Upset - laminitis

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Annie&Amy

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I'm having a bad day today, my girl just isn't getting better, everytime i try and reduce her below one bute twice a day she gets a bounding digital pulse and she stands with her leg out to the side although she moves around ok in stable (on about 18" bed). It's week five of box rest and she was trimmed last week and vet said once she had that done the pain levels would decrease hence i'd be able to cut bute down, i havn't been able to reduce it at all.

The vets coming out to see her again next week, i'm so disheartened, i'm not sure if i'm doing the right thing by putting her through all this stuff at her time of life. She lives to eat and her and her big mate as missing each other terribly xxx
 
Has she been seperated from a friend? The laminitic at my yard was terrible for months, absolutely crippled (it was a VERY severe attack and vet attention wasn't called for until the following day, which is another story but gives you an idea of how much pain this horse was in for about two months). We were all at a loss for what to do, then the lady who owns the horse's "best friend" who had moved out a week before the lami attack suggested keeping them together again to see if it was the stress of being apart that was keeping her laminitic. Within a week she was sound off the bute, and has been recovering well ever since. A month on she was out in a dust-patch field 24/7 with well-soaked hay, and started putting on condition again as she was much more relaxed and less stressed being outside again instead of cooped up.
If I read your post right, it *could* be stress that is keeping her laminitic. Is there any way you can keep the two together?
 
oh bless ya! I know exactly how you feel, my mare is recovering at the moment from Lami. It seems like you go one step forward and then two steps back. But please try and be patient, as it can take a long time, and you do get set backs.
My mare was almost sound last week on concrete but then farrier came to trim her and she became lame again.
Every horse is different so you can never put a time scale on these things.
Good luck and keep persevering x
 
Try not to worry, it can take a really long time. I've only just got my driving pony off bute EIGHT MONTHS after his laminitis attack. Watch out for abscesses, they can follow laminitis, so even if the laminae(sp??) inflammation is settling down, brewing abscesses can still be causing pain. If you persist a few more weeks and she's still not improving, or she deteriorates whilst on the box rest and treatment, it really is worth asking the vet to try her on pergolide.
 
Pergolide wont make a horse better once it has laminitis???
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If what's causing the pony to get laminitis is at least partly to do with something going wrong in its body (not very technical - but I'm not a vet, LOL), then pergolide can treat this and you have a hope of treating the symptoms of laminitis attacks with conventional treatment and management. If conventional treatment and management are not working, it would suggest to me that the pony has an under-lying medical condition, pergolide and other medication treats this, then you can work on the laminitis. If the condition goes untreated, IMO, you're wasting your time trying to treat the lami.

My driving pony failed to improve at all then deteriorated despite being on box rest, bute, ACP and asprin for nearly three months. Two weeks after going on pergolide he was comfortable and improved by miles.
 
Pergolide is only effective if it's a cushings related cause, it helps the cushings so indirectly helping the lami.

Did you try a course of Global Herbs Restore for her liver
 
Oh yes I agree that Pergolide can help with other issues, but its not going to help with the lami, once a horse has gone down with it.
Pergolide will help a horse that has cushings possibly control an onset of lami, if on the correct dosage.
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My pony tests negative for cushings!!! I'm not saying I understand it, but neither do the vets totally. It is worth a try if you reach a point where the pony won't respond to treatment and the only alternative is euthanasia, so long as the structures inside the feet haven't gone beyond repair.
 
Try not to be too despondent, 5 weeks is no time at all in the scheme of things when you're dealing with a laminitic. When my gelding had a really bad attack last summer and actually foundered in his near fore, my vet explained it really well to me. She said that by giving them pain relief and keeping them comfortable you're buying them enough time for the laminae to repair. My boy is suspected cushings and he has had a course of Global herbs restore and the Global herbs Butex, which is amazing stuff! AT one point my boy was on 2 x bute twice a day and was still extremely lame, we were very close to makng a decision about him as i was also concerned about the amount of Bute he was consuming. We tried the Butex as a last resort and to be fair to the product, it did exactly what it said on the tin. Within a couple of hours of taking it, he was more comfortable and a lot sounder and over the course of a few days we had drastically reduced the amount of bute given. He is also now on Formula 4 feet to aid healthy hoof growth and the Vitex 4 Equids (agnus castus) which is designed for cushings horses/ponies and i do feel this has helped him considerably since his last attack.

If i was you i would speak to both Global herbs and The Laminitis Clinic (TLC) or if you haven't already google the Laminitis Clinic as it is a really useful and interesting site, they are a mine of information. But realistically with a laminitic unless you're very lucky, you are lookng at it taking a whole year to make a complete recovery.

If you need anymore advice, just let me know, its a horrible situation to be in and at the time you do feel totally alone, but there are lots of people on here who have been through the same and have come out the other end!
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Good luck and hugs to your pony!!
 
I know it seems like forever but honestly 5 weeks is really not very long in terms of laminitis recovery. Please please dont give up hope yet. Perhaps an increase in bute is needed, or perhaps its an abcess as others have said. Abcesses are very common after laminitis as others have said.

Cassandra
 
The months of box rest seem to go on forever, dont they, and it's so difficult when your pony is miserable and bored.

K was in his stable for 9 weeks with one bout of lami, before he was diagnosed with cushings. I was nearly as fed up as him by the end of that stint.

His feet are still terrible and I have to watch out for early lami signs all the time, but he is currently in full work and enjoying life again. It has been worth all the work and heartache.

Keep positive - your vet will let you know if the situation is hopeless.
 
The theory behind bute is to get inflammation down and arrest the progress of separation. You need watch this and see if any of it helps you understand the course of the disease.

Hope you are feeling better tomorrow. x

P.S. It's free and all you need to do is register - also free. The Horse.com sends members a free e-mail of news and links to very interesting articles on everything. I can recommend it highly.
 
When my pony had laminitis two years ago, I didn't have his feet trimmed at all while he was on box rest. In fact they weren't trimmed for ten weeks!
He never had any lameness after 6 weeks in, he was only on bute for two weeks.
Perhaps you need to let her feet grow a little until the inflamation has gone
 
A sinker is when a foot has suffered complete destruction of the inter-laminar bonding and the pedal bone is totally loose within the hoof.

Good luck x
 
If she was a sinker then you'd notice the sole collapsing, becoming rounded, maybe some cracking. You'd also sooner or later notice a depression around the coronary band. The day before our mare was pts she had the collapsed soles and in one foot (her best foot) she had about three small cracks at the toe. The vet bandaged tightly and heavily sedated her, but still by the next day (when she was pts) the sole with the cracking had opened up even more and she had depressions around the coronary band.

If it is allowed to progress with no improvements, the hoof can come away (hence the depression). Also, one the hoof has cracked catastrophe is usually very close, as in a complete mess and untellable agony for the horse. When the vet had put her down, we looked at her feet and it clear that we had done it at exactly the right time. But the vet said that sadly some people keep their animals going even when they are at the stage our mare was; and while a small amount have been saved at that point, it is rare and not really fair on the animal.

Sunken pedal bones doesn't mean she is a sinker.
 
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