Retired Pony with Laminitis! What will happen long term?

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SarahCoughlan

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Hello,

I've had my 14hh pony King for 17 years. He retired at 19 due to ring bone and has lived in field 24/7 at a friends home as a companion pony for the last 4 years.
A farrier has informed us the King has lamanitis and I know from my limited knowledge of the disease that i need to take him out of the field ASAP and seek professional advice. I understand short term that he may have to be stabled until he gets over his attack but my question is what happens next?

Will he ever be able to return to the field permanetly or what is the maxium lenght of time he will be able to spend in the field?

My fear is that he has been such a fantastic pony to me and of course i will do everything to make him more comfortalbe but I really don't want to see him stuck in a stable for the rest of his life.

My dream for him has always been for him to see his last living years out in the field relaxing after such a competitive lifestyle before.

I would be so grateful for any feedback you have x
 
It depends on how bad the laminitis attack is, if he recovers, he will no doubt have to be carefully monitored in future. If he got obesity related laminitis he may recover and just have to have his food intake/grazing limited for the future. If he is elderly and the laminitis was cushings related, you may struggle to keep him clear of it, even with drugs which can be expensive and he may still not recover.

You do need to get him into a deeply bedded stable and get the vet to him ASAP. It really is something that needs vet treatment quickly.
 
I sadly had to have my old pony pts in the end in this situation as he couldn't have just retired happily in the field which is what he deserved.

He was unhappy being in and not in work and it was kinder to have him pts.

If you can manage him as the others have said then good Luck, he at least deserves a try. But you need to get Vet advise asap.
 
Thank you to everybody who has taken time to reply to my first post!

I feel i have a better understanding of what to expect and I have just booked King in to see a vet on Wednesday. I had a lovely chat with the vet about my concerns and she said that it's possible for him to return to the field at some stage wearing a muzzle which was comforting to hear.
She did warn me however that for him to return to the field would depend on how serious his lamanitis is!

Would love to hear from anybody who has been in the same situation to find out how you treated your horse and how sucessful returning to the field was.

Deicin - really sorry to hear you had your pony pts but I really appreciate your post as I've thought a lot about what decisions I might have to make in the next week.
 
Best of luck with your golden oldie. I have an out of work companion pony who has previously had quite bad laminitis, before I owned him. I've had him nearly five years and *****touches wood furiously***** he's not had another bout since I've owned him.

He is currently out 24/7 with the rest of mine, although he does wear a grazing muzzle. It certainly is possible, but obviously can vary depending on the severity of your horse's attack and the damage it may have caused to his feet.

Don't give up hope.
 
It'll depend alot on what has triggered your pony's laminitis and how much damage has been done but I have taken on a pony who has had recurrent laminitis for the past 3 years. He has been with me since just before Christmas and apart from a months box rest when he first arrived (which is soooo important while they are still sore) he has been out 24/7 with my other fatties and is so far sound.
I have them on a track which runs round the outside of my field and which has very little grass on it. This means they have to keep moving to find the grazing instead of just standing in the same spot, getting fat and bored. I also now know the weight which triggers the laminitis so keep him way below that weight and hope to get him back to some light work at the end of the summer once he has grown a whole new (hopefully0 healthy hoof
smile.gif

This site is very useful..
http://www.laminitisclinic.org/

Good luck with your pony...there is light at the end of the tunnel once you find the trigger
smile.gif
 
One of mine got really serious lami when he was young - we didnt stable him as he would have hated it. We taped off a bit of the yard in front of the stable so he could choose where he wanted to be - it worked really well.

It totally depends on the horse and how sensitive they are to it. With the one I mention above, we have kept lami away ever since (15 years later!) - he currently goes out all night on a small paddock (with not much grass) and is in the yard during the day. This seems to work fine for him. Some horses can live out 24/7 no problem eventhough prone to laminitis, you just have to limit their grass intake.

You do need to get your pony over this attack first though so I would keep him off the grass for the time being until he is totally sound (without the help of bute etc.).
 
My retired/cushings/laminitic has been living out happily for many years, we think she is at least 25 and she's had Cushings for the last 4-5. She goes out in a starvation paddock in summer but with ad-lib hay. In the depths of winter she can join the others out on the big fields, but spring/summer/autumn is restricted grass. Luckily there are 2 other laminitics so the three of them can share a decent sized paddock very comfortably.
 
Hope it all goes well for you. It is possible but with a lot of hard work and I worried constantly if I couldn't get up to get him in, but it was 5 years between the first and second bout during which he did really well compettively but was in work everyday and out on long rough grass for limited periods. He was happy with this but when he was unable to work and couldn't live out as i had envisged it was much harder.
Good luck. Look at the 'laminitis trust' website i t has lots of info there.
 
I have a 31 year old Welsh A who had his first bout of laminitis when on loan to a knowledgeable home aged 22. One of our pc instructors!!! They turned him out in a fresh meadow in May.
He is now 31 and lives in at night is on restricted grazing and is fed on Safe and sound. He did have a bout when he returned to us but is now slimmer than i would choose but is very healthy. He also hunted at the age of 28.
Best of luck
 
take him out of field now and call vet while you are waitin give him some bute. they usually say once a horse as not shone signs of lammi for a month after being in the stable they are safe to go out but all depends on each case i would tell your ver that she needs to be out coz of her other problems you could do her a little paddock of wood chip or sand put her on tht by day with soaked hay and at night put her on a stravy paddock!
 
My girl Penny is 23, she has suffered with lamimitis several times. Fortunately (?) they were grass related (not Cushings) and she recovered from every bout. She used to live with my other two in a electric fenced off 6 acre field, but a couple of years ago with took the decision to move her 5 minutes walk up the road to my friend place, who has poor grazing. She now lives on about 3 or 4 acres on poor grazing, on a reasonably steep hill and hasn't suffered laminitis since. To add to this she's looking nice and fit due to all the hill walking.

It's a nasty condition, which they can recover from (although they don't always). Providing yours gets over it, he should be able to continue to live a happy life with the help of the tips discussed above. Good luck, and let us know how he's getting on.
 
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