Malicob23
Well-Known Member
Really need some advice having owned horses lifelong but never a Shetland and never any laminitis. I've an elderly who arrived just before winter having weaned her last of a long line of foals.
She's not ever coped with rain and wind here and shivers to the point she's needed a light rug in bad weather and as we live very high up it's mountainous, open and the wind is truly horrendous. I am in the process of trying to build a shelter but there are hedges with hollows carved out for both my ponies to stand in.
After being quite slim until summer she's now a complete tub and last week went lame very badly on what looked like one front. After a couple of days on bute and being confined to a muddy little patch with no grass at all she wasn't looking better and I struggled to get her Bfoot trimmer out but eventually got a very good new Farrier. He immediately said it's laminitis, not that bad but her hooves show a slight dip in the front walls so she's definitely had it in the past and it's the old story, the previous owner told me she'd never once had it.
He trimmed back the toes as far as he dared and will return in 3 weeks.
Her current diet is a tiny handful of very low sugar mash with a few garlic grains to get the bute to her twice a day then every few hours a very small handful of low sugar wrapped hay or haylage and I'm careful to check sugar and protein levels on what I buy as the other pony needs weight management too.
The Farrier had me walk her up and said he wasn't bothered enough to say get the vet, but as I have no stable or proper field shelter yet, to keep both ponies completely off grazing on the muddy little patch I have which is very soft underfoot but nonetheless a small paddock. Ideally of course I'd have her stabled on a deep bed etc but this is our situation right now and there's no neighbours for miles so nobody to board her. It's hard to see what's what as it's still muddy even in August and the weather is totally horrible to the point she looks miserable shaky and lame. The shaking/shivering isn't a new thing in bad weather but somehow coupled with the lameness now looks far worse and obviously I've owner's guilt she's got laminitis as her actual field genuinely looks very bare and rough so I didn't see it coming, I thought I was controlling diet for both ponies so it would be an abscess.
Time wise, she has been lame a week now but I thought she seemed slower the week before that however since she's 20 I put it down to that.
After a week of bute and no grazing whatsoever limited moving and a decent foot trim, is this normal for laminitis? At what point would you expect any improvement?
Please no judgement regarding lack of stable and taking farrier advice to postpone vet visit. I'm guilty enough without that.
She's not ever coped with rain and wind here and shivers to the point she's needed a light rug in bad weather and as we live very high up it's mountainous, open and the wind is truly horrendous. I am in the process of trying to build a shelter but there are hedges with hollows carved out for both my ponies to stand in.
After being quite slim until summer she's now a complete tub and last week went lame very badly on what looked like one front. After a couple of days on bute and being confined to a muddy little patch with no grass at all she wasn't looking better and I struggled to get her Bfoot trimmer out but eventually got a very good new Farrier. He immediately said it's laminitis, not that bad but her hooves show a slight dip in the front walls so she's definitely had it in the past and it's the old story, the previous owner told me she'd never once had it.
He trimmed back the toes as far as he dared and will return in 3 weeks.
Her current diet is a tiny handful of very low sugar mash with a few garlic grains to get the bute to her twice a day then every few hours a very small handful of low sugar wrapped hay or haylage and I'm careful to check sugar and protein levels on what I buy as the other pony needs weight management too.
The Farrier had me walk her up and said he wasn't bothered enough to say get the vet, but as I have no stable or proper field shelter yet, to keep both ponies completely off grazing on the muddy little patch I have which is very soft underfoot but nonetheless a small paddock. Ideally of course I'd have her stabled on a deep bed etc but this is our situation right now and there's no neighbours for miles so nobody to board her. It's hard to see what's what as it's still muddy even in August and the weather is totally horrible to the point she looks miserable shaky and lame. The shaking/shivering isn't a new thing in bad weather but somehow coupled with the lameness now looks far worse and obviously I've owner's guilt she's got laminitis as her actual field genuinely looks very bare and rough so I didn't see it coming, I thought I was controlling diet for both ponies so it would be an abscess.
Time wise, she has been lame a week now but I thought she seemed slower the week before that however since she's 20 I put it down to that.
After a week of bute and no grazing whatsoever limited moving and a decent foot trim, is this normal for laminitis? At what point would you expect any improvement?
Please no judgement regarding lack of stable and taking farrier advice to postpone vet visit. I'm guilty enough without that.
