Went to an interesting talk on laminitis

Dogstar

Dogstar

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The other night, by a top Rossdales vet. Learnt some interesting things. For example, she suggested measuring the middle of the neck rather than the girth to monitor weight change. That a minimum 20 minutes of exercise every day is the best thing for a laminitic; better than say 3 workouts a week. That the hay should only be soaked for 30-40 mins a day or harmful mould starts to grow. Bulk hay up with a little straw. Feed antioxidants with a hay only diet - Formula4Feet was the supplement recommended as having the best profile. ACP is helpful, better than bute only, but is soon to become unavailable. Avoid farriery for 10-20 days following an acute attack. It is good if the horse lies down a lot as this will help it to recover. Also an Equine Metabolic Syndrome horse can be recognised by carrying weight on its neck and shoulders rather than the ribs; I found this interesting as my laminitic is this shape. I am sure there was lots more but some was too technical to remember!
 
Dogstar said:
The other night, by a top Rossdales vet. Learnt some interesting things. For example, she suggested measuring the middle of the neck rather than the girth to monitor weight change. That a minimum 20 minutes of exercise every day is the best thing for a laminitic; better than say 3 workouts a week. That the hay should only be soaked for 30-40 mins a day or harmful mould starts to grow. Bulk hay up with a little straw. Feed antioxidants with a hay only diet - Formula4Feet was the supplement recommended as having the best profile. ACP is helpful, better than bute only, but is soon to become unavailable. Avoid farriery for 10-20 days following an acute attack. It is good if the horse lies down a lot as this will help it to recover. Also an Equine Metabolic Syndrome horse can be recognised by carrying weight on its neck and shoulders rather than the ribs; I found this interesting as my laminitic is this shape. I am sure there was lots more but some was too technical to remember!
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is there going to be anymore dates for talks on this..do you know or if you hear of any let me know
 
I went to this talk too, I thought it was brilliant. The neck measurements were to measure from the ears to the withers and say that is X, then half X to get the middle of the neck and measure around that which should be 0.25 X This is a better measurement of changes in a laminitic as it will more obviously show the crest forming.

It was also interesting to hear her say that have a deep shavings bed but then straw on top to make it as inviting for them to lie down as much as possible while having an attack. I always read about having a shavings bed but I put straw on top when I had to and the pony did lie down more.

What I liked was the straight talking, it made me realise that we can't keep our laminitic pony as we cannot offer the regular exercise and so she will be constantly susceptible to laminitis and that isn't fair.
 
1987 said:
What I liked was the straight talking, it made me realise that we can't keep our laminitic pony as we cannot offer the regular exercise and so she will be constantly susceptible to laminitis and that isn't fair.
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Does your pony currently have Laminitis?
 
That's really interesting thank you for sharing. No lami here (so far thank goodness) but it is something I like to make sure I know about just incase as my mare seems v sensitive to the grass (so she is mainly off it and on a health food diet only!!). Think I will start measuring her neck now too - a handy way of keeping tabs on her weight.
 
It was a talk organised by my own vets and they are going to put the talk info on their website, so I will try to post a link when they have done it. I thought our host vet was really funny; one thing he pointed out was that it can be a bit pointless only turning a laminitic horse out for say 2 or 3 hours as they soon realise and spend the whole time stuffing their fat faces without pausing for breath! It inspired me to try to ride my laminitic before work this morning; I managed a 10 minute spin with some canter which I guess was better than nothing..
 
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Not heard of it being discontinued but heard an interesting theory about its use for laminitics, the theory being - we give acp to open up the blood vessels and improve blood flow to the feet BUT what if the horses body has purposely slowed down the blood supply to the feet because the blood's toxic??? Not sure what I believe but its food for thought!
 
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