Laminitis Help

A

atfs123

Member
Joined
19 September 2011
Messages
14
Visit site
Hi, I've just joined and am looking for a bit of help and advice re a laminitic please.

My pony (who is 13.2 and about 22) has had laminitis for about four weeks now, started with him looking a bit lame in walk and on turns on his off fore, kept him in and called the vet who said slight laminitis (and also took a blood test which showed he had cushings, so we've started treatment for that) He improved over a week with bute and box rest but then started to look lame again just on turns and hard ground, so vet suggested another week of bute and box rest plus x-rays. X-rays showed no movement of the bone and it's now come to the time when he'd need to be shod, and vet is suggesting heart bar shoes. I've been doing a lot of reading online about these and in many cases they don't sound like they'd be helpful/ the right thing, especially as *touch wood* the laminitis is mild. He's been shod on all four feet with normal shoes for the nine or so years we've had him. I don't know what to do now, whether to go with the hear bars or suggest us trying something else. Will be discussing it it again with vet and farrier, but any help or thoughts would be hugely appreciated :o Many thanks in advance.
 
Last edited:
My boy was fitted with Equi-pak silicone packing to his soles last year which the farrier preferred to heart bar shoes. His was only a mild case with no pedal bone rotation but thought to be concussive laminitis so the packing would help support and protect his soles. It seemed to work well for him. He had it applied twice for about 12 weeks in total. I could ride with it in as he began to recover. Good luck, hope you get it sorted.
 
My cushings boy was put in heartbars. he was in them for about 18 months, shod every 4 weeks. His lami was worse & he didn't make it :-(
I also have a mare with ddft damage who was in heartbars for 3 years until a couple if months ago.
Knowing what i know now, id never go back to heartbars. they ruined their feet. Apparently heartbars should only be used for 4 weeks (i think!) to help to stabilize the foot when lami flares up. After that, i believe that barefoot is the way forward. Shoes just mask any footiness. This is just my opinion, but maybe worth looking in to. Google Rockley Farm blog and website and the UKNHCP website & forum. its an eye-opener :-)
Good luck with everything though x
 
Thank you for your help and good wishes all. Discussed it again tonight and vet suggested gel pads as a possibility, depending on what the farrier prefered. He seems to think these will be better then than the heart bars, again would be grateful if anyone had any thoughts on this :o Thank you.
 
My girl had laminitis last year, my farrier put Imprint Shoes on every 3weeks after vet took x-rays. She had 4 sets of these on then heart bars then she was back to normal shoes again.
 
I would also look at imprints - last thing they need is nails in an already pressured and sore foot. My total preference is barefoot with boots and pads, as you can pick up problems sooner - however if he is used to shoes, if they come off, as I found, you wi probably fid he is a lot worse underneath them. I now keep mine barefoot with boots as I can pick up problems so much faster
 
I am in same position my mare was diagnosed weekend 12 july. We box rested her put heart bar shoes on thick bed soaked hay lami feed , then she got out ate barley rings and was in field, few days later she got worse and worse. The farrier came out took one shoe off , vet x ray pedal bone had rotated.

Then her sole droped a bit now sept she is still on bute she has styrofoam pads on still very lame tho one vet said pulse is slightly less not much .

We found her soles dropped after she escaped now her lami is acute. Still lame too :(
 
Having been there, it is hard to do something different to the normal..as you worry you might make the situation worse...or I did! Be guided by your vet and farrier - tempting though it is to get guidance and stories from here, everyone has a different viewpoint and different methods and it all depends on your ponies situation. Go with your farrier and monitor progress and the effect any changes have and take it from there. Good luck.
 
Many thanks for your help all, and Leviathan, I'm very sorry to hear about your mare and hope she improves soon :(

I thought I'd post a bit of an update- pony had equi-pak in his feet last weekend, came off bute on Sunday night and vet saw him on Wednesday, he looked almost 100% fine but a bit careful on the foot still. Back person has seen him and says there's some stiffness in the shoulder of the lame leg, don't know whether that's because of the laminitis or if it was there before and is contributing to the lameness.

Vet suggested starting to walk him as he seemed to improve the longer he was walking, so started walking him for a short time in the school each night. He looks sound in there, but now more sore on turns again (same as he was to start with) and sometimes a bit careful on a straight line on a hard surface, though at other times he'll march along on a hard surface in quite a forward going way and look pretty much fine, though the lame foot is very slightly warmer than the other feet 99% of the time but I can't always find much of a pulse, that seems to be stronger in his hind feet. Due to looking sore again sometimes we're keeping him in until the vet can see him again. He's just been on hi-fi lite but I started him on some Codlivine today (not the joint supplement one) to see if it might help the shoulder stiffness. Apologies for long post :o
 
HiFi mollases free is better than HiFi lite - what else is he being fed? Having the correct diet will make all the difference.
 
That's interesting Erin thank you, I'll have a look at that. He's on a handful of hi-fi lite at either end of the day, at the moment only on a tiny bit of Codlivine as I only started it again this morning, but will build that up, and about 5kg of soaked hay a day. Some days it's more like 5 and a half as he kicks the door if he runs out, so I give him a bit more to stop him doing that. The only other thing he has is a tiny bit of carrot once a day for his Prascend (I forgot to mention he had a blood test and is now on half a Prascend a day instead of one as his levels had improved)
 
I prefer the mollichaff high fibre molasses free as it's got less fillers in - dengie is like floor sweepings... That said I now use speedibeet instead as alfalfa can affect things feet wise.
 
atfs123 said:
That's interesting Erin thank you,
Click to expand...

Only recently discovered that myself! The mollases free has less sugar :)

Does the codlivine cover his vits and mins aswell? Its important that he has a well balanced diet so his feet can be of optimum health (can you tell I've recently been dealing with similar issues! lol) the uknhcp forum is very useful if you want proper advice on feeding for laminitics (I'm still learning!)
 
I found this on the website 'A balanced, broad spectrum, blend of vitamins, minerals and trace elements, together with cod liver oil to optimise health and well being. Based on the finest available grass meal to closely mimic the horse’s natural diet. Bursting with health and vitality - improving coat and hoof condition. No other nutritional supplement will be required. Makes horses feel good on the inside and look good on the outside.' so I think it covers vits and mins etc suitably, he was on it for the first couple of years we had him then he went onto the joint supplement version, which I took him off when I found out he had laminitis as a) I panicked it wouldn't help with his weight as it's oily and b) read that glucosamine isn't ideal for laminitics and it has that in, hence me starting him on the non joint supplement one again. The vet did look at the joint supplement one and say it would be okay though, I did the wrong thing and panicked that I should just be giving him hay and chaff to keep the weight off/ get sugar out of his diet...

He looked a bit stiff tonight in his stable, I don't know if that's because I didn't walk him today, but of course I'm panicking that it's the laminitis worsening after I started walking him in case it was stiffness/ arthritis or suchlike that was causing the lameness. Getting the vet to come again next week.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top