Nov 15 2020

Zorro came down with acute laminitis late July. He had the rocked back stance and couldn’t walk. He had immediate veterinary attention and X-Rays which revealed some rotation. 
 

He improved once a ‘dry lot’ was created for him but despite being on a hay only diet he was still sore. Shifting his weight from foot to foot, he regularly needed bute.

Improvement had ‘plateaued’ and his owner Megan was concerned as she was going to be away for the next few weeks – hence he came to us for the next month or so.

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 We have put him in a soft saw-dust pen. It is very important they have somewhere soft to live when their feet are sore. They need to be able to lie down as much as they like.

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His plain grass hay is being soaked and will be until he is ‘out of the woods’.

He gets 1/3 scoop AlleviateC/SOS and 1 x small scoop Alleviate Gold (an amino acid/vitamin mix) and 5 gms of salt all dissolved in water and syringed in about 6 x day. No hardfeed.

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While he still has a long way to go to be 100% sound he has already shown good improvement and you can see he is more comfortable. 
 

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NOV 21st

Just over a week ago Zorro wasn't that keen to move! But when the top up sawdust arrived this afternoon he had a ball! Has saved me a bit of wheelbarrowing!

Almost got himself into trouble rolling on the wrong angle.................

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Dec 20th

Zorro is Feeling Good!!

Zorro is continuing to improve! Sometimes he has fits of leaping around, hooves and sawdust flying everywhere - which I haven’t managed to catch on camera as yet!

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It does amaze us because he will still have the serious degree of rotation of the pedal bone especially in his near fore – which in itself you would think would cause any movement to be painful.

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Of course the fact Zorro is living on soft sawdust is a big help but he is marching around on the harder areas too and is having no hesitation doing sharp turns or going backwards, whereas he sure was 'before'.

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This is where diet comes in.

He is still on soaked hay (soaked for one hour, rinsed and drained). He gets 7-8 kgs/day divided into 3 lots over the day with a larger bag at night. He runs out for a couple of hours between.

He has 100gms of his broad spectrum multi Premium MVA (Minerals, Vitamins & Amino Acids) mixed in a slurry of straw chaff along with 50gms of salt. Split am & pm.

When horses are on soaked hay it is imperative they get the salt because they are ingesting so much more water.

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He gets NO hardfeed as such, just these non-calorie nutrients. The MVA delivers everything he needs daily to keep him healthy and promote new hoof growth. Interestingly he is keeping just right weight-wise.

5 times a day he gets via oral syringe, 5gms Alleviate Gold & 5gms AlleviateC SOS.

 

He LOVES this mix and marches over to the rail for it. These nutrients are the key to reducing pressure within the hoof capsule thereby improving comfort levels.

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There are variations in the pathways to laminitis between individual horses and many potential complicating factors so results and time frames will vary. Happy to report we are seeing GREAT results in other horses too with some amazing stories coming up.

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We hope reading about Zorro can help others who may be struggling, feel free to pm if you feel you need help.