Sound advice needed for eleviating Laminitus?

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katymay

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took ownership of the boys new pony on Sunday who is extremely overweight and very barrell like, luckily no signs of lami and good feet so its on a strick diet and lots of lunging and hill walking.
Borrowed another pony as a companion and together they are on a limited diet, other pony is about 9hh Shetland type aged 11 (perfect weight), hasnt been ridden in about 4 years and has just enjoyed his time in the field.
Owner has had to be really careful with his grazing following bad bouts of lami, ive got him on soaked hay, bare paddock, a tiny bit of fast fibre, alphabute and some lamiprone, he come in over night on a deep bed of wood shavings.
I am getting the farrier out to sort his feet, he has such flat feet and he seems to be balancing on his soles rather than the outer bits, but having said that he stands normally and I cant find any evidence of dropped coffin bone (although I would need an xray to confirm this as im no expert) feet feel warm but not abnormally so and no pulse can be detected,
he is fairly sound at the moment although a little cautious on the road but so keen to be out and about, its almost as if he is stiff with the odd little ouch now and then,
I wanted to give him a little excercise to see if I could get the circulation going in his feet again but am I doing more damage than good?
what should be my next step?
massive thanks in advance, a Caramel Machiatto and some after eight mints on offer :)
 
If he's just footsore from hard ground then boots will prevent that. If he's lame for some other reason that's different. If he's not arthritic then I'd take the walking stiffly as a sign of extra pain. I'm assuming he has a chronic lameness anyway since he's on Alphabute.

Arthritis is generally better for some regular light exercise, laminitis is made worse by exercise and you should wait until an episode is over, being footsore can be cured with boots. So it all depends on what you're dealing with as to what action you should take. It's not clear from your post what the problem is.

If the pony walks on its frogs that's good, if you mean the sole bulges downward to the extent the hoof wall doesn't touch the floor that sounds like the pedal bone has dropped at some point. If that laminitis episode is now totally over, maybe the dropped bone is not a problem regarding soundness and the pony just needs boots due to being footsore. I've seen another sound ex-laminitis-attack pony that walked on its soles and never had a problem.
 
Sugar_and_Spice said:
If he's just footsore from hard ground then boots will prevent that. If he's lame for some other reason that's different. If he's not arthritic then I'd take the walking stiffly as a sign of extra pain. I'm assuming he has a chronic lameness anyway since he's on Alphabute.

Arthritis is generally better for some regular light exercise, laminitis is made worse by exercise and you should wait until an episode is over, being footsore can be cured with boots. So it all depends on what you're dealing with as to what action you should take. It's not clear from your post what the problem is.

If the pony walks on its frogs that's good, if you mean the sole bulges downward to the extent the hoof wall doesn't touch the floor that sounds like the pedal bone has dropped at some point. If that laminitis episode is now totally over, maybe the dropped bone is not a problem regarding soundness and the pony just needs boots due to being footsore. I've seen another sound ex-laminitis-attack pony that walked on its soles and never had a problem.
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The sole to my mind bulges downward to the extent the hoof wall doesnt touch the floor so maybe his pedal bones have dropped at some point, its the same in all four feet and I know his owner has said he is always sore after a trim,.
I just want to be able to help him and not sure where to start, she said she feels he is just stiff after no excersise for 4 years, limited turn out on a small paddock and small stable but to me I feel it is more the laminitus issues rather than stiffness or arthritus.
ive got him on alphabute only because I dont want him to feel sore if that makes sense or do you think I would just mask the problem? he seems fine on the grass and trots quite nicely but it just doesnt flow properly, I dont want to mess him up but I would love to be able to get him back to his former self as he is a lovely pony who would make a fab lead rein pony for my boys, should I get the vet out to make a judgement, I have no issues paying for it but dont want to step on her toes or for her to feel im undermining what she has said.
 
If you run your fingers around the top of the coronet band can you feel a dip or soft spot?.It should be a small ridge all the way round with no dip..This can be an indication that the Pedal bone has dropped..
 
rema said:
If you run your fingers around the top of the coronet band can you feel a dip or soft spot?.It should be a small ridge all the way round with no dip..This can be an indication that the Pedal bone has dropped..
Click to expand...

I tried this but couldnt feel anything abnormal, think I will try it on Barrell pony so I can compare the two, thanks
 
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