Well darnit!!! Possible start of laminitis in my 5 yr old

[wingnut]

We were working with her Thursday night (in preparation for showing tomorrow) and she was extra lazy it seemed. We were just practicing the showmanship steps for our club's youth classes. After about 5 minutes of a lot of resistance, I decided to lunge her to get her "sassy" ways back in control. Immediately, I recognize we had a big problem. As lazy as she can be at times, the minute you point and lift the lunge whip, she takes off like a demon's on her tail. We're working on this but it's pretty much the rule that the first couple of go-rounds are at a full canter. This night though, she was walking and ever so gingerly too.

I stopped immediately. Checked her hooves (none were warm, none are at this point either). I found no abscesses on any hoof either. I found my tube of bantimine (vet approved to have on hand) and gave a 250lb dose (she weighed 333 last July and has since lost weight but still over 250).

I gave her more medicine in the a.m. and left everyone off the pasture all day yesterday. I was away until 9:00pm. She seemed okay, though still "tender footed."

I have spoken with my vet and my farrier. The vet met me to give me more banimine. She advised keeping her off the pasture, moderate use of the banimine and keep her posted. I bedded down a stall deeply with pine sawdust and topped it with straw. Our ground is super hard right now so I thought getting her on softer footing would be best.

My farrier has offered to come take a look at her so I'm going to try to set that up tomorrow.

 

[shorthorsemom]

Looks like laminitis for sure, looks like all 4 feet to me. Oh my. I would check for digital pulse, feet dont always get warm. I would also soak her in some Ice water to reduce inflamation. Chat with your vet about other treatments becides just banamine. Hopefully you don't get rotation. I hate founder, lets hope your baby just has a minor flare up of lamanitis. I have lived through it twice. Hugs to you and hoping it is minor. Lucky for her that you are observant and got her on banamine right away. My one boy I caught early barely rotated and recovered fully. She looks like she walks in your video rocked back on her heels slightly placing her feet carefully avoiding full toe contact. It is subtle, but I can see it. Grass is wicked in the spring and it can happen in a blink. Mine are muzzled and still get limited grass time even with the muzzles. Really limit her moving around tonight, bedding up the stable deep is the right move. Best wishes to you and hope your vet can get you a treatment protocol worked out. take care. hugs. ps even minor laminitis hurts like the dickens. Looks like it hurts more going up the slight grade than down the grade which points to the toes. (Just my opinion, I am not a vet, but this is what I see) interested in what anybody else thinks. ps was going to add about the probios and see that Marty already posted this advice. I do that too.

 

[Marty]

Of for crap. I don't think she's foundered but you're right, probably is having a bought with laminitis. You've caught this so you can probably get it turned around. I'm sure you are on it but here's my regimine if you want:

I'd be dosing her full weight with banamine twice daily, probios once a day, no grass, hay, and cut feed or even remove it if she'll tollerate it. It would not hurt to soak in cool water twice a day for about ten minutes to keep that pulsing and heat at bay. Stall with shavings is a good thing. If she lays down that's even better as she's trying to regulate the circulation in her feet. Since your ground is so hard, I'd keep her up for a while. Darn Wingy, I'm so sorry you are going through this. She is such a lovey girl and so well kept. Huggies.

 

[muffntuf]

I posted on your fb wall.

 

[happy appy]

It almost looks like something going on with her back end.

 

[wingnut]

Thanks everyone! I've learned so much here because of all the great feedback like this. Because of you, I knew there was problem and that I needed to deal with it asap. It really sucks that she's got something going on at all, but I told myself from the start that with horses comes problems at some point or another. We've had a major colic episode and survived it, thank goodness. With the help of my great pros (vet and farrier), I'm sure we can get her back to a good place and feeling good.

I just spoke with my farrier's wife. She used to own/breed minis herself (that's how we met, I went to look at a yearling she had for sale). She's had horses all her life too so she's a good source of information. They are going to come out tomorrow afternoon to take a look at her. She also recommended soaking her hay which I've done (and will do).

She will stay stalled for as long as I think she needs it. She's drinking well. There's a reasonable amount of manure. She's still interested in what's going on outside the stall (her sisters are being kept by her but loose). I *think* I'm feeling a *little* heat when I compare what her hooves feel like versus one of my other girls. Having never experienced this, I know having my farrier come out to check things will help me learn more. Including finding that digital pulse. I have tried before but I haven't known whether I've got the right spot enough.

I will also followup with the vet on Monday. We talked today about doing bloodwork for insulin resistance, just to be sure we've covered our basis. I don't feed them grain (except the hard keeper). They get a ration balancer every other day or so.

I'll keep everyone updated. Thanks again!!!!

 

[vickie gee]

Jackie and Liz on the forums here helped me resolve problems with my IR horse. She went from a horse that appeared to be needed to be put down to a horse that could be a race horse. I was ready to give up on her. Tomorrow a young lady comes to visit to here that might give her a forever home. Don't give up. My baby girl has grown new feet, lost lots of weight, and has a new lease on life. It takes a doc that can diagnose and special effort to rehab, but it is very do-able. Wishing you the best. She was hurting so badly. Now she can outrun the wind. If she is IR you will need to put her on dry lot, soak her hay, buy low starch feed,muzzle when in pasture for exercise. Devil's claw works well for pain. There are also herbs. We are here if you need us.

 

[shorthorsemom]

I have one IR suspected boy. I give him remission .. grass hay.. a pelleted supplement and he spends a portion of his day dry lotted on pea gravel. He is still chubby and I am trying to get him more exercise. He wears a muzzle for turn out. I just spoke to my vet about the IR test and it sounds like the glucose tolerance test my doctor did on me when I was pregnant. Fast him.. give him Karo syrup...then do blood test. She said whole testing with office call is under $100. She also said that if he is fat on limited groceries that he is probably IR anyway since my otherboy is in excellent weight with what I am doing. She also told me that she has not encountered cushings in younger horses in their practice when I asked that question. That's all I can think of right now. I know your mind is spinning right now thinking of what you can do to help. I was told not to exercise my boy as it increases the strain and inflammation in sensitive lamanae. When a horse is trying to avoid walking on their toes they often roach their backs and at first glance laminitis can look like a back injury. Soaking hay is good. My holostic vet told me to use cinnamon for IR but my guy wouldn't eat it so that's when I tried remission. We went off the remission for awhile over winter and I think that's when my boy chubbed up again. There is a ton of clover this year with cooler spring and clover can really flare up the lamanitis in horses. Best wishes..keep us posted.

 

[Kim~Crayonboxminiatures]

Once the initial flare-up is over, exercise is good for them, it helps to keep the circulation in the feet going to move the accumulation of fluids/inflammation out of the feet. If she is willing to walk, I would hand walk her a few times a day, if you don't have a dry lot available for turn out.

Learn how to check for the digital pulse, and check all of your minis after grazing time, if they graze during the day, check them before you turn out in the morning. Learn what is normal digital pulse for each horse. This has been invaluable for me, I can monitor my Miniatures reactions to grazing so much easier and know when to decrease grazing time, or when it's safe to increase grazing time. If they have been off of grass all night and still have an increased digital pulse in the morning -I'm not talking a pounding/hot/inflamed pulse, but if it's a higher than normal digital pulse for that individual, I will cut back on grazing time.

Also grazing in the early morning is better, my horses go out from 6:40am-10:30am, tried to make it to 11am, but for some of them it was too much. The more sunlight the grass gets the higher the sugar is in the grass (simple explanation), and insulin resistance (or "easy keepers") are affected by sugar/starch. I would like to get them out earlier in the morning, but I can't do it right now, I have in the past put them out 4-5am & went back to bed.

Good luck, and it's great that you caught it early!

 

[pinck43]

Is she on grass? I have a mare that is showing signs and guessing it is the rich grass so she has a muzzle on when on pasture.

 

[shorthorsemom]

Kim is right about the exercise after initial.flare up. I don t stall my guys. I put in pea gravel loafing area. Pea gravel supports the sole and frog of the foot if deep enough and can aid in keeping blood flowing and aid circulation. There are good support type horse sneakers and frog support things like Lilly pads commercially avail if things progress them wrong direction and u need more help. Since Kim told me about morning grass vs afternoon grass I have been really careful with my grazing time even with muzzles on. Every little bit helps.

 

[MyMiniGal]

I'm so sorry. Praying it won't get any worse and she will heal fine.

 

[wingnut]

UPDATE:

My farrier and his wife came out this afternoon. They have known my Izzy since first coming out to trim her hooves as a yearling. We've often talked about how she's my "most likely to" horse with regards to develop laminitis. April has been through laminitis with a big horse in the past. Based on her experiences, she agreed that Izzy is definitely tender in the front hooves but also in the back. She feels some slight warmth but not hot. She's the most concerned about Izzy's thick neck. Despite having lost a good deal of weight (and she confirmed what I see...about 50-70lbs) because of my change in their feeding management. When you exclude her neck, she's looking so much better than a year ago. Unfortunately, the top of her neck is VERY thick.

Dave, the farrier, then trimmed her. It's only been 4 weeks since their last visit. She has uneven hoof growth all around, apparently another indication. Thankfully, no lesions and no abscesses.

While I already "knew" what we are dealing with, it really hit me hard to hear someone else say the words out loud. Yes, we've caught it early. Yes, I'm doing the right things with regards to first steps. Yes, I will be calling my vet in the a.m. to move to next steps. I'm just so broken up that we are once again facing another round of stressful days, weeks and months. It was this time last year we were watching our now 15 yr old starving right in front of us, finally learning in late June that she had a condition that caused her to be unable to properly absorb nutrition. I thought having gotten through that and coming out successfully on the the "other side" we would be "good" for a while. I guess not.

I'll update again when I have more news. Thanks again for all the advice, concern, prayers and support. It is truly and wholly appreciated.

 

[vickie gee]

While my IR horse was going through her bout with laminitis the farrier came every 4 weeks for about 10 months. I would always have a couple of other horses caught so he could do at least 3 at a time. If I have 3 or more he charges $25 per horse. He and the vet were in complete agreement on the importance of a trim every 4 weeks in her case.

A safe natural pain reliever is Devil's Claw. You can get it at health food stores. I would just break open the capsules and sprinkle on her food. I would also use the roll on DMSO when she was at her worst. She has done great on Purina Wellness Low Starch. There is a farm supply store that does special orders for me. She also gets beet pulp but I rinse it thoroughly to get rid of the molasses after it has soaked. I also drop a vitamin E pill in her beet pulp. I was advised by others to keep doing the vitamin E pill always. She would not eat it in her feed, but she does not notice it in the beet pulp. Also I sprinkle a bit of cinnamon on the beet pulp.

So glad you caught this early. My girl is back to her running, bucking, sassy, beautiful self. She is even more gorgeous now that she has slimmed down and now her coat is so shiny. Her mane went from straggly and having huge dandruff like flakes to being extra thick and no flakes. When she does get to join some of the others in the pasture I muzzle her right after a feeding and turn her out. That way she is not so frustrated about not getting grass and just enjoys the socializing. I let her hay soak while she is out and then drain it, drop it in a hay net, and walk out to get her with the hay net in my hand. Instead of running away to keep from being caught she realizes that is her hay and is ready to come to me to go to her pen and munch hay.

 

[targetsmom]

My IR mare (avatar) has been struggle to get her diet just right, but she is now on Nutrena Safe Choice Special Care (NOT the original one) and doing well. We buy beet pulp with no molasses, and all the horses have gotten used to that! She is on dry lot and only gets a bite or two of grass after jumping or driving. She is also on Remission, which is an inexpensive supplement designed for IR horses to help prevent laminitis. I highly recommend it, although it does "calm" them down a bit and for an all-around performance horse, that was a challenge, but for most minis, not an issue!

I only soaked her hay when I first realized she was IR (she has a heavy crest) but now she gets the same grass hay that she has been doing well on for a long time. My very first horse foundered and it was a nightmare, because each time it happened with less and less reason - or seemingly no reason at all. Good luck with her!!!