Laminitis - Need advices :)

[Caroline2123]

Hello everyone, I'm here to get some advices on how to proceed and what to do so I can help better my horse.
My native language isn't English so I'm sorry in advance for the mistakes.

For the background : My horse is a small horse, criollo style, with a past of malnutrition and abuses until his 5 years old, when I got him. My horse was extremely skinny, and I did the mistake to feed him a lot for him to get back in shape, which alternatively made him obese, but after his first laminitis crises he kept his weight under control, he isn't fit neither as he is not being worked/muscle trained, but he isn't fat neither. he lives in a big pasture, with other horses, he has grazer on most of the time during spring days and mostly pasture rotation, and when the grass is too sweet, he returns to the stable.

First laminitis crisis at the age of 10, the vet told me it was because he was overweight. I made him loose weight, he was alright after that, complemented him with some natural products and was being careful each years. changed stables and went to a more caring one with possibility to put him in a stable when needed.

Second laminitis crisis at the age of 14, the worst one, happened during the lockdown, 2 weeks after a pasture rotation where the meadow was really rich and sweet, my horse had been taking off his grazer during the night, there was a rotation of the phalanx of all of his hoofs, he didn't walk for a month. he then after a month had piroplasmosis, and then after few weeks He did another mini crisis, when he was starting to recover, and then had 2 abcess. During all that time he was in a stable, getting out everyday depending on how much he could, either walk a bit or just going out of the stables for few meters. This was in between April 2020 and August 2020. So difficult year for him. He went through, the vet told me again he was fat and that was the only reason. If it's any help, he is 157cm tall, and he had a weight of 450kg.

Third begin of "laminitis crisis" 3 weeks ago, age 15, my horse is not fat, the vet admitted it this time, but told me he is a "fake fat", meaning that he has low muscle because he is on retirement and not being worked, and that it's the reason now, he doesn't do exercices so he got laminitis. The crisis had been caught super early so my horse is now walking really good, feeling way better, but I still don't put him with the others, he is in the stable, and walk once a day + go with some horse on a "dusty" paddock where he can enjoy a bit for few hours his friends.

Now I'm being a bit clueless about how to understand this. I can understand that my horse doesn't do much, but as a lot of other horses, so there might be something happening inside of him that makes him get laminitis "easily". I thought of SEM and Cushing, my vet was kind of saying No. So I asked a blood test and here are the results :

Now Cushing is out of the picture from the results. From what I understood, the T4 blood test had been taking wrong because no prep had been done, we didn't do sugar intake then the shot etc.... he just took the blood like that. However, the blood result are so bad... And now my vet tells me to try some medicine for the liver. I live in the countryside, with mostly cow vets around me. He is my only ressource and until then he has been a huge help and I always believed in him. But I feel now that he might be clueless or doesn't want to get too much into and I want to understand what's wrong and how I can help my horse. I know him and I feel something is wrong and I can't seem to understand what it is... My vet is kind of in the blur I believe and makes me "try" things without really looking out for the results or how to get him better...

So here I am, what you guys would advise me to do ? If any of you have some understanding of blood test, how do you understand those ? And mostly, do you know any vet that I could contact virtually to have a good understanding and feedback about how to interpret those results, what to do next etc..
I can put the amount of money that is needed for him to get better, I'm ok to try things out, but I really need help to understand what's going on..

Thank you so much in advance, I'm a bit lost

PS: the results aren't in English, but I believe a lot are similar, let me know if something is not clear

 

[Caroline2123]

I post this if needed, his X Ray

 

[Meowy Catkin]

*bump*

Hopefully people with more experience of Laminitis than I have will reply soon.

 

[Caroline2123]

@

*bump*

Hopefully people with more experience of Laminitis than I have will reply soon.

thanks it’s a looooong message, need to be patient for people to read all of this do you have a laminitis horse ?

 

[CanteringCarrot]

You could ask an equine clinic for opinion and guidance based off of the results. Is there a good one where you're from? Or one that maybe has a vet with a good reputation in field of metabolic issues. Maybe research the internet a bit and read through some info on the clinic websites. Where abouts are you?

Some horses are just more sensitive than others too, or sort of prone to certain ailments.

I'm not an expert on EMS or Cushings but have an EMS type horse, in that he is fatty and often doesn't take much feed. He's too fat at the moment, but he can be exercised.

Some horses also just cannot be on grass, or can only be on very sparse grass, with a muzzle, at certain times in the day.

I also feed mine Magnesium Oxide and it helps with his fat pads.

Without exercise it is very difficult to manage these types.

Is he only eating grass at the moment?

 

[Meowy Catkin]

No, I've not had much experience with it. One of mine had a very mild case that was caught very early.

I have a neighbour who has a Shetland pony that has really struggled with laminitis but the pony has been diagnosed with PPID, IR and EMS. She has Pracend which helped get her ACTH levels under control. I know that she is doing well at the moment but she doesn't get turned out on grass at all currently. Luckily there is a grass free turnout area available and she has hay which is tested to make sure it is suitable for her to eat.

 

[HappyHollyDays]

I have one pony that has had laminitis albeit very mildly and my other pony has EMS. The one with laminitis was my fault, I let him get a bit fat so now he is slim and it has never reoccurred. Once he was sound he went swimming to shift the weight instead of being ridden as it’s less stress on the feet. The EMS pony is not fat, he is 153cms and 460kg but as soon as the grass starts to grow and is full of sugar it triggers the spikes in insulin and his stomach bloats and his sheath swells to the size of a small melon. His sister had unmanagable EMS and had to be PTS so I micro manage him all summer and so far aged 11 he has never had laminitis.

His routine is if he goes out on grass he wears a muzzle. He only goes out for a maximum of 5 hours a day in summer. If it is sunny and we have had rain the grass will be packed with sugar so he doesn’t go out at all but goes into a sand paddock instead. Every single thing that goes in his mouth is low starch, low sugar and low iron with a combined % of less than 10. Every blade of hay he eats is soaked and rinsed to reduce the sugar content. I feed him a liver supplement which contains milk thistle to reduce the toxins in the liver. A good liver function is vital. He is worked harder in the summer to keep his lymphatic system working which in turn reduces the swelling. He is stabled on shavings as he has very thin soles and it is more supportive for his feet, he doesn’t wear shoes. It’s hard work and was a steep learning curve.

There is so much more with diet, exercise, different types of grass, when to graze them, what not to feed them, supplements, the list goes on and I’m happy to answer any questions if I can. I haven’t looked at the attachments yet but will do so and there are other people on here who have a far better knowledge than I do on the subject. The only thing I will say is your vet is correct about supporting and cleansing the liver, it is very important as it rids the body of the toxins which if they build up can trigger laminitis.

 

[alibali]

Hi, I'm sorry you're horse is struggling with this horrible disease. Here are some UK websites which you might be able to contact to get the advice you need.

https://www.thelaminitissite.org/

http://www.laminitisclinic.org/

I hope they help.

 

[HappyHollyDays]

The xrays show quite long toes and you really need to get your Farrier to shorten them. By bringing the toe back it will alter the angles taking pressure off the pedal bone which as you already know has rotation. Long toes stretch the laminae which have already been weakened by the previous episodes so it is important that feet are short, heels are low and angles correct. A good Farrier will be able to read your xrays and trim accordingly so show them to him if you haven’t already.

I can see why your vet has pinpointed the liver function as the Gamma GT level and the LDH level are higher than they should be. A high level of cholesterol can indicate that the cells in the body are no longer responding to the insulin correctly. High protein levels in horses can be seen as excessive sweating and spooking and can be caused by eating things like clover. No idea what type of pasture you are on but it turns my EMS pony into a shivering sweating wreck and a danger to ride.

It is always very difficult to advise from afar because you have the whole picture and we on the forum don’t. It is also a bit of a myth that only fat ponies get EMS, some breeds are predisposed to it and if the animal is so sensitive then laminitis is incredibly difficult to avoid.

There are several good liver supplements on sale here in UK but I don’t know if they export so if you can find some milk thistle it would be a start to improving the liver function.

I hope some of this has helped.

 

[meleeka]

Is it possible to get a specialist equine vet from further away? it’s very common to get false negative tests with PPID. A vet really needs to take a TRH Stimulation blood test for more accurate results. Can you ask your vet for that,
or even a trial of Prascend for a month and see if it helps?

The fact that your horse isn’t fat and is into his teens makes makes me think cushings is likely.