Laminitis - WARNING!!

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carol993

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I just wanted to place a post on here to tell you about my horse, as I feel it may be of benefit to anyone else out there with a lame horse showing very confusing symptoms.
My horse pulled a shoe off in the field about 3 weeks ago. He was a bit lame when he came in, as to be expected I guess. After a few days rest and the shoe being put back on, he remained slightly lame. I called a vet who checked his tendons, legs, shoulders, checked for heat in the feet, pulse and performed pressure tests on both of his feet. All were negative, but he remained lame. A 5 day course of Damilon seemed to improve it and he was sound for 2-3 days after this treatment stopped. Then, literally within hours, his tendons bowed on both legs and he was chronically lame. Another vet visit and more damilon, ice packs and hosing to reduce swelling and a few days later, he is in the vet hospital having eventually been diagnosed with chronic laminitis. There were NO symptoms which would indicate this, the vet is absolutely dumbstruck as this was such an unusual case, especially since he has this condition in only 1 foot! If anyone has any lameness and cannot seem to pinpoint what it is, please take the time to have this investigated. Do NOT discount this devestating illness as being a possible cause just because the symptoms may not point towards it.... My horse has never had this condition before (he is 15) and he has gone from being sound 3 weeks ago, to having detached phlanx. It has taken lots of tests, scans and X-rays today for this to be diagnosed. The prognosis is as yet unknown, all I know is that my beautiful boy's life hangs in the balance. I hope and pray he responds to the aggressive treatment he has to have over the next few days but I hope this helps anyone else amongst us facing anything similar.
 
Thanks for sharing that. Laminitis is such a horrible, debilitating disease. Fingers crossed your boy makes a full recovery ((hugs))
 
I don't think people realise how serious an illness it is and I think they wonder why my horse has a muzzle on all year round, I'm so frightened of him getting it again.
 
So sorry to hear about your boy!

My eldest horse, at 21 yrs lost a shoe in the field (unheard of for him), had no Lami symptoms like your boy, was fit and well and the vet thought he had an absess! After a week of treatment, he took bloods and diagnosed Cushings.

They thought my boy only had it in one foot, but x-rays showed both front feet (not back feet thankfully)... sometimes one foot is much worse than the other, so it presents as one foot only, which is possible too.

We have literally been to hell and back with him, but he has been sound and happy out in the field for 2 years now and just had his 24th birthday which he celebrated with a buck and a gallop around with my other boy.

Lami is truly devastating, but there is hope!
 
Thank you all for your kind words and support. I have had some promising news form the vet, in that my boy has improved after drugs to increase blood supply and after having remedial shoeing (heart bar together with a plastic type material applied to the sole of his foot). He is not out of the woods yet, but has gone from a 3 out of 5 lameness to a 2 after the shoe was put on. I am very hopeful now that he will continue to improve, if he does, then I can get him home on Saturday. It means alot of management and weekly vet checks until the foot has massively improved, but that is a small price to pay to get my horse back. Both feet were x rayed, but it is only one foot that is affected and the vet believes it was a concussion that triggered it. My first experience of this disease first hand, and I hope my last. It is truly heart breaking.
My best wishes to all of you in a similar position and I hope your horses all recover.
 
NOISYGIRL said:
I don't think people realise how serious an illness it is and I think they wonder why my horse has a muzzle on all year round, I'm so frightened of him getting it again.
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Same here :(

OP, Sorry to hear about your boy...(((healingvibes))) on their way..hope he's on the mend very soon
 
Totally feel for you, I nursed my mare for 15 months, the first 3 we had no idea why she had laminitis. She came in footy one night, and I kept her in the next day because of the snow and assuming as it had balled up in her feet it was uncomfortable. Within a few days she could barely stand and was in such pain, it seemed hopeless. We had x-rays and remedial farrier loads of sedalin and bute but no improvement. In the end I kept thinking back to the autumn when I felt something was not quiet right and I wondered if she had Cushing's even though she was only 15. My Vet was great and agreed to put her on the Pergolide trial even though all blood tests had come back negative, I felt we had nothing to loose as my mare was probably going to die anyway. Within a week she began to improve, it was then a very very long and slow journey to full recovery, but 19 months later she is now out in the paddock in the day and totally sound, and ironically it was only after 5 blood tests and 19 months that we finally got the Cushing's confirmed.

She still does not really look like what you think a horse with Cushing's should look like, the only real signs to me were fat pads above her eyes, looking very old, pot bellied, no energy and she was drinking and peeing a lot. It is life changing for you and the horse having laminitis, and I feel like it is still a time bomb waiting to go off.
 
I treated my lad for the best part of three weeks for an abcess that the vet and remedial farrier were convinced was there as he was only lame in one front. After nearly 3 weeks of poulticing with nothing appearing he went in for an xray to find he had laminitis and rotation in the front hoof that was bad.
Whilst he was treated for the 'abcess' he had been allowed to potter around outside in a small area outside his stable...if we had treated for laminitis to begin with and stabled him, he may not have had the severity of laminitis it was.
So it is difficult to diagnose sometimes and people get things wrong I guess...but if in doubt now my lad would be stabled straight away.
I hope you horse makes a full recovery - as my lad has, take care and good luck.
 
Thanks for all your comments. A quick update...Divo has had 3 weekly check up visits from the vet and on each one, improvement has been seen. He has been stabled on very deep, small shavings to provide a soft surface and one which provides a bit of extra foot support in addition to his alluminium heart bar shoes over a spongey plastic type pad. He is in good spirits and although he is not out of danger yet (he is due for a further x ray in a few weeks) he is standing normally most of the time, the heat has pretty much gone from the affected foot and he is moving about without any problems. The hardest thing is keeping him occupied, but he does seem to be adapting to life in a 12 x 12 very well. Another word of advice regarding this ....INSURANCE!!! So far, his treatment has cost £1740 and there is more to come. If you don't have any, think really hard about getting some!!! These things can happen no matter how well you look after your horses and treatment is so unbelievably expensive, it could mean the difference between your horse living or being PTS.
ALSO....I am thinking of getting Divo a hoof boot for when he is allowed to go for short walks...does anyone have any experience of the Cavallo or Easiboot RX? I would appreciate any advice.... Thanks so much to all of you for your kind comments.
 
Agreed it is a vicious thing. My girly gets sore feet after a few hours in with sheep (well grazed small field).

I like you , was left with a crippled pony after she cast a shoe - and the farrier didn't have time to shoe her again as he was off on hols. She had been totally sound in shoes, so they totally masked the lami. I'm certain her pedal bone had rotated. Without shoes and good remdial footcare she is sound as a pound with no rotation.

If I didn't have a bare field I would have to shoe her to keep her comfy, but it's why I always cringe when people shoe because they are footy - it's risky IMHO.
 
MY mare too has never had laminitis she went lame over the weekend of 12 july when i was away. Came back to a lame horse , as you did we treated for tendon then abscess finally xray last week laminitus off fore.

had blood test result this monday neg for cushings 75% ok for insulin. vet isnt worried cut out all treats wet hay just fibergy and little bran for supplements. Got farrier billy Crothers ( 5 time world champion) put special shoes on her. she has her good days and bad..

she is on deep bed of comfy bed.


Do any of yours have good days and bad days when they are a little lame in recovery??? She is on 2 prodynam sachets a day



I have decided to cut out all supplements except joint one.

This is new to me. I was taught about it in training, but actually treating a horse with it is so different to text books.
 
KARO said:
Totally feel for you, I nursed my mare for 15 months, the first 3 we had no idea why she had laminitis. She came in footy one night, and I kept her in the next day because of the snow and assuming as it had balled up in her feet it was uncomfortable. Within a few days she could barely stand and was in such pain, it seemed hopeless. We had x-rays and remedial farrier loads of sedalin and bute but no improvement. In the end I kept thinking back to the autumn when I felt something was not quiet right and I wondered if she had Cushing's even though she was only 15. My Vet was great and agreed to put her on the Pergolide trial even though all blood tests had come back negative, I felt we had nothing to loose as my mare was probably going to die anyway. Within a week she began to improve, it was then a very very long and slow journey to full recovery, but 19 months later she is now out in the paddock in the day and totally sound, and ironically it was only after 5 blood tests and 19 months that we finally got the Cushing's confirmed.

She still does not really look like what you think a horse with Cushing's should look like, the only real signs to me were fat pads above her eyes, looking very old, pot bellied, no energy and she was drinking and peeing a lot. It is life changing for you and the horse having laminitis, and I feel like it is still a time bomb waiting to go off.
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My horse had "intermittent lameness" when he was 14, turned out to be laminitis, rotated pedal bones (he was pretty tough!), we eventually found the cause to be Cushings. The good news is that , with pergolide (wonder drug for him) he lived for 10 more happy years.

He had no other symptoms of cushings for many years, luckily it did show on the test.

What I learnt was that intermittent lameness or lameness in hind feet/ one foot CAN be laminitis and laminitis is very often caused by problems other than grass. I think it is more common than we realise :(
 
Right further update:

Had a long chat with the Laminitis help line ( gawd knows what the bill will be £ 1 per minute )

They advised I buy bedmax ( which i don't like hard to muck out ) . So have bought some and left 2 inches Comfy bed as a base , she advised the bed to be 1 ft deep.

Also added one of the Laminitis feeds on their web site, I have gone for happy hooves .


also speedy beet 200 grams in each feed

also she recommends formula4feet to help repair damage this is by http://www.equilife.co.uk/

also soaked hay for a max 1 hr in total NO LONGER
divided up

4 lbs am 4lbs lunch 9 lbs eve or

3 lbs am 3lbs lunch 10 lbs eve

she is 16 hands so small obviously less

And says horses SHOULD NOT come out their boxes till they are off bute totally for 1 month .

I thought I would share this as was an expensive phone call , but not as bad if others can benefit from it .:D
 
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I too don't think that people realise how dangerous and devastating Lammi is.

My Section D mare has EMS ans managing her is a constant battle. She has problems with her feet and currently is off work due to an on-going problem with her back. This is being investigated and worked on, should know more on this Friday.

My youngest Section A yesterday came in hopping lame behind. It's hard to pin point which hind leg it is but it looks high up. I'm not ruling lammi out though. This is the first time ever he has been lame (he's 5yrs now and I have had him since he was 7months) but there has been so many cases of lammi recently I really wouldn't be surprised if it is :(

xxx
 
:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:just got back from the bank and my horse had got out and was in field . I forgot to put the pin in the bars and she got the top one down .:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(
 
This has just happened to my youngster, is only lame on 1 foot was looking like an abcess, she had xrays y'day and they have spotted lami! :confused:

My other pony has had lami bad yrs ago but my:confused: mare has shown no signs of lami, its been brought on by stress we thing

Hope your neddy gets sorted
 
Hope everyone's horses get better soon. After one horse having it and being pretty much permanently over-sensitive thereafter, I treat any lameness, however slight, by bringing in off the grass and soaked hay. My theory is that box rest for a little while will fix most things that aren't immediately obvious, and also covers lami worries. If the lameness doesn't improve, we get the vet of course - but always better to be safe than sorry on the laminitis front!
 
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