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  Discussion on Laminitis in 10 year old pony
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Member:
Quatro

Posted on Monday, Mar 1, 2004 - 4:12 pm:

A friend of mine has a pony that has had recurrent founder. Anything causes it. After x-ray results show a severe rotation of coffin bone on both front legs, her vet suggested a procedure that cuts the tendon that runs down the back of the foot, that supposedly releases the pressure on the coffin bone, so that it can return to a more normal position. The horse can't walk around now for a month without severe pain. Has anyone had any experience with this procedure, and if so what were your results.
thanks
Sue}
Member:
Liliana

Posted on Monday, Mar 1, 2004 - 5:21 pm:

Hi Susan,

My daughter’s pony Blue had that problem. And our vet also told us that the procedure you describe was the answer.(wrong!!)

However we had seen that done to several ponies and it never solved the problem and the ponies had to be eutanized after a long agony, so we did as much research as we could and it turned out that rich grass was the cause for laminitis, so all we did was keep Blue stabled for a week or so on a really deep shavings bed and fed her only hay. I worked wonders!

Apparently grass becomes very reach especially after a good rain, and once the problem sets in keeping them off rich grass does the trick. Blue is 23 now and going strong!
Member:
Quatro

Posted on Monday, Mar 1, 2004 - 10:43 pm:

Thanks for the reply. Apparently this pony got into some grain about 2 months ago and gorged. They have kept him in his stall and only on hay. they kept him on bute for pain, but he has not been out of his stall for 2 months. That is when they decided to do the x-ray. After the coffin bone has rotated like that, is it correctable? Did your daughter's pony have the same severe twist? I don't know much about it. She said the pony is in good spirits, it just can't walk at all! What do you know about the surgery and why she should avoid it. What about you Dr. O? Any advice?? Thanks
Member:
Gafarm

Posted on Tuesday, Mar 2, 2004 - 12:21 am:

You sound much like me when I asked a similar question a few years ago. Believe me there are MANY more causes of founder than just green grass!
Our mare had mechanical founder in only one front foot that we think was caused by a misplaced nail. We tried so many different things to try to stop the progression and rotation but nothing worked. She had a hoof resection when it first started but that didn't help either. As a last resort we had the tenotomy done and it did buy her 3 more years but the tendon re-attaches to the bone and then starts to pull again on the coffin bone some times. She did have extreme abscess that took a long time to grow out. In our case we had a hard time stabilizing the foot after surgery but I'm told this is not usually the case with most horses. The surgery was really simple and not that expensive. It was done with a local anesthetic in our barn isle on a few well sterilized new stall mats. It gave us 3 more years to love her and we would definitely have done it again if her coffin bone had not rotated so badly before we caught it again. She was rotated 47 degrees with out penetration of the sole and my farrier said he would have called me a liar if he had not seen the X-rays. There is a good article on founder here and it has a link in it (if I remember right) to one farrier's opinion regarding this surgery. Maybe Dr. O can give you the link to the article since I can't seem to find it right now.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Tuesday, Mar 2, 2004 - 8:00 am:

Hello Susan,
The procedure is called deep digital flexor tenotomy and yes I have used this surgery successfully for chronic nonresponsive founders to aid in derotation.

We discuss this and other treatments in Equine Diseases » Lameness » Diseases of the Hoof » Founder & Laminitis » Founder & Laminitis an Overview. We also have a article on other ways to derotate a coffin bone on the Founder & Laminitis menu.
DrO
Member:
Quatro

Posted on Tuesday, Mar 2, 2004 - 11:33 am:

Thanks to all. I will pass this information on to my friend. It sounds like she will not want to wait long to proceed, as the condition will only worsen with time.
suz
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