialise in lameness.

kellyx

 

[cptrayes]

Isn't it odd? If she was to stand with her front legs like that everyone would scream LAMINITIS.

But because it's her back feet hurting worst, it has to be anything but. You look like you have been badly let down by vets and farriers

I'd get your horse in a stable on soaked hay and leave her there until she could stand on her own feet properly.

 

[twinkle]

sorry had to come back on, just re read my post and was trying to word it not to worry you but have had to come back and re write as i think maybe i should worry you and say u should def get her off the grass as soon as you can as she really does look and sound like she is suffering with lami!

Mine had it in all four feet and she stood EXACTLY like yours does in that pic. she also had rotation in both fronts.

sorry to sound pushy! just trying to help you.

I no how horrible it is when you cant trust your vet/farrier as it happened to me with my other horse and i to went threw 5 different vets to then find one that could help. always trust your gut instinct as it almost always right.

kellyx

 

[Ranyhyn]

Sorry guys, perhaps haven't explained THAT photo properly, that was start of April, she was indeed brought in and recovered from that stance in a matter of hours. Partly I believe that's what made my vet instantly say - it's not lami.

That field she's in is not her grazing field, it's the sheep grazing in between! However that was what she ate last year, which I truly feel started the problem.

She escaped into the top half of her grazing paddock (it's 4 acres split in half, with 3 in the bottom) so was brought in 2days ago to see what damage she did/didn't do but she's ok so god-willing she didn't get too much. Her grazing muzzle is waiting to go on, either that or we'll halve the paddock again so 3 on 1 acre should pull it down to as little as can be. She gets very dull being kept in isolation so I'd like to keep her out with pals where possible (and obviously they need some grass) so really bringing down the size and maybe adding soaked hay could help.

We have the facilities to do whatever it takes, as she's at home. We are just trying to strike a balance now which keeps her safe and happy.

 

[MCL]

Hi have you had her tested for EMS? It the the latest 'syndrome' and some vets are offering it for free.

My rescue had slight lameness last year which I actually treated as an abscess for a while and when that failed called the vet. Just to restore your faith in vets - mine is very good and keeps herself so up to date with the recent developments and equipment.

Anyway one blood test and we know its EMS which means the unexplained lameness is likely to be lami - box rest and restricted grazing and fine horse again. She's now on metaformin daily and I watch her grazing.

 

[Ranyhyn]

Thanks MCL, we're looking into the tests now

 

[horsemad32]

If I suspect lami AT ALL, I bring them in, with 24 hr soaked hay or better yet oat straw. They don't go back out until they've trotted up sound, are standing normally, and are back in work. It's the work that helps keep the lami at bay - that and restricted sugars, but without the work you're really on a losing battle before you start. Grazing muzzles are pretty handy too!