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  Discussion on Can acute laminitis last 6 months?
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Member:
dhaslett

Posted on Friday, Jun 19, 2009 - 5:43 pm:

My Icelandic mare is boarded in North Dakota in a very large corral with 20 other horses. I was gone all winter working in California. In April the stable owner told me the vet noticed my horse was "sore on her feet" when the vet came to give spring shots. Diagnosis: laminitis. The vet provided Banamine for 3 days which the stable owner gave her and I had the farrier out right away to take the weight off the mare's toes. The stable owner says he turned all the horses out into a harvested wheat field last fall and then brought them back to the corral when he noticed they were all getting fat. Wheat combines do not get all the grain and a fair amount can still be found on the ground after harvest. The stable owner thinks my mare foundered while on the wheat field from eating too much fallen grain. It does not surprise me that he would not notice she was sore as he has so many horses and doesn't watch them that closely. It totally bums me out that she could have been in such pain all winter and no one noticed. My first question is: could she really have foundered so badly last fall that she was still in such pain 6 months later in April but she still was able to walk?

I returned home in May. She was still very sore and reluctant to walk at all. The vet returned again but was not sure if the continuing lameness was laminitis or not and said she was "not really very good with lameness issues as she didn't see enough cases of that". Yikes. Stall rest is not possible here as there are no stalls, but she has not gotten any more exercise than necessary to walk to the shelter barn for rest and water and back to the round bale feeders. She was lying down a lot but does that less now and walks a lot less painfully, though she now is more sore on the right leg than the left and still walks with her feet pushed out a bit in front of her, apparently to put more weight on her heels. My farrier says "the best thing for her is to put some miles on her to circulate the blood in her feet and get some weight off her." After reading all the posts on HA and Dr. O's articles, I disagree. From what I read, I should not ride her until she shows no signs of lameness. (I couldn't stand to ride a limping horse anyway. I'd feel like a brute.) I plan to take her to a vet 70 miles away to get her xrayed when she appears to have stabilized but she still improves a little every week. I wish I could address the weight issue, but there is no way to control her hay intake as it is free-feed from the bale feeders. Unless I could use a grazing muzzle for eating hay? I'm afraid it would get pulled off too easily with all the rooting around in the hay bales and the other horses messing with it. Plus she might end up getting too little food. So my second question is am I correct that she is not ready to be ridden and could I try a grazing muzzle for eating hay? I can't go out to where she is several times a day to take it on and off, unfortunately.

I am really glad to have this website as a resource, as I can see lots of us horse lovers share common problems and frustrations.
Member:
juliem

Posted on Saturday, Jun 20, 2009 - 12:07 am:

Well, whether it's acute or chronic, if it is laminitis, DO NOT ride her. And if there's another farrier available, fire the one who said to ride her! Do O will respond to all your questions, but his articles on laminitis are the place for you to start. I really believe a farrier who says ride a lame horse isn't going to be much help, nor is a vet who "doesn't see much of that"??? Boy, I feel for you in this situation, but you'll get a lot of help and advice here. Sometimes on weekends, Dr. O is traveling, but he will address your concerns and help you figure out the next steps.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Saturday, Jun 20, 2009 - 5:50 am:

Hello Prariefemme,
To directly answer your two questions:
Yes it is possible to have a laminitis episode that last 6 months and you are correct, if laminitis is indeed the problem you should not ride this horse.

I think getting the vet back out and if the exam still supports laminitis, a good set of foot radiographs. This will help clear up whether you are seeing pain from ongoing founder (and subsequently redouble your founder prevention management) or pain from the changes in position of the coffin bone (which may require trimming/shoeing corrections) or possibly both.
DrO
Member:
scooter

Posted on Saturday, Jun 20, 2009 - 8:30 am:

Hi Prarie, my vet told me they can stay in the acute stage until you take away the "trigger"

If your horse is fat and free feeding on hay and or grass, I suppose just the extra weight on the already stressed lamanaie could keep them acute...it did my horse until I got a lot of weight off of him, which took about 3 mos. of restricted diet,anti-inflammotries, X-rays to know where we stood as far as rotation, and a good farrier. Once the "triggers" were taken away (fat and too much food) he became "sound" very quickly.

I would not ride him or make him move, the extra movement COULD tear the lamanaie further.

Could you make him a small pen out of corral gates or a temporary fence so you could control what he eats better?
Member:
mrose

Posted on Saturday, Jun 20, 2009 - 11:08 am:

If you need to travel to get x-rays, you could get some Easy rider or other boots lines with thick foam, or make padding from styrofoam, carpet scraps, disposable diapers - anything really cushy that you can duct tape onto her feet. Then bed the trailer heavily for the trip and give her bute before you leave. Imo the benefits of getting a correct diagnosis outweigh the negatives of more damage to her feet by waiting. However, I'm not a vet, so you might want to first run this by the vet you are going to see.

Is the mare on bute now? Does she have any kind of padding on her feet? Is the ground she's on hard or soft? If she can be on deep bedding or loose sand, that would be ideal. If her pen is hard footing, I'd put some pads on her affected feet until you get her diagnosed and treated by the vet and a good farrier.

Also, I 2nd Diane's opinion; she needs to be separated out from the other horses somehow and fed correctly for her condition.
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