Laminitis - or is it? Advice needed please

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sue_ellen

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I will try and make this as short as possible - apologies in advance if it becomes rather rambling!

Charmer is a 12 yr old section B gelding. He is my daughters pride and joy and has always had plenty of ridden work and a varied lifestyle.
We have owned him for nearly 3 years.
When he first came to us he was barefoot and we were able to keep him this way until we moved yards last June. There is a lot more road work here and within a week he became "footy" and had a raised pulse. We had shoes fitted, under advice from farrier who we know well and trust, and all was well again.
We kept him shod until December 2012 when, again with the approval of our farrier, we had his shoes removed as because of the winter weather he was really only doing a small amount of work in the school.
We wondered if we were careful, he would be able to remain barefoot, as he seemed to be coping and my daughter was careful to only walk him when doing road work.

During the first week of April he went lame with heat in the front off foot and a strong digital pulse.
Had the vet straight out, she said laminitis, bute and boxrest. I was gutted as we are so careful with him and he is definitely not overweight, and we hadnt got any grass at all at that time.
She said it was probably caused by trauma from being ridden on the roads with no shoes.

I have followed her instructions to the letter. After 2 weeks boxrest we very carefully started to walk him in hand in the sand school for 5 mins twice a day. After a few days the heat and pulse returned so we had to do the whole bute and boxrest thing again.
On her instructions we started to work him as above when he became sound again. This time my daughter was able to progress to 10 minutes riding with 1 long side of trot on each rein, then back came the heat and the pulse, this was a week ago.

I spoke to the vet on the phone last week ( we have spoken several times as I wanted to make sure I was doing the right things), and she suddenly said that she was wondering whether it was laminitis after all, and to do the same as we had done the previous two times, and then if he becomes lame again to do nerve blocks and x-rays, she thinks it could be a build up of fluid or pus in the hoof instead.
My daughter is getting quite upset now and does not want to try and ride him again until we know for sure what the problem is.
I have been trying to get hold of the vet to see if we can go ahead with x-rays without waiting for him to go lame again. Also my farrier has said that if it is laminitis we shouldnt be working him too soon.
Do you think I should push for x-rays, as this is what I am thinking is my best course of action, especially as now it seems I havent got a definite diagnosis, and Charmer is getting fed up of being in the stable!

Has any one got any experience of any thing like this? The vet has now planted in my head the thought that it may not be laminitis after all. If not, what could be causing the intermittent lameness, it is only in the one front foot.

Thank you for reading, any experiences, thoughts and opinions would be very gratefully recieved!
 
Could be Lami that is causing gas pockets in the hoof capsule which is causing him to be lame/sound intermittently..
I would really be pushing for X-rays now as you need to see what is going on in the hoof..
And also have the pony tested for EMS/IR..I think they are still doing the free Cushings test vouchers on the Laminitis site..
 
I think it sounds very like laminitis, I can do plenty of roadwork with my unshod laminitic without it triggering a laminitic episode and I suspect that the change of yards and therefore grazing, combined with the stress of a move that could well be the likely culprit in starting things off.

They can take several months to become comfortable and sound after a laminitis attack, the new well connected laminae has to grow down and any damage due to working too soon will hold the whole thing up. You say you had no grazing, but if by that you mean a bare paddock then these can be full of stressed sugary grass which can trigger laminitis.
They can also be prone to abscesses after a bout of laminitis as the gunk builds up from the damage inside the hoof, which might be an issue.

If I were you I'd not do ridden exercise for a few weeks and once you start again then monitor pulses after every session after a sufficient rest period. If they are raised then it is telling you that you are overdoing things and need to ease off. Patience will pay dividends in the long run.
 
Thanks for the replies. Yes we are doing the soaked hay, approved feed thing. I am going to phone them now and book x-rays.
 
sue_ellen said:
Thanks for the replies. Yes we are doing the soaked hay, approved feed thing. I am going to phone them now and book x-rays.
Click to expand...

Brilliant re soaked hay. Make sure it is for plenty of time and not just an hour and rinse with clean water when you remove from soak.

Re 'approved feed' - if that means has a laminitis trust sticker then I would caution that it's not generally all its cracked up to be and has been known to cause footiness in some.

Visit ecirhorse.com for some good dietary advice that works as well as more information on cushings and insulin resistance.

Healthy hooves are capable of many miles of roadwork, including fast work without issue. What roadwork can do is hightlight a hoof which is not in good condition.

Do you have any photos you can post?
 
Sounds far more like an abscess - has your farrier had a poke around - generally laminitis will affect the feet in pairs so it's strange that the vet has diagnosed laminitis.

What you describe is just what an abscess will do - come and go and may eventually pop out the heel or the coronary band.
 
I second the diet for laminitis. Imho mixes/compound feeds are not worth the risk. A straight low sugar/starch carrier for minerals and vitamin E etc. is a better way to go I strongly believe. It does sound like laminitis and I think continuing to treat him as such is worth doing until the picture is clearer.
How long are you soaking the hay and are you rinsing it?

Something that jumps out at me is the problems starting with a change of environment/yard. Grass is not created equal and the grass (or even water) in his current yard may be a factor.
 
I would be pushing for answers by now. It could be lami caused by trauma, or malnutrition - this doesn't mean that you're not feeding him properly.. It could be that his guts aren't functioning as well as they used to. Lami can be caused in ponies that aren't overweight when food is insufficiently digested in the small intestines & is then moved to the large intestine to be digested by fermentation, because this produces toxins which build up & are then forced through into the bloodstream, where they eventually meet the sensitive laminae in the feet & cause them to react.
I'm not saying it is definitely lami but I am rather unnerved that your vet encouraged you to work him again so soon after a possible diagnosis of it. My little girl came down with lami in Aug 2012 - she had all 4 feet x-rayed & they found pedal bone rotation in all 4. She had 2 months' box rest in a full stable of shavings, crash diet (because yes, mine was fat) & heartbar shoes in Oct 2012 so she could be turned out again. Only recently have we started gently bringing her back into work & most of that is lunging.
I don't understand why your vet was so quick to tell you to start working him again & I would advise you box rest him until they give you a proper answer, to make sure no further damage is caused inside his feet.
Good luck & I hope it turns out to be nothing serious :)
 
Oh & she still has heartbar shoes on now, otherwise the farrier would have advised us not to work her at all yet. We still have to make sure she shows no signs of lameness after being worked, even with heartbar shoes.
My point being, there can be a lot more damage than there appears to be. Please don't risk his long-term health?
 
Thanks so much for the replies and advice everyone.
X-rays are booked for tomorrow afternoon.
Thanks for the website lucypriory, will have a look at that in a minute.
 
That's good. It might be worth a blood test to look at ems or cushings.
If you want any feed advice pm me. I have a ems horse who we found our through lami attack.

My vets always want to X-ray when lami is diagnosed.
 
Is he also getting turn out every time he comes off box rest? It does sound like laminitis, but then it does also sound like an abscess, I'm surprised your vet didn't say to poultice him. Mine all had raised pulses in April, the grass didn't look like it was growing but it was! So I doubled up on the mag ox and exercised and they've been fine since. Mine are all barefoot too. Have you had him tested for cushings?
 
Hi, when my Welsh D had 'a problem' it was only in one foot, so on vet instructions we treated for abbcess - 3 weeks later and no abscess appearing and the xrays showed it was laminitis with slight rotation. So really, I would have been better treating him for laminitis from the start and box resting etc so it did not progress to actual rotation.
I would get the xrays done and then you know what you are dealing with - if laminitis then you need to box rest until sound and then go careful about gradual turnout before even thinking about walking out or work.
I let my lad have 2 months in a restricted grass field when sound before introducing any work again.
It is all perfectly fixable though so try not to worry until you have the xrays.
 
Laminitis can be caused by so many different things. Take a look at the Laminitis Trust Web site. http://www.laminitis.org/
Get a referral to a specialist Equine Vet Hospital were all the tests can be carried out in one go and you can get a proper diagnosis.
Then you will know what is at the root of the problem.
 
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