My Wb mare came down with steroid induced acute laminitis over a year and a half ago …we caught it right away luckily. She’s fully recovered and has been back to work since last March. We did a complete diet /life style change which included the ECIR group recommended “emergency diet” and took her completely off grass…she has since been getting turned out in my arena…her IR is controlled through a low sugar forage based diet , exercise . My question is has anyone successfully put their IR horses back on pasture after they’ve had a bout of laminitis?? One of my vets says no it’s too risky , and my other says that she should be ok so long as she’s muzzled. I hate the idea of her not being able to “be a horse” and out on pasture ever again …she never had any issues with grass prior to the steroid incident.
Has she had any testing done for IR, EMS, PPID?
If tested and normal, that’s different than tested and an issue identified.
Mini threatened laminitis 3yrs ago.
Caught very early, so nothing needed beyond a week of banamine & diet change.
Added Thyro-L & switched to Triple Crown Sr. (from whole oats).
I drylotted everyone (for my convenience) for about a month, until I got a muzzle.
Then limited pasture time - out until 4P, then fields shut.
Now he’s muzzled from ~7A until 4P, fed grain, then remuzzled until 10P & out on pasture overnight.
He had a flareup about 2yrs ago in Fall, but since then no recurrence.
If he looks the least bit off, I’ll dose with 1cc banamine, but that hasn’t happened for many months.
Once the grass is gone, the muzzle will come off & stay off until Spring.
At the time of acute laminitis her insulin & glucose tested high …but that’s also to be expected to some degree because stress /pain/inflammation can increase insulin …once she was recovered we retested and her levels were within the normal range
Seven years ago my horse had a laminitis attack that was definitely caused from being overweight and eating too much lush grass. Now I limit how much grass he can eat, but he’s not totally restricted. He gets turnout on pasture every day from dawn to dusk, most of the time wearing a muzzle. He’s always stalled at night. When days are long and grass is growing I put him in a dry lot for 3-4 hours in the middle of the day to get off the grass and take a break from the muzzle. When days are shorter and grass is not growing, such as during winter or a drought, he gets more time out with no muzzle. I make sure he doesn’t gain too much weight, and especially when the grass is lush I monitor his digital pulses. In the seven years since his laminitis episode he hasn’t had a single recurrence, so yes, it is possible to put a horse back on pasture after a bout of laminitis. It just depends on the particular horse and the particular circumstances.
@lapidus, it’s not clear from your post whether your mare is really insulin resistant. As you noted, the stress of the laminitis attack could elevate the glucose, so the high glucose alone doesn’t necessarily mean she is insulin resistant, especially since it returned to normal once the attack subsided. If you do decide to put your mare back on pasture, do it gradually and with a muzzle. If you don’t already know how, learn how to check the digital pulses and evaluate her body condition score.
In addition to restricting my horse’s grass intake, I also separate his vaccines and wormers, so that he doesn’t have too many stressors on his system at one time. For example, the vet gives the rabies vaccine, and 2-3 weeks later I give the tetanus/west nile/encephalitis combo. I give the wormer when it won’t conflict with vaccines. And finally, I look for hay from warm season grasses, because it tends to be lower in sugars than hay from cool season grasses.
So the follow up testing was done while the horse was on 0 grass? I’d be inclined to try short, am grazing sessions and see how she does then follow up with addtl bloodwork once she’s getting some grass.
Follow up testing was done not on grass as I’ve been too scared to risk putting her out on it …but as someone els mentioned she might not even be IR …we have just been treating and managing her as if she was to be on the safe side …like I said she never had any issue being on grass prior to the steroids …she’s a Wb mare that I’ve had since she was 4yr old …this happened at around 9 years of age …at the time that it occurred she was a little overweight as she had the entire winter off while my barn and indoor got built …but all my horses including her always got the winters off and brought back to work come spring without any issues ever.
Your situation sounds very similar to mine.9 year old WB mare who foundered because of either steroids or the underlying inflammation (allergic reaction) that required the steroids. We tested her for IR out of an abundance of caution because she’s always been on the heavy side. Came back negative.
I have had her on grass since then. She wears a grazing muzzle, but because she doesn’t need the calories, not because of sugar concerns. I build her up slowly in the spring and check her feet every day during the build up phase. But we have had no issues.
Sample size of one, I know, but based on my experience, I think you could safely try it.
I think we certainly could try it …but I’m not sure now being fall is a safe time ?? Just as much as spring isn’t safe as far as sugar goes either …I could do some bloodwork again when the vet comes out next month to do fall vaccines to see where she’s at …obviously if her numbers aren’t in the normal ranges then I won’t attempt trying it unless her numbers are normal….I don’t for see any issues though beings that her diet is controlled /low sugar and she is exercising regularly…my only worry would be if she gets the muzzle off
Ha, my mare recently redoubled her efforts to get her muzzle off. I use the GG muzzle and special halter. I shortened the chin strap up as snug as I could make it while still allowing her to flex and she was still getting it off. Read a tip somewhere on COTH about doing a braid around the crownpiece – works brilliantly. It hasn’t come off since I started doing that. Might be something to try to give you peace of mind.
Ok …,I’ll have to look that up !
