Laminitis & coronitis

[jjsblackhorse]

Hi,

Has anyone got experience of Laminitis & Coronitis?

I have a 9 year old ex race horse whom I have owned since he was 5 years old. He has never coped well with shoes and having had issues with lack of hoof growth despite proper hoof care additives and feeding program he would not grow any hoof with steel shoes attached, but with glue-on's great hoof growth (but could not sustain the price tag!), I took the decision last April to try bare foot and it has gone really well until now. We have done dressage, shows and hunted on grass with no problems - for lots of road work or stony tracks I have used Cavallo hoof boots.

He suddenly came up with what I can only describe as pimples or blisters round all 4 coronet bands which were a bit raw so I sent photos to the vet who put it down to hoof boots and the mud! (He was a little foot sore). The next week his feet became hot and he was lame and sore all round but the worst being his off fore. Vet came out and diagnosed laminates and brought a colleague for a second opinion who thought that he may also have coronitis. Both vets agreed that it is not food related laminates as the horse is a lean rangy style TB and he is on Simply Systems feed (alph alpha, sugar beet and Total Eclipse balancer + foot and joint supplements + farm grown and wrapped hayledge but very dry more like hay) due to wet weather he is in at night and out for a few hours during the day. (Same regime as his 2 mates a 20 year old TB and an ID x hunter type - neither of whom are having any issues).

X-rays showed that the pedal bone in off fore had dropped and he has a bit of serum ooze towards the toe and I am treating for laminitis, blood tests have come back clear with normal range (no cushings!). The vet has now taken scrapings and sent them off to see if anything comes back re possible cause.

Has anyone experienced anything similar?
Is there a link between laminitis & coronitis?

Any thoughts or similar experiences greatly received!

Thank you

 

[Silverfire]

Sorry not much help, but my horse has a few problems at moment and vet gave me some notes on auto immune diseases in horses -one of which is Pemphigus Foliaceus, and this causes scales, crusts , oozing around all four coronet bands alone or can cause other skin problems aswell but always affects the coronet bands (i think anyway i'm sure another vet from same practice who saw her last year said she couldn't have pemphigus because it always affects coronets).

 

[siennamum]

Have you investigated Leutocytoklastic Vascilitis - sounds like a possibility.

 

[Tegan]

Hi. My cob has coronary band dystrophy which means that his coronary bands can get scaly and his hoof quality is poor. Our vet sent photos to Professor Knottenbelt for diagnosis. There is a good (but rather depressing) article here http://www.hoofcare.com/article_pdf/HoofcarePemphigusKnot7D4CD.pdf. We have treated his problem with Zorac gel which is a human drug for psoriasis (prescribed by vet). This seems to have done the trick but we have had to repeat this few times. Previously the scaliness has gone only to reappear in the summer so waiting to see what happens this year. We also feed a good hoof supplement (but already fed this prior to the dystrophy appearing) and use Shur Hoof dressing at least twice a week. He is also prone to white line disease so has hoof disinfectant applied to the white line at every shoeing. Hope this is useful. Tegan

 

[jjsblackhorse]

Hi thanks for the info.
Update - the coronet bands seem to have dried out and are a bit scaly with a few lumps under the surface.
The laminitis is a bit odd too! But I have never had a horse with the condition before. He has had a 3 day course of the horse version of metacam. Last dose yesterday and is moving round stable looking fairly sound not lying down much or standing in the laminitic stance. He has boots on with frog supports and feet are fairly cool, the hole in foot has closed up and is dry.
Is this normal as I would have expected him to be crippled for weeks?

 

[vanrim]

Don't trust the Cushings blood test. My mare had 6 - yes 6 - attacks of laminitis over 4 years and numerous ACTH blood tests in the normal range. My vet finally did another test for Cushings that has only recently become available and the results were through the roof. She is now on Prascend and doing fine. It all started when she was barefoot as she wasn't growing enough horn and her soles wore very thin leading to the first serious laminitic attack. Hooves not growing as normal can be a sign of Cushings.

 

[jjsblackhorse]

Now that is really interesting as my boys feet have never grown well, hence bare foot.
How old is your girl?

 

[vanrim]

She is 17 this year and has been on Prascend for about a year with no further attacks. She got the first attack when she was about 12 and has had another 5 attacks since then. With hindsight going barefoot was a disaster in her case because I had no idea her soles had worn so thin until she got the first attack of laminitis and the xrays showed how thin her soles had become. It was only recently when the Cushings was finally diagnosed that I realised this was why her feet had not been growing at the normal rate. If I am honest I think the vets should have diagnosed Cushings from the number of laminitic attacks she was having instead of relying on the ACTH test. Apparently it is only reliable at a certain time of the year. I have another horse who has had 2 mild attacks of laminitis and also got unexplained hives. I insisted he be put on Prascend even though his ACTH test was normal and hey presto the hives disappeared. The vet has now agreed that he has got cushings. My horses are young to have Cushings (starting at 12 years of age for each one) - a previous cushings case I had was in a 22yr old, but I am certain that most horses that get laminitis have something else such as cushings going on to cause it. The other odd thing I noticed with the 17yr old was that she was losing the hair inside her ears. This grew back the minute she started on the Prascend.

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

I Lost my mare to lami last year