Ali's Laminitis

It is always good to hear how people bring their horses through laminitis!

We were contacted by a concerned owner whose lovely small hack had developed laminitis.

There had been no ‘signs’ except that he had become somewhat tender-footed and was more sore in one front foot than the other so it is easy to see how he was misdiagnosed at first as brewing an abscess.

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Fortunately the farrier recommended x-rays which were done on 30 Oct and revealed 11% dropping of the pedal bone in his right fore. He then properly cushioned his hooves with padding and the support of heart-bar shoes and he was locked up on soft footing. He was boxed like this for 12 days and on bute to keep him comfortable.

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He had put on weight in spite of being already locked up for the previous 6 weeks, most likely because of the lack of exercise so the vet put him on metformin twice daily to get his metabolism working to reduce his weight and crest although he wasn't gross by any means.

We discussed what to feed him. For the first 6 weeks he was fed soaked hay. Then there was the option to switch to rye-grass straw. The ‘straw’ is what is left after the seed-heads have been thrashed off.

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Fortunately CHH had already analysed some for another owner whose horse was head-shaking at the time and it worked well for that horse. (CP 4.7%, K 1.1%, Soluble Sugars 7.2%, starch undetectable) so we deemed it OK for this situation too as it didn’t need to be soaked.

(Now is the time to get hold of these types of straw, brown-top, crested dog’s-tail, rye-grass, great for grass-affected, EMS, laminitic or head-shaking horses)

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He also had a very small feed every day consisting of half scoop of Timothy chaff with salt, flaxseed oil, a prebiotic and Premium MVA which he loved and would lick the bowl clean. Premium MVA is excellent to keep them healthy whilst on soaked or low nutrient density hay. It is formulated to supply all their essential daily nutrition without adding any calories, including the right amount of organic selenium and 2,000iu’s of Vitamin E (for a horse his size), biotin and all the amino acids for repairing tissues and growing down a strong new hoof capsule.

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We also recommended that the short green grass be thoroughly eliminated from his dry lot (which was done by spraying out while he was locked up on box rest)

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He soon improved and after just a few weeks he was bucking and kicking and having a ball which alarmed his owner who thought “mmmm wonder how he will be later?”

But he was absolutely fine.

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Last Friday 22nd Jan he was x-rayed again with great results : Left front normal, right front back from 11% to 5% and his soles have thickened considerably!

Naturally his owner is very pleased with this result and is gradually increasing his exercise, keeping it very light and on soft footing. He also plays with his horse ball every day!

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