Is Laminitis catching people out just now?

asbo

asbo

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We have 1 case & 1 borderline on our yard, my little lady is in to lose weight as the grass has suddenly sprung up, we had hardly any then with the warm wet weather its just appeared. A friend I chatted to earlier has 2 in with pulses, never had any issue before, both a healthy weight and in work, out 12 hrs a day.
 
I have one that has come out of winter too well, and in the last week has gone from overweight to obese. I saw him on Sunday and thought 'I've got to do something about this', called vet on Monday and we agreed he would have to come in 24/7 on a strict diet for a month then go out muzzled ... arrived up Monday to find him lame. Mild laminitis.
First horse I've owned to get laminitis.
 
I imagine it is do with the fact that the grass has taken longer to come through this year, therefore lulling owners into a false sense of security.

My grass is at least a months growth behind from last year.
 
I don't know what to do. My mare still looks thin (see other post buried somewhere about her weight) and I've upped her hay a little and she's still muzzled. I was at a show with her on Sunday (just did the dressage) and al the rather rotund ponies up there make her look even more like a hatrack!!
And then I see threads like this and others about a sudden increase in lami cases and I worry even more. I want her to put a bit of weight on but worry that even though she's very slim, because she had lami as recently as January that the sugars would catch her out anyway.
Agh.
 
Yes it's caught me out. Mine has been out in a muzzle for 4 weeks and has digital pulses last night.

What does everyone use to soak hay? A friend I have fallen out with now used a black dustbin with a tap at the base to drain the water, like a water butt has which seemed a good idea. However, all the water butts I've looked at seem to need a stand as the tap at the bottom hits the ground otherwise. My friends bin had the tap raised from the ground a little so it didn't need a stand.

Now I've typed all this out and was about to ask if anyone had a similar bin they could recommend, I've just realised I could use a couple of bricks to stand the butt on and don't really need to buy the posh, special water butt stand anyway. :o
:p
 
Having owned a Cushings horse for 25 years I am completely paranoid about spring grass now! So the youngster is getting extra mag-ox and the new CB is on a 12 hour fatty paddock routine. She was obese when she arrived in Jan and I've got her at a healthy weight now. But her white lines are a little stretched and there's a tiny amount of flare on both fronts so am treating her as a potential problem.
 
I think it has to a certain extent... the grass has taken longer to come through but since we have had rain, then warm and sunny, then more rain it has come through quite fast - I have watched fields changing before my very eyes!

It is a tough balancing act - getting them lean enough in winter but not too lean to cme into spring and then managing their grass intake. What works for some, doesn't work for others but using the winter to come into spring a healthier weight certainly makes it easier to keep the lami at bay...
 
yep its caught me out, had ponies nearly 40 years, never had one with it before but had one start with it tuesday night! had him 11 years, caught very early though even though he has been footy for weeks. He is much sounder today, but has to stay in till next week at least, i initially thought he had a abcess brewing as much lamer on one leg, but thanks to folks on here, two stroke, pines of rome, lucy priory etc sussed out what he is up to.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if it is, mines gone from body condition of about 2.5/5 to about 3.5/5 in what feels like a week - now muzzled but will have to start coming in with soaked hay if he gets any fatter. The grass is growing like mad so definite worry.
 
Mine was a lovely thin fellow coming into spring but has acquired a small fat pad behind the shoulder in the space of a week! This is whilst wearing a muzzle 24-7 and being in regular work. I just ordered him some milk thistle to go with his rosehips to help him clear out the toxins as he seems sensitive to toxins as opposed to just being overweight, which I guess makes him double risk. If he gains any more weight he'll have to go in the starve paddock with his muzzle on... Poor lad!
 
DubbleTrubble said:
Yes it's caught me out. Mine has been out in a muzzle for 4 weeks and has digital pulses last night.

What does everyone use to soak hay? A friend I have fallen out with now used a black dustbin with a tap at the base to drain the water, like a water butt has which seemed a good idea. However, all the water butts I've looked at seem to need a stand as the tap at the bottom hits the ground otherwise. My friends bin had the tap raised from the ground a little so it didn't need a stand.

Now I've typed all this out and was about to ask if anyone had a similar bin they could recommend, I've just realised I could use a couple of bricks to stand the butt on and don't really need to buy the posh, special water butt stand anyway. :o
:p
Click to expand...
Wheelie bin with hole cut low on one to fit the tap. Works a treat! We then fitted a small length of hose on the tap to drain into the...drain
 
Yes it is. Loads of cases in my area. I keep a very close watch on my 3, The welsh D and the little cob are prone and have been sectioned off, but the one who got the hard crest and that "look" about him was the trotter! Took him in off the grass and he's just fine now and going out in a strip for a few hours and is sound as a pound. He can go back out tomorrow on some older rougher pasture and his workload is now increasing.
 
Yes, my mare has ballooned weight wise in the past week or so, despite being strip grazed. She has been brought in overnight and is now going between a tiny patch in front of her stable and muzzled on the longer grass.

She did have raised pulses and footy on hard ground, so hopefully we can work on getting weight down again and avoid full blown laminitis.
 
Touch wood it hasn't quite, had some raised pulses a few weeks back so doubled up on the mag ox, and everyone has been ok since, although my little nf has dodgy looking hoof growth just below the coronet band so he may have had a touch, just being religious in checking pulses now and keeping the exercise/mag ox up
 
HOw much MagOx are you chaps feeding?

I use Pro Balance which contains Magnesium, and then top up with Equine America MagOx but am really not sure that I'm giving enough...

So far have avoided lami but have two very good doer ponies, currently being brought in during the day and I want to keep them lami free.
 
Right I'm going to sound really stupid now, but can someone give me a list of things to look out for that can signify laminitis, my previous pony was a poor doer and even on really good grass would never put on weight, so lami never really seemed a worry. My 17hh TBxShire came out of winter poor (from illness too) and is just starting to be almost perfect in terms of weight, but he's still on a small dose of steroids and I know this can increase risk of lami. He's out sporadically, maybe on average 6 hours a day, but on good grass but we strip graze so it is limited. What can I do to limit risks?
 
mmm, mine we not terribly obvious, but here goes, lame on hard ground trot up at vets, but had been fine at home, then lame on left turns and uneven ground, not standing quite squarely, then became pottery kind of throwing his front feet wide, still worse on left foreleg, then holding left foreleg up one night, hobbled in and much better in morning. ridges on hooves, footy over planings. walking wide in front. the vet had seen him three times and not spotted the problem. I even asked them to test for cushings when they ask why I said he seems footy behind - the vet commented that his feet were short! cushings test came back normal.
Hope some of that helps
 
Mine has just been diagnosed with borderline cushings. I'm being extremely cautious with turn out. We're on very short grass currently and he's only getting out for a few hours a day. Not quite gone down the soaked hay route - weight is looking pretty good for him (he's a good doer and on a diet all year round - usually hay/straw mixed).

I too am paranoid about the potential for lami -- this year especially. Everyone else on my yard is "business as usual".
 
Mine only graze at night and so far so good. Mag,salt, and a stomach buffer which contains brewers yeast among other things. I'm quite paranoid and so far so good. I really kept everyone's weight down over the winter too. I can't get pro balance easily here so I use a thing called bone boost with zinc,lysine,copper, calcium,phos, vits a&d.

I do think the stomach buffer is a huge help. Night grazing is from 9pm to 9am. Then up to the sacrafice paddock with hay and they come in at 5 for 4 hours and a nap. Also I have made a it so they must walk more around their 6 acres.

Fingers crossed!

Terri
 
I use wheelie bins as well but use a length of hose put in to the bottom before the dry hay and use to siphon water out. I just can't get hay atm and have only three small bales left! :eek: I am awaiting hoof problems as I've had to turn them all out except my pony prone to acute laminitis, it's a nightmare.
 
Elvis said:
Right I'm going to sound really stupid now, but can someone give me a list of things to look out for that can signify laminitis, my previous pony was a poor doer and even on really good grass would never put on weight, so lami never really seemed a worry. My 17hh TBxShire came out of winter poor (from illness too) and is just starting to be almost perfect in terms of weight, but he's still on a small dose of steroids and I know this can increase risk of lami. He's out sporadically, maybe on average 6 hours a day, but on good grass but we strip graze so it is limited. What can I do to limit risks?
Click to expand...

I went to a very interesting vets talk by my vets this week and recent research has shown that nearly 90% of laminitic cases have either Cushing or EMS

Here is a summary of the talk

http://www.animedvets.co.uk/laminitis.htm

http://www.talkaboutlaminitis.co.uk/#
 
I also really wish a study would be done on the effects of soya and EMS. There is a definite link but as I'm not a scientist I can't prove a thing. Not really much of a coincidence that with the explosion of miracle balancers and conditioning feeds that EMS is soaring. I've fed soya free for years now and have been problem free. However until I made the connection I had issues.

Food for thought.

Terri
 
It wouldn't be, if more people would just wake up and smell the coffee re EMS and the knock-on, long-term and highly damaging effects of having an overweight horse for any length of time, accidentally or (unforgivably) deliberately, sows the seeds of what is essentially of equine type 2 diabetes. DON'T DO IT! A one-off exposure to excess grass is rarely the culprit, it's the final straw in a long history of overfeeding and beng overweight. Add in Cushing's and a hereditary factor and that's why laminitis is so prevalent now. Show rings, feed companies and a lack of real knowledge of how a horse ought to be maintained is what's to blame here.
 
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