Management for Laminitic

Wooleysmum

Wooleysmum

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Ok, very fed up. Tried everything over the past years. He has it again.On the mend though. Need a success story to follow! Got the muzzle, will use when there is grass, no chance of bark/manege turn out. No Cushings, fed Hi Fi Lite, soaking hay, slim as a blade, blah blah. What CAN I do? He is only out 20 mins twice a day. Need you guys to cheer me up! No support at the yard. Its not their problem.They all seem to have fatties which are out 24/7. Some Easter weekend!
 
Poor you, I really sympathise, Loads of horses/ponies in our village that are fat as lard and they all seem to be ok, makes my blood boil.
Touch wood, my laminitics have been free for 3 years now, in a couple of weeks they will be on very restricted grazing; One shetland, 1 12.3h NF, one 14.1 welsh cob. All start off on a padddock the size of a tennis court ( honestly) strip graze by moving electric fence by about two feet every night about 5pm.
Two feeds a day of Safe and Sound plus Speedi-beet.
If the weather is rainy and warm the electric fence does not move until it has been dry for several days. Feed hay if neccessary.
With this method, you shouldn't need a muzzle, remember the short grass tends to have most sugar tho.
Hope it helps, if you are unable to restrict with electric fence, you will have to confine him within a yard or something.
Its a pain laminitis, but it can be managed
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what does your vet say? is this linked with grass or is it possible it's something else that's causing it? have you had blood tests?


If it's the grass and you have no access to bare turnout then maybe time to have a think about changing yards? he obviously cannot be boxed 24/7 through the summer, so a solution has to be found.
 
how much has your vet said to feed him? when one of mine got it (even though she was on Hi Fi lite etc etc and i was being very careful, or so i thought) my vet said she was allowed 2 flaps of hay per 24 hour period and that was it. i thought colic would kill her if she had as little as that to eat, but she was fine. she now lives out 24/7 in a small muddy pen with a shelter but not a blade of grass, and gets hay twice a day, but only about 3-4 flaps total, and a small non-sugary feed 2x daily. i'm very strict, only 1 carrot per feed, for example.
you just have to be even stricter than you thought possible, i think.
surely you can do a small pen out of electric fencing that is just for him, get something else to hoover it clean of grass and then that is his grassless mudpatch? better than being in for 23 hrs per day, i should think.
very best of luck, it is a nightmare.
 
He will get out longer in soon, increasing the time out gradually. Hope he can then be out for the morning in the Spring then as the summer wears on, all day. He had it in 2004 then in footsore in May 2007, now I would say he was footsore this time again, not the full blown ghastly pedal bone shifting nightmare like in 2004. I think it was frost as he was out at night. Not be going that again! Its wearing me down!
 
Is he getting enough movement and exercise as he needs his circulation to be challenged in order to help the syndrome and his feet? My vet always swears by exercise as the best anti-laminitis treatment because it gets their metabolic rate going.
 
I agree with Pottamus, The laminae between the pedalbone and the hoof come apart due to compromised circulation, hence her vet recomending movement to increase it. NSAID's can really help also, because with painrelief the horse will be able to move around better and so increase and maintain a resonable circulation. And inturn, giving the horse/pony a better quality of life.
I have heard of a cronic sufferer coming back into work after 10 days of Equissage. The hand unit was placed directly onto the foot for 15mins / twice daily. There is thermographic proof that Equissage increases circulation, hence confirming this ability without the aid of chemicals.
 
you could also add magnesium to his diet, the official lami website says this is a key mineral/vitamin important in lami prone horses/ponies, its obviously not the be all and end all but its a fairly cheap extra thing you can pop into his diet and regime, certainly worth reading up about
i used to use laminaze 5* and decided its expensive for her to leave and spill on the floor whilst eating her food so i thought try magnesium, being as lami website say its an important ingredient
 
I would agree with all Kerilli has said. We had a small pony who we thought had laminitis, but the vet and farrier said no, thankfully he didnt, (was footsore though) but had to treat him as such until he lost alot of weight. I had to give put him on boxrest and give him a handful of hay every 3 hours. I then got the go ahead to turn him out for a short while, but we had to section off a smal part of his paddock, strip the grass off, then move the fence each day to give him a little to eat. We modernised his muzzle, and this, coupled with gentle exercise gave him a new lease of life.

There is a school of thought that giving laminitics asprin can ward off an attack, but you would need to speak to your vet regarding that to get the right doseage etc.
 
How old is the horse? How often does he have mild attacks? One of the driving ponies I work with is currently doing well on pergolide even though test results say he doesn't have cushings (now on page 2 i think). May be worth asking the vet if trying it is an idea, certainly if you really get all the correct management in place and he keeps getting it anyway.
 
He is 24. Got out today for two hours so I will build on that. Not lame at trot. I will increase it to 3/4 hours then I can ride him. I think all night turn out, in the cold and wet did him no favours.He has been out most of the winter, but was in during the day. I will be happy if he can withstand 6 hours or so. Grass too short for a muzzle yet. He is used to the Best Friend one. He is back to his old self, for the time being.
 
Agree with kerilli. This is exactly what Ive done with a shetland of mine. She got to the point last year where the tiniest thing would set her off. So she's off grass permanently. She's in at night and out in our hardcored yard during the day. I do let her out into the paddocks a few times a week with a muzzle on because the grass in it is so short that she actually cant reach any through it but it gives her an hour to gallop about. I dont limit her hay intake though as I feel its unfair to limit fibre. You just have to check your hay isnt too good! She gets 2 feeds a day of Speedi-beet, Simple Systems Linseed and her supplements. I thought she'd be depressed but Ive never seen her so happy as recently now she's sound
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If you are only feeding hi fi and hay, with no supplement, i would say that your horse is probably going to be lacking in essential nutrients such as biotin, zinc, copper, methionine etc which are all needed for hoof health and integrity. I would seriously consider adding a supplement to his diet, perhaps one that is specifically for lamintics if you are not already doing so...
 
Founder guard has worked well for us, it's expensive but the vet is happy to prescribe it as we are doing everything possible management wise. Exercise is definitely important as a preventative and during recuperation but movement should be completely restricted during an attack to help prevent pedal bone rotation and dropping while the laminae are in a weakened state.
 
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