My farrier came out this past Friday and said one of my horses was starting to look laminitic. She mentioned he was short strided and I had told her he is tight when we turn to the right. She did say his soles looked pretty good though.
She made a few suggestions on their diet so I reached out to my nutritionist to discuss.
My question is should I get my vet involved now?
I don’t have any experience with laminitis. Any info/things to look out for would be appreciated. Thanks!
A vet check would probably be a good idea since you have no experience with laminitis issues. Horse should have no grain or grass. Is the horse overweight?
Second the vet check since you haven’t dealt with this previously. I’ll jump to conclusions and say your guy has been enjoying the spring grass. Pull him off of it ASAP. Do you have access to a dry lot or more barren pasture? If not he’ll likely need to go into a stall. If the laminitis bout is mild it may only be a few weeks before you can reintroduce some grazing but he may need to be muzzled in the future. Good luck, it’s a tricky little condition but can be managed!
Plain grass hay (no pasture), sole support, vet. Laminitis, suspected or real, is nothing to mess around with, and if he is laminitic the sooner he gets treatment the better the outcome will be. If it’s a false alarm nbd. Just talk to your vet about laminitis while they’re there, and be glad it was a false alarm.
Off the grass immediately. No grain. Soak your hay. Call your vet. Also, check out the ECIR group. Lots of good information there.
^ and Jingles & AO ~
They are in a dry lot most of the time with hay and get a few hours of turnout on grass 5 days a week. I was told to continue our current grass turnout schedule for now, but will have the vet out and discuss with them.
Should I continue riding him? I ride about twice a week, thirty minutes of mostly walking and trotting. We also do ground week about twice a week that includes walking the property in hand and sometimes my 4 year old rides him bareback while I hand walk him.
You need to have the vet out now. Whether you can ride is a question for the vet at your appointment.
Laminitis is an emergency! People are sometimes to slow to react and it can cost the horse a good outcome. I would not put him on grass until you see the vet and determine if this is laminitis because if it is putting him on grass could be like throwing fuel on a fire. Does he have a digital pulse?
I just talked with the vet and he did tell me to keep him off grass for now. He is coming out early next week which was the first available time.
I have not checked for a digital pulse but will tonight.
Grab the top of the middle of the neck. Can you move it from side to side?
If you cannot. This means that your feeding regime is to blame and needs to be changed immediately.
Stop all grain immediately. Grassy hay only. Only minutes on the grass to keep that in their system. Research feeding horses.
You may be lucky and have caught it before it happened. Thank your lucky stars.
If the horse is in pain you can tell as they will stand with their front feet forward to try to relieve pain. They won’t want to walk. There will be no riding. Apply cold to the hooves. The easiest way is to lead into a dam. Dig a hole to add water to if needed. Add ice cubes if needed. Use a bucket of water or apply ice to the hooves. Take to the vet if you cannot get the vet to you.
This is not something to play with. It is urgent.
What triggered the possible laminitis? Vet ASAP! Ice from the fetlock down, bute low sugar hay, slow feeder. No grain!
!!!
I don’t understand what “a little laminitic” means…Our mare that had laminitis last spring came in looking a little sore one day. She’s high risk - cresty, pony breed, a little overweight at the time. I called the vet immediately, and she was there within the hour. Despite early intervention, she did have some sinking, though she is completely sound now.
I imagine the OP might have meant the horse was somewhat foot sore when being trimmed . As opposed to the unmistakable parked out stance that many show. While it could be laminitis it can vary in severity from mild to major depending on circumstances.
I agree it should always be dealt with immediately if suspected.
As others have said even suspected laminitis is an EMERGENCY and your farrier should have done more than just say “starting to look laminitic” unless he meant horse’s weight, fat pads or something indicated he may be at risk for developing laminitis in the future which still needs some immediate action (NO MO GRASS) and vet advise (blood work diet advise etc), but is totally different than hoof looking laminitic. Pulses should have been checked and grass proclaimed to be the DEVIL within like 5 seconds and then vet should have been on the way, not a week away. I am NOT trying to bash you, who is trying to educate yourself, at all or even your farrier who I will give some benefit of the doubt to and consider he meant the horse’s body condition or thought you had previously been educated in what steps to take…your vet on the other hand should have asked for temp, pulses etc and get out there in hours to evaluate, xray and treat with drugs, frog supports etc etc or refer you to another who can. I AM trying to teach urgent crash course in how serious suspected laminitis is and how swiftly it should be dealt with…literally can mean the difference between life and death. I hope your boy is not laminitic and gets all better soon!!!
^^^Noooo. Grass hay can be high in NSC, which is not good for laminitis prone horses. OP, you’ll want to test your hay. Until the results come back and you can confirm it’s not too high in NSC, soak the hay for 30 minutes in warm/hot water or 60 minutes in cold water. It has to be immersed, you can’t just hose it off. No grass until the vet gives you a formal diagnosis. I never allow any horse who has had laminitis or who looks like a laminitis prone horse full access to grass. They always have a muzzle on when out on pasture, unless it’s winter and there is truly nothing out there. Stubble (super grazed down grass) can be pretty bad for them because any fructans produced by the plant is stored right in the tip where the horse eats it.
Neither my vet or farrier felt it was an emergency, so I’m assuming the farrier was referring to the horses body condition. He was seen less than two months ago by my vet for his annual and my equine nutritionist. They agreed that he was a tad overweight then and my nutritionist wanted me to continue the feed plan she has set up for him with the plan to re-evaluate if started look like he was gaining weight. (The horse has only been with me about 2 months)
Recently I noticed he was looking like he was indeed putting on weight, I mentioned this to my farrier, along with his stiffness to the right when circling. She noticed he was walking short strided. She said he was starting to look laminitic, to take him off grain and grass, and keep an eye on it. Because she was so casual about it I didn’t think much of it - but thought I would check in here since I don’t have any experience with laminitis, and don’t really know what to look for!
My nutritionist suggested a ration balancer to replace the grain.
He is off grass until my vet comes (per vet request). He is not visibly lame to my eye but I may try to get a video for those of you who have a better eye.
I could feel the tiniest digital pulse in his right front, but none in his left front. However I have never felt for that before so take that for what it is!
OK a tad overweight and gaining despite a nutritionist’s feed plan and foot sore SCREAMS laminitic due to a 'metabolic malfunction" such as cushings disease, insulin resistance etc. or carbohydrate overload due to TOO MUCH SPRING GRASS. Excellent that you got him off the grass and stopped or plan to stop grain. Blood work should be done to determine if pony has any sort of endocrine or metabolic disorder and a low starch diet (soaked hay, no grain, no grass) should be started like yesterday. Did your nutritionist once mention keeping him on a low NSC (low carbohydrate/low sugar) diet? Were they aware he would have access to spring grass? Again, please take this a “crash course” type of education rather than criticism you are doing your best and trying to learn quickly. I can not see the horse or feel his feet so perhaps this is not as bad as comes across the computer screen, but Please call your vet and tell them you feel a pulse and hopefully that gets them out quicker.
I’d also be wondering why, for a horse that was a ‘tad overweight’, that a nutritionist wanted to keep the feed plan the horse was on vs something to trim some of the weight off.
Also, horses don’t necessarily park out until the pain in their front feet gets bad enough, which is way past when they should have been treated.
So don’t make the mistake that so many make by thinking (hoping) that if the horse isn’t parked out (hind legs under, front legs stretched out in front) they’re not laminitic.
If you suspect that he might possibly be laminitic then get him off grass, grain, and any starchy hay, and tape pads to the bottoms of this hooves until you’re sure he’s not laminitic.
It’s a simple, easy, low risk treatment that can make the difference between soundness vs a lifetime of disability and pain.
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