Laminitis - why is she getting worse?

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CazD

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My pony has EMS. She went slightly lame on Thursday and I rang the vet on Friday morning. he prescribed a deep bed, Metformin and Bute and said if she did not improve over the weekend he would need to come out. He came out yesterday and apart from the laminitis, he discovered a small hole in her frog of her back foot, not sure how deep. She is now on Bute, Metformin, and injected antibiotics. This morning she is a whole lot worse and can hardly walk. Vet is going to come out today to do x rays.

I'm besides myself. Why would she be getting worse?
 
How horrid for you, my mare had similar - the frog gradually crumbling out and getting more and more drawn back and less deep rotting away. Vet told me to spray her frog with these tablets which froth up Metronidazole
and then spray foot rot blue spray http://www.msd-animal-health.co.uk/products_public/engemycin_spray/010_overview.aspxyzine . it took a while as she had e coli and - streptococci (scuse spelling) - and one other can't remember don't use peroxide.

You need to get that gunge out
 
Hi. Sorry to hear about your pony.

Easier said than done, but try not too worry. It might be she has developed an aces which obviously can make them very lame. Fingers crossed for you
 
Hi. She has been tested for cushings and EMS. She has EMS. She has been getting just soaked hay since last Thursday and a small amount of fast fibre with her meds. I'm frantic. Nearly lost our other girl last month to a guttural pouch infection and now this!
 
Could you get your farrier to look at the hole. Vet missed a hawthorn in my boys foot. Farrier found it within minutes. Hope she improves
 
A friend of mine has a horse with EMS. If he gets so much as a hint of laminitis, even just raised pulses which are dealt with as soon as they appear, he then abcesses. Is it possible that you're also dealing with an abcess?
 
Often they get worse before they get better with lami, more so in the early days. Definitely get her xrayed and go from there. Iet us know how you get on x
 
Hope she gets better. Only feed well soaked (at least 1 hour) hay but let her have a slice every 4 hours 24/7 to keep her gut moving.
 
its a little odd though, if its an abcess then you would think the bute would help to take the mask the pain - but of course the issue is that it may not burst...would want the vet and farrier out - can you x-ray on site?
 
Mmmm, I think abcesses are REALLY painful. When my horse had one i thought he'd broken his leg as he wouldn't put any weight on it, I'm not sure bute would deal with the pain that well. Hopefully OP it is an abcess and once the gunk has come out the pain goes miraculously.
Handsome Jack said:
its a little odd though, if its an abcess then you would think the bute would help to take the mask the pain - but of course the issue is that it may not burst...would want the vet and farrier out - can you x-ray on site?
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BlackVelvet said:
Often they get worse before they get better with lami, more so in the early days. Definitely get her xrayed and go from there. Iet us know how you get on x
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This. I highly recommend Metaslim by Simple System. Whilst my mare was on box rest & restricted soaked hay, she was on this & looked fab. Lami is a long haul recovery-wise & you have to remember they can get stiff with box rest, which in the early days exacerbates the lameness.
 
Vet came out today and x rayed her front feet. The results show she has some rotation and sinking in both feet, although I'm not sure how much as I haven't seen the x ray results. The vet and my farrier are going to speak tomorrow to decide the best course of action. The back foot has a puncture wound in the frog. That leg also has raised pulses. The vet seems to think the raised pulse in that leg is something to do with the wound rather than lami in the back feet too.
 
oh my goodness poor girl and poor you. Great that your vet and farrier are talking together though. Hope they have some good news for you tomorrow x x
 
Oh no! Laminitis is awful. Icing her feet (eg soaking in a bucket with icy water) is great for pain relief - I have seen studies on the effectiveness of this and it helps my little Shetland when he gets laminitis. The bute will be reducing the inflammation but doesn't ever seem to help laminitis pain.
It sounds like you are paying close attention to her diet which is crucial to prevent it from getting worse. It feels cruel but it's much better to really limit the sugars while in a bout of laminitis (just ensure she is getting at least 1% of her body weight so she doesn't get fatty liver). I do apologise if you know all this already, which I am sure you do!

I'm so glad the vet and farrier are working together. After the pedal bone has moved the foot needs to be trimmed in a completely different way to keep her comfortable.

She's lucky to have such a caring mum. Keep us posted :)
 
CazD said:
I don't feel like a caring mum - I feel like the worst mum in the world.
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You are definitely being a good mum! It sounds like you are doing everything you possibly can for her. Remember that even top racehorses (who get the best possible care imaginable) can get laminitis. It's one of those awful frustrating conditions, but you are giving her everything she needs which is the most important thing right now.
 
CazD said:
I don't feel like a caring mum - I feel like the worst mum in the world. I know the EMS doesn't help but I feel like its my fault she is in such pain.
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Don't say that - your doing as the vet and farrier say, and you have them involved looking out for her. I wish you well with your mare, my journey ended bad after a year and a half loosing my mare of a life time to laminits (as Wagtail etc know)

What did vet say about the puncture?? do you have to poultice??


Best thing you can do is listen to vet and farrier and be prepared for round the clock care, deep bed 24hr soaked hay as you know already. I had a system going where I had 4 sections hay soaking at anyone time all at different timing and rinsed before I gave it. So when it came to it it had soaked 24 hrs.

I brought a massage pad to keep her muscle toned though she still lost muscles. I also had a sports massage person in to treat her while she was on box rest.

I have collected many things from H&H on the website which are OK for Laminitics if you care to look. http://horse-care-and-advice.weebly.com/horses-on-box-rest.html

The other tip I was given is to put them on Equimins Laminator, my vet okay-ed it as it helps the bloods flow when it is restricted in the foot. http://www.equimins-online.com/all-products/74-equimins-laminator-supplement-pellets.html

These are very good for cooling the heat down
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Finn-Tack...454?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item2326eed046

These are a new thing and have no experience with them > http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DJM-SOLE-...t=LH_DefaultDomain_3&var=&hash=item27f7f0e26e


I also brought this from the states when my mare was going through Lamintis, shipping was quick >>http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ICE-HORSE...712?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2586853ca8
 
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OP I am so sorry. EMS or cushings induced laminitis is always so hard to keep at bay. I battled for two years with my mare before finally losing the battle. She was never on box rest for long as her laminitis was chronic but mild and she had no rotation or sinking, but she had to be kept very slim, even ribby to keep it at bay and the longer it went on, the less I could feed her. In the end I finally got her comfortable in heart bar shoes (which I hate, but by then we had exhausted all other avenues) and at least her final days were spent having a hooly in the field. Sadly she redid an old shoulder tendon injury which would have needed a long period of box rest on very meagre rations. I just couldn't put her through it, knowing that she would never again be able to just be a horse. Letting her go was the most painful thing I have ever had to do. But it was the only humane thing to do.

I hope that you have more luck with your mare. Vets will keep on trying, but I have a much more pessimistic view on the condition than I did, obviously. In your shoes, I would probably try for a limited time, but would want to see a good improvement in the xrays if I were to persist. I wish you and your mare every bit of luck possible and will keep my fingers crossed for you. xx
 
I'm pretty certain that if she has an abscess then the stress of the infection and the contributing pain could be triggering the laminitis. I'd make sure the foot is poulticed/tubbed as often as possible so you can get the laminitis under control.
 
Hi. I am feeling really bad too as my boy got laminitis last summer after lymhangitis after I thought I had done everything to stop it. The grass is coming through now again and I don't know what else I can do to stop it happening again he was slim, on soaked hay, a track system of turn out and in during the day last year. I feel I have failed him as I took him on to give him a better life. My vet just bangs on and on about how at risk he is. I bloody know !!!! I think he is on the verge again at the moment and I feel helpless. I don't have and can't get a grass free turn out area. I think laminitis is one of those things you always feel you should have done something different.
 
JLD said:
Hi. I am feeling really bad too as my boy got laminitis last summer after lymhangitis after I thought I had done everything to stop it. The grass is coming through now again and I don't know what else I can do to stop it happening again he was slim, on soaked hay, a track system of turn out and in during the day last year. I feel I have failed him as I took him on to give him a better life. My vet just bangs on and on about how at risk he is. I bloody know !!!! I think he is on the verge again at the moment and I feel helpless. I don't have and can't get a grass free turn out area. I think laminitis is one of those things you always feel you should have done something different.
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I have a laminitis prone, and I know how difficult it can be to keep them right.

I also think that you've got to look at the quality of the horse's life, if a horse would be miserable confined in a tiny grass free patch, then I'd rather keep them happy mentally and as well as I could with the facilities that I have and allow them to be euthanised if they did become incurably laminitic.

Sometimes you can't stop it, it is such a complicated disease, but providing you are doing the best that you can with the facilities that you have then you have nothing to feel guilty about. Doing all the right things doesn't always save them sadly.
 
Get your horses checked out for emerging encysted small red worm which will require a blood test. They can cause an infection which results in Laminitis.
 
please stop the fast fibre!!! I have seen this give laminitis to another pony who had been lami free for several years!

You just need a molasses free chaff baileys do one!

You need to eliminate all sugar

Lost of support to the foot, your farrier may have to come out and put on heart bars and put in equipak to support the pedal bone

But you need to clear out the abcesses first which will be hard

Good luck!!! It does take a bit of time to get the toxins OUT of the horse

The old fashioned James Herriot way was to 'bleed' the horse for lami and that did address the immediate issue of the toxins as of course the horse would remake clean blood cells therefore diluting the toxins in the blood. We have stopped that! But eating just soaked hay and non sugar chaff will help get the toxins out the guts
 
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