Laminitis Learnings

When I was growing up on my grandparents’ farm, the horses they had were an old driving mare and three foundered ponies. It seemed all ponies foundered or were on their way to foundering. I know what founder looks like. I know how the horses stand and walk.
This last month, I have been telling Jet Ranger his daughter’s pony “Angel” and her filly “Me Too” were showing all the signs of pre-pony grass founder. Way, way overweight. On a body condition scale, plus 10, easy. Huge, heavy necks for mares and a hard crest starting. These girls don’t need saddles, just a piece of plywood to stand on.
The ponies had wintered well and the hay we had this year was super quality. Probably too good for the easy keepers. So when the new grass came up, and came up and came up with all the turns in the weather, those two girls were on my watch list.
Jet Ranger did not heed my warnings and thought I was just over reacting to their Rubenlike fleshyness. Saturday, I finally got him out to help me treat Angel because on top of my suspicion of developing laminitis, I did find for sure she was harboring a case of thrush.
The thrush had developed from the super wet ground we have endured this spring in the pastures as well as the fact that she has been limiting her movements around the pasture and not throwing naturally the debris from her hooves.
I trimmed her frog back, cut away all the dead tissue and dug out all the black from the crevices. I trimmed her feet, took back the toes, lowered the heels and scrubbed each one with warm water. I then brushed and scrubbed gentle iodine into every nook and cranny and duct taped over the entire hoof to keep it clean over night.
By morning, the thrush was non-existent, but Angel was still not moving willingly and was standing with that rocked back stance of a foundered horse. I retreated the hoofs with iodine and went back to the shop to study up.
Luckily, there have been advances with therapies for a foundered or laminitic horse since I was a kid. I studied how to tell how severe an attack was and possibly how old. In particular, I studied Pete Ramey’s articles on hoofrehab.com. I gathered materials and tools together and found two #1 EasyBoot Bares to put on her after the trim.
Some of the founder examples I read about were pretty extreme and I was relieved to find that everything indicated Angel’s case was mild and relatively recent once I studied her hooves with the new information fresh in my mind.
I trimmed her toes back to the white line, did the mustang roll and lowered her heels. I used the top inch of her hoof as a gauge for how her hoof wanted to grow. I soaked each foot then in a warm bucket of water and epson salts and then dried them off. A pad was added to the Bare Easyboots and each hoof powdered with Gold Bond power (great tip for sliding the boots on easily too!).
Her first dozen steps were odd and high. She had never worn the boots before. Then you could see the change in her attitude when she realized she could walk. Her eyes brightened and her ears came up and she marched around the corral. Each stride became more and more normal and unpained.
I turned her out with the boots on in the small pasture for the night and added a grazing muzzle to help her restrict her intake.
This morning she came walking up with a good speed. Not trotting yet, but I think it will come. She was quite willing to allow anything I wanted to do and I believe she realized all the fussing the last two days were what made her feel better. I reset the boots and checked everything over again. I gave her some free grazing time without the muzzle and later in the afternoon replaced it.
I was pretty full of my self when she walked off after two days of barely being able to shuffle around. All I can say is “Thank YOU” to Pete Ramey and what seems more of a miracle than a cure, as well as a huge “Thank You” to EasyCare for the wonderful things their boots can do.

I apologize for not having photos. For the first time, my little carry every where Olympus camera had a bad memory card and I lost all the photos from the last few days.