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  Discussion on Laminitis symptoms
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Member:
Meggles

Posted on Thursday, Jun 9, 2005 - 9:36 am:

Dr O. Why is it that problems with horses seem to come at once? My horse is in the box due to a mild bout of laminitis but now I'm not so sure thats what I'm dealing with. The vet diagnosed her over the phone and he is coming out this week to look at her. There were a series of events over the course of two weeks that led to this conclusion:

- Initially she starting walking with her head held down low, leaning on the bit and stretched out towards the end of a ride and felt very slow and lazy. I wondered whether her back might be sore at first.
- I noticed she was more sensitive to treading on uneven ground and would stumble if she trod on a stone. She's usually quite hardy on uneven ground.
- She was shod a few days after me noticing these things and seemed slightly footsore later that day.
- The day after she was shod she seemed OK, she ditched me on the local cross country course (nothing particularly unusual in that!) but then went careering at high speed around a very large sloping field for about 5 minutes.
- The day after that I went to get her from the field and she was lying down. She got up to greet me and then bizarrely got straight back down again in a very odd fashion (didn't bend her back legs at all and just went down on her knees and then keeled over) with all four legs stretched out. I got her up and made her move around the field. She wasn't lame but looked a bit stiff which I put down to the previous day's activities. I rode her gently in the school and she felt off but it felt like she was off behind on the turns, particularly to the left.
- The next day I went to get her in again, and she was down again, all four feet stretched out but got up straight away and walked in fine. When I went to see her later to ride her she didn't come to the stable door which is unusual.

I checked her over and she had a strong pulse in all four feet. In the front legs, I could see the pulse without touching. Called vet - my diagnosis, possible laminitis, he agreed and recommended two weeks in the box on Bute, soaked hay and oatstraw chop.
Looking back, she had puffy tendons in the front legs - can that be caused by laminitis? There was no heat in the foot and no soreness when the farrier hoof tested each foot (although she had taken a bute by then).
The following day the pulse had gone but she has continued to appear short in the walk, particularly on the away fore when I move her into the stable next door to clean her box.

Today the pulse is back in all four fetlocks again. Its a very hot day today. The day I originally felt the pulse it was also a hot day, and has since been very cool weather. Am I reading into this incorrectly? I have never had a need to check the pulse there before so don't know if this is normal or not, paricularly on a warm day.
Is there a possibility given these events and symptoms that this could be a tendon strain or something else? She's carrying a bit of extra weight but is not fat, just in good condition and she was out on the grass for 12 hours at night and stabled in the day with soaked hay.
The vet is coming out over the weekend to look at her but I'm interested in your view on this.
Thanks.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Friday, Jun 10, 2005 - 9:28 am:

Sarah the only consistent finding in the above post is the horse was foot sore following shoeing, could the horse have been trimmed close? If worked this could cause heat and digital pulse in the foot and if badly overworked could in time result in founder.

The rest is not much help with regard to the lameness but it does sound like you had a short episode of colic when the horse went back down. Tendon strain is usually going to cause overt lameness in one leg unless you have a very rare bilateral problem. Check out the article Equine Diseases » Lameness » Localizing Lameness in the Horse.

Until you are sure of the cause of the foot soreness I would allow the horse to rest in a softly bedded stall and with your vets approval be on bute.
DrO
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