Laminitis

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Fudgiefoo

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Tell me all you know. I have never had to deal with it and want to know about treatments, recovery time, management and long term prospect.

My mare is 21 years old. I've had her 15 years and she's never had it before. She was a good doer but this winter I have struggled with keeping weight on her. I had got to the point that I was going to have her blood tested due to her weight loss/lack of gain but managed to get 30kg on.

Her diet was ablib hay (she'd eat 14kg when out daytime & 18 kg when in 24hrs) and 2 feeds a day of Alfa A, feed balancer, sugar beet & pony nuts.

When the snow came this time I swopped her onto haylage as it was difficult to soak hay with all the ice. She was stabled from the Wed the snow came down till Saturday last week with only 2 hrs out in total. She came down with laminitis on Saturday.

The vet's treatment for the first week (she's due back on Mon) is bute & acp (sedaline). She has improved a little but still seems uncomfortable and shuffling.

I've tried to cut her hay back to 12 kg in 24 hrs but she's finished her net in an hour and is looking for the next one.

Thank you very much
 
Has she had haylage before? depending on what grass it is, it might be that. Ive got a pony now started with lami at the age of 2 and is 15 now.

Anything used to start her off, hard feeds, herbs, etc she couldnt have at all. She still cant have any mollased products

Speedi beet is reccommended for lami ponies, I use it with hi-fi light or such and plenty of garlic.

Hope she improves soon
 
Has she been tested for cushings? If not, I would get that done asap. If positive she will need pergolide treatment.
Is she now on a full bed? It MUST go all the way to the door and leave no part of the stable floor uncovered.
Hay must be soaked, the longer the better (12 hours min as a rule) to let the sugars leach out. Double net it or get a net with smaller holes. It will last longer that way.
Treatment is dependant on the animal. Some do better than others.
How big is she and how much bute is she getting? she may need a bit more to be comfortable.
 
in addition to the things already mentioned i use thermatex leg wraps on my lami pony when the temp drops to freezing overnight. they help improve the circulation to the feet on cold nights which is important for laminitics
 
Which type of lami? There are 5!

stress lami
mechanical lami
steroidal lami
cushings/ebs lami
fat pony lami

All are slightly different in treatment

However your vet and farrier should be working together very closely!

You mustn't starve your lami! You need to flush out the toxins from her blood which are causing the lami. People are often quite surprised the amount of soaked hay you need to feed!
 
Sorry to hear your mare has lami.

Firstly Cushings must be a consideration at her age, so get your vet to test for it.

Secondly and more immediately a thick bed, soaked hay (no haylage), cut out the Alfa-a as it contains molasses. It's very likely the pony nuts do too, you can check on the white label fastened to the top or bottom of the bag. Also check your sugar beet is the unmolassed type. Also check what's in your feed balancer.

Thirdly get hold of a copy of this book http://www.amazon.co.uk/Founder-Preventi...4332&sr=8-2
It's saved many horses from laminitis (founder is the US terminology)

I hope your mare feels better soon.
 
My little shetland is in with Laminitis too
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He last had a bout 8 years ago, and I thought I'd got his management sussed!
He'll be in on a deep bed with ad lib very old hay for 30 days AfTER he is sound on hard ground.

Vet seems think the freezing ground has caused it.

My management is..... He is out ( normally from 4pm until 7am NEVER on frosty grass) he is on a track system which runs around a 4 acre field with his friends:)
He is fed ad lib old hay when in during the day.
Two feeds of handfull of Lucie Stalks, couple of handfulls ofDengie Alfalfa pellets soaked with half a scoop of very watered down speedi-beet.
Linseed, seaweed, brewers yeast as supplements.

I have had him tested for Cushings, but it came back negative, however vet says this is common even if they show signs which he is ( belly, dipped back and sweating even in this weather!

Best of luck, its a lifetime change!!
 
My old mare had it for the first time aged 20, she wasn't overweight. I think maybe something happens as they get older with the metabolism or hormones?. She had frog supports bandaged on until the blacksmith could put heartbar shoes on her which did help a lot. My vet also gives laminitics metacam as well as bute and sedalin. She also told me to give her 18mg aspirin/kg every other day for 3 treatments and a treaspoon of cinnamon as it helps somehow too.
It does seem to becoming less of the 'fat pony' disease that it used to be as there are many more reasons as to why it happens.
It is difficult as like your pony mine would eat her hay and then beg for more.
We did think my 3 year old had it at the beginning of the week, caused by the frozen ground but I think she just had sore feet from a combination of poached/frozen ground and thin soles.
 
My 18 year old Arab has had 3 bouts of laminitis. He is more susceptible in the winter so I have been very careful this year with all the frost and snow. Although he has recently had a bit of a pulse in one foot I think i caught it in time. He is not a good doer so it is difficult to keep condition on him but not overfeed. He is on Alfa A Oil, Spillers Low -Cal nuts (which I put in a play ball in the stable so it occupies him for a while), Pink Powder and garlic. He looks good on this. He has had turn-out limited to 3 hours a day (with hay on the field) during the cold weather. As he has Cushings he is on Pergolide. It's a nuisance but they can recover - we are still winning and being placed in dressage.
 
We have had a lot of cases of "lami" over the last couple of weeks mainly due to the change in the weather ie snow/hard frost . Cushings is the most likely cause however your farrier can and will make the biggest difference , the hooves need to be trimmed asap to the correct angle and a pair of imprint shoes can change a horse from 9/10th lame to less than a 10th in less than 24hrs , the laminitus trust do a great supp, for cushings , its really good and is quite cheap (can,t remember name at the moment . hope this helps .
 
Poor you, as someone said it may be worth having her tested for Cushings, however if there are no other symptoms I doubt that that is the problem.

There have been oodles of cases of laminitis recently so try not to feel too bad about it.

First I would try and settle her hindgut to prevent any more toxins leaking into her system, a probiotic/prebiotic is a good idea and feed ad lib hay that is either very old or has been soaked for at least 12 hours (this is to remove any sugars etc that may remain), get a small hole haynet to make it lasts even longer, or put one haynet inside another.

I would feed fibre only at this stage, there are loads to choose from but make sure they are mollasses free, check the starch levels - anything below 10% should be fine - a favourite of mine is Badminton Hi Fibre Complete as the horses love it and it is only 6% starch with a DE of 8.8 - all of mine get it anyway in decadedrons. Speedibeet is another safe feed and, if you have difficulty getting hay the two mixed together in a bucket make a good alternative to a hay net.

It would also be worth getting your farrier involved, he knows about feet after all and can really help in this situation.

Good luck and I hope your girl is better soon.
 
Hiya,

I am relieved to see this post as my 16.3 dutch warmblood was diagnosed with lami yesterday
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He hasnt had shoes on since September (as i had a back operation) but has been fine and been in ridden work since the 1st November and have had no problems foot wise... but rode him out on Sunday for an hour at walk, Monday night he was a bit pottery, so kept him in on Tuesday the girls at the yard said he was the same then to, but i went up Wednesday night and was awful! So called the vet up and they came out yesterday and confirmed what i thought... he had only been turned out for a maximum of 6 hours over the 3 days that he went out.

The vets are coming up next Wednesday to do x-rays, he is on box rest, bute and just ad lib hay. He is currently being fed just mollichaff should i get this swapped for Alfalfa?

I just want the x-rays done and out of the way now
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I would swap the mollichaff ( although depends on which one it is) and give either Alfalfa with Oil ( no sugar) or Dengie do alfalfa pellets, again nothing added, but you have to soak them first.

Its a bugger, it can happen anytime to any horse unfortuately
 
HI.my gelding came down with laminitis a month ago,he began dropping weight for no apparent reason,we had blood tests and he has been diagnosed with cushings (he is only 13) he is now on pergolide and seems to be responding well so far although wer still struglin with lami!!
cud be gud to test for it cos if it is,the lami will keep on returning without treatment,cannot be cured but can be managed! xx
 
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