I think she might be ever so slightly in less pain this morning (not as much shifting her weight from side to side) - a little bit of Christmas hope!
Is poulticing the feet beneficial for laminitis? I couldn’t really find any info on that. I have the Sore No More hoof poultice, just not sure if I should be using it under the foam pads or not…
I’m following this thread w great empathy, and the hope of learning new things myself. I’m glad she seems a bit better.
I would not poultice. Having to stand on three legs while you work on one is surely not beneficial. I know my boy hurt when I had to put on/take off his SoftRide boots. Keep doing what you’re doing, it is working!
A trick for when those arrive: use Gold Bond powder inside to help with moisture build up/stink! It really helped my guy’s feet.
Agree re: poultice and I don’t think you want to make the sole softer. The Gold Bond powder is genius!
So sorry you both are going through this. Had a Cushings horse but he wasn’t IR or laminitic, so I have no wisdom to impart. Thanks much to the other COTHers for offering such great advice.
OP - Hang in there. Keeping you and your girl in my thoughts and prayers. 
If in a lot of pain they lose a lot of weight.
I probably wouldn’t just because it’s already going to be hard to have her hold her feet up, and prolonging it isn’t going to help much.
You could mix DMSO and a pain relief liniment and put it above her coronary band. The DMSO should (hopefully) carry the liniment into her skin and possibly provide a bit more relief.
When my horse had an acute episode of laminitis and went to new bolton they had him on bute, acetaminophen and trazadone. The trazadone is an antipsychotic that acts as a sedative. They said they wanted him to lay down and take care of himself and get off his feet. Just another idea to help. Mine was IR as ir turned out.
If you have to tend to the hooves, when she is not standing in shavings, double fold a bath towel and quickly stick it under the opposite hoof.
If you need to clean the back hooves, stick a bath towel under both fronts — this is when you wish you had an extra pair of arms with a long reach:)
For as bad as my horse had foundered, he never “assumed the stance”, and never rocked. He did lay down in his stall a lot but he also has a fractured sacrum, so that really compounded his issue and why I wasn’t sure if he could recover from the severe rotation.
I hope you have a great professional team who are also capable of thinking outside the box, if they have to. I have stood on my head (regarding care) and written check after check for my horse, since 2012 but I could not have seen the level of recovery and quality of life this horse still enjoys were it not for his professional caregivers 
Trazadone is an antidepressant mostly with mild sedating properties that are super effective in humans. Considered much safer to use than benzodiazepines like Xanax because it’s not considered addictive. It can be used to treat psychosis but it’s not really an antipsychotic. Probably just alleviates the anxiety/agitation. Never heard of it’s use in horses ! That’s so interesting. Thanks for sharing your experience.
I think she seems even a bit more comfortable today! She’s started to follow me around in her stall when I’m cleaning it, when just a day ago she wouldn’t move even if I asked her to. She’s also gone back to her more stereotypical mare behaviour of making faces if anyone goes near her when she’s eating, which she had stopped doing once this started. So she must be feeling better if she thinks it’s worthwhile “protecting” her food.
She thankfully really likes her stall, so anxiety/ boredom hasn’t been an issue (yet), I’ve caught her laying down a few times, so she is getting off of her feet at least sometimes.
The boots are supposed to arrive tomorrow. Fingers crossed those make a difference for her.
The farrier is coming out on the 29th (one week from the last trim after the x-rays) to reevaluate her hooves/ trim more as needed. The farrier is thinking of weekly/ biweekly visits for the next little while to keep on top of the excess heel growth.
The vet wants to recheck blood work and x-rays in 4-6 weeks.
I know circulation is important for laminitis; when should I see about hand-walking her? I’m assuming once she can at least somewhat comfortably walk? The heat seems to be mostly gone from her hooves now.
I know with mine, my vet was extremely cautious about walking. At this stage, you really don’t want them moving around a whole lot. I would ask your vet, but for mine, I’m sure he’d be saying no walking til that next appointment you mentioned (4-6 weeks out for blood work and rads). I’m trying to remember, but I think when my welsh cob had a very mild bout last spring, it was several weeks before he was cleared to start walking. I kept asking my vet and he kept telling me to wait!
I’m glad your mare is doing better. The boots should help. And much easier than the duct tape and foam routine!
Active laminitis is not improved by walking. The laminae are a lot like velcro, and right now your horse’s velcro is starting to fail. The more she moves, the more the velcro pulls apart. Check with your vet, but most will say no more movement than absolutely necessary until the acute attack is over.
Ditto to no hand walking. She is starting to move in her stall, which is a good thing but letting her move at her own pace is the best thing for now.
Great news your farrier is trying to stay on top of things:)
I hope the boots arrive Monday and they bring her much relief. If they do, don’t be upset if that relief doesn’t last and you need to look for an alternative.
It was my experience that, something would work for 4-6 months and I would have to look for something different. That could mean a different type of boot, barefoot with various tyoes of packing, or shoes. Now that we see how fantastic composite shoes are for comfort and to reduce concussion, my horse will never wear a metal type shoe again:)
Anyway, always be on the alert and always have Plans B, C, D & E, lol
I’ve used it a bunch for stall rest and turnout for rehabbers. It’s a very useful medication when they need it.
My horse was on trazadone when rehabbing after reserpine didnt work for him. It helped. He eventually had a side effect of noisy breathing, though he passed all respiratory tests. Fortunately we could stop the medication at that point anyway.
It seems like your horse is a little better and that is wonderful! For the future keep in mind that icing the feet does nothing for metabolic laminitis. Also, Thyro-L will help jump start weight loss, but, it does NOT lower insulin. Decreasing weight can help lower insulin, but after the excess weight is off, continuing to use Thyro-L will not help.
For all the latest treatment information of IR and PPID please join/read the ECIR group. A lot of what my local vet was telling me was very old and outdated, to borderline harmful information. That group really opened my eyes to what was possible given the right treatment.
My IR mare has had two bouts of laminitis in the past year. First bout came with 8 degree rotation in both fronts. She was weeks before she was sound. I’d say she was about 15 days or so before she felt like wandering out of her deeply bedded stall into her dry lot. Then she was probably 3 months before she was sound enough to start doing a bit of hand walking on soft ground. The re-aligning trims (we do xrays about every 3 months, and her trim cycle is every 4 weeks) and getting the weight off were the major helpers. We were on levothyrine for about 6 months during which time she lost a little under 100 lbs. We had a setback in February of last year when we had a major cold snap (they say there’s no such thing as winter laminitis - I beg to differ). I agree with the others who’ve said to lay off the pain meds a bit to discourage movement/encourage them to lie down a bit (but of course don’t allow them to be in excruciating pain). ECIR group will become your new bible. Good luck! Laminitis sucks.
Yes, I’ve been doing research and it doesn’t seem like Levothyroxine directly lowers insulin levels. But it also doesn’t seem like there is a specific medication that does? I found some clinical trials testing new drugs, but I don’t know if they’re available/ what the long term success rate is.
We’re experiencing record breaking cold where we are right now, and my pony seems to be back to the same level of pain again (shifting weight and looking slightly miserable).
Since this is an endocrine related laminitis episode, I’m thinking it will be quite a while before it is under control? Because the inflammation won’t go down until her insulin levels are under control, correct?
Sometimes I wonder how kind it is to put her through this… And what the probability is of her just having recurring episodes every year…
I have never dealt with cold induced laminitis, so I am hoping someone else chimes in. But maybe it would be more beneficial to do warm soaks on her feet than cold ones. Usually we want to keep heat away from something with inflammation, but I’m thinking if it’s cold induced than the pain may be from less blood flow, and heat would help increase blood flow.
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