laminitis and cryotherapy

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hpowell

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have been following information available on using ice to control laminitis with interest. To date, all positive results of treatment that I've found start using ice before there are any clinical signs of laminitis, i.e. in horses which are expected to develop it, not those already showing symptoms. Has anyone come across documented research showing the same effects of using ice on horses that have already developed signs of having laminitis please?
 
Look in this weeks horse and hound. There is an article about research done in Australia where they induced laminitis and then used ice on one leg and not the other and compared results.

You could also look at hydrotherapy spa web pages as the spa works out colder than an ice bath and they have been used with success in cases of laminitis
 
This book has a section about using cold therapy...
Laminitis Explained (Horse Health Explained)
by David W., DVM Ramey (Author)
All the reading material I've looked at has all pointed towards not using ice for anything other than the developmental stages.
 
Youre right, ice/cold has only been shown to help in the developmental stage of laminitis, which has no clinical signs. After this cold is thought to cause more harm because it restricts the blood flow to the feet further. It is this reason why it helps in the developmental stage because the trigger factors cant reach the feet as easily. Once the horse is showing clinical signs however it is adviseable not to ice the feet
 
Go on to the university of Queenlands website and look on the equine page. This is the university where Chris Pollitt works at and all his papers are published on this site I'm pretty sure he has done alot of work about laminitis and cryotherapy. It might even be worth emailing him I emailed him about my dissertation on laminitis and emailed me back straight away!
 
Just thought you defintely wouldn't advise putting ice on a horse hoof that already had laminitis as many think that laminitis causes the breakdown of the lamalle by constricting the blood flow is if ice was applied it would led to further contriction of the blood flow which would could possibly make the laminitis worse.
 
When my Cushings horse broke out of his woodchip paddock, for a few hours, my Vet told me to tape frozen peas to his feet to try and help avoid the onset of a Laminitis attack
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thanks for your responses, I think they confirm what I had already found, mainly from the research by Chris Pollitt, that this treatment is only effective if you suspect that a horse is going to get laminitis and start it before there are any signs. I understand too that it has to be kept up for quite a time afterwards, but clearly worth a go if you do have a horse in this situation. It's good to hear that Chris Pollitt responds to enquiries so positively!
 
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