What was the cause of your horse/pony's laminitis?

PogoPumpkinBecky

PogoPumpkinBecky

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Hi all,

I would really appreciate it if you could put the most likely cause of your horse or pony's laminitis and also if the equine was underweight, a good weight or overweight.

This is purely to collect data for a research project for my degree which I am doing on causes of laminitis.

Thank you, 20 replies would be perfect, but more or slightly less would also be fine!
 
Mine has a long history of laminitis :( Over the years he has been tested on 3 separate occasions for cushings and ems. Negative for cushings every time, negative for ems twice but positive last time. His weight is at the lighter end of good.
 
colic and right dorsal colitis - caused by liver abscess...... later diagnosed with Cushings.... I think he was doomed to be laminitic either way! Originally he was a normal weight, ribs could be felt but not seen, by the time he was diagnosed with Cushings he was very underweight - ribs easily seen, looking really poor because he'd been so poorly. Now a happy healthy weight, ribs easily felt, just seen.
 
I have just taken on a pony with a long history of laminitis in all four feet which is supposed to have been caused originally (years ago) by concussion through driving too fast on the road.

From pictures I have seen she looked quite fit, definitely not fat.
 
One was a lazy pony, not overly fat & 8 months in foal, who just stood the frost & snow waiting for me to bring her food, so combination of the cold around feet & not moving around using calories.

Second was fat, had lost around 50kgs, then after a mammoth hooning round feild session came down with lami. The concussion tipped her over edge but she was also IR :(

Both now skinny minnies in full quite hard work.
 
He went from being in 24/7 (except for the odd day) to being out 24/7 (except for the odd day). He was out for about a month before he got it, and although the grazing isn't at all rich he was eating a lot of it (cow pat poos!)! I reckon he is a healthy weight. Worth noting it's only mild laminitis. I loan him - he's a riding school pony.
 
I lost my mare to stress laminitis last summer. She was not overweight - laminitis started in the early April. Tested of IR/Cushings - negative result.
 
There is a very interesting and helpful leaflet on Redwings site which can be down loaded about Laminitis and recent research results. It also gives information about 90% of cases being caused by underlying condition.
 
Occurred on New Years Day - massively overweight , tipped over the edge by the snow/cold weather
 
Our elderly pony had repeated boughts of laminitis, he was later diagnosed with cushings disease and is now on medication and a million times happier than he was, with no signs of lami. He was the perfect weight (if not slightly under) due to us being so paranoid about lami risks.

My gelding got laminitis badly once due to having metabolic disease/insulin resistance. He was overweight despite being in daily ridden work and being kept on the strictest diet ever - I suspected EMS/IR but our original vet didn't take us seriously - it took a new vet and 1 blood test to confirm I was right & get him on medication - he was then a changed horse and although we had to continue being v careful with him, he stayed a very healthy weight and didn't get lami again once he was on his medicine.

Horse 3 was the perfect weight but we got caught out by the weather - the frozen grass + a sudden hot sun made the sugar levels spike.

(These cases were all in different years!)
 
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Concussive the first time and then diagnosed IR/EMS a couple of yrs later, young fit healthy lad, well covered but not fat in daily good exercise.
 
My mare was overweight but when she came down with lami, I had switched her back to a paddock that had only been rested for 1-2 weeks (therefore full of sugary grass shoots) to get away from the end paddocks where 3 energisers were stolen :( So partly my fault because she was overweight, but partly not 'cause I was trying to keep her out of harm's way..
 
Not my horse, but one on a yard I was on got laminitis following trauma to one of his feet. Apparantly a stone lodged in his foot, caused a problem, laminitis started & within a very short period of time he was PTS.
 
Thank you all for your replies and comments! I can use the topics mentioned as part of my lit review, and now have plenty of data to review :)

Thanks so much!!
 
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