Laminitis or bruised soles?

[Bellathemustang]

I brought my pony home just over a week ago, but our fence wasn’t done so she was locked in the run in which doubles as a stall. The ground thawed and refroze, so she had the muddy moon crater going for a bit. We lunged and rode daily, she was great, very frisky. The fence got done Saturday night, and she raced around the yard for a while, I have never seen her move so fast. She also grazed on the dead winter grass (WI in January). This morning she is super ouchy on all 4 feet. She doesn’t even want to walk when I try to move her. Her legs are shaking, but her body is warm under her blanket. She has been on pasture since I’ve had her and never had an issue.

I gave her banamine and am going to get the vet out, but since it will be a new vet I’d like any insight on laminitis vs bruised soles/general lameness from overdoing it. Her hoof walls feel warm, faint pulse as always, bottom of feet looks great. She keeps shuffling and is basically just miserable looking. Good news is we are back to 20 degrees today, so shes getting her legs and feet iced whether she wants it or not. We’ve got some snow flurries too. If we can get a few inches that will really be ideal!

She gets soaked hay due to heaves, so she is on a laminitis friendly diet already. I am hesitant to move her to the run in if it is bruising, since the moon craters will make it worse. The grass is so brown and dead, I have a hard time thinking it is founder. Especially since I put her on lush pasture in the past with no issues. She did get wormed Saturday too, but spit out most of it (worming fail), and has never had an issue in the past. She saw her normal farrier before we moved, about 2 weeks ago now, and her hooves were great.

Any advice or questions to ask the vet would be greatly appreciated. She has had a million and one issues, but never lameness!

[candyappy]

All I know is that when I moved in Sept 2010 my mare was on our large pasture . Our new place was not fenced yet so the 2 horses had to go from living on 8 acres to a section in the barn using my round pen panels and a 10 foot area attached outside. Footing was soft but good and she got hay I brought from our property. I lightly exercised her daily.

1 week later I went out to find her rooted in place with the classic laminitis stance.

So yes, an extreme change of living conditions in some cases( at least in mine) can bring it on. She was treated by a vet and has been fine ever since.

Vet seemed to think it was a combination of living space plus a long trailer ride although she trailers well and settled in just fine.

[Bellathemustang]

Of course she is moving fine now… HORSES!!! “Hi new vet, here is my horse that is walking fine now, but I swear she was dead lame at the walk this morning. What should I do?”

I am going to keep watching, but it looks like maybe she got a bit of laminitis from the changes. We are going to keep her on pasture since she doesn’t have a history of sugar sensitivity, and again dead grass. She is also used to pasture, not boarding, so putting her in the run in with the moon crater mud will probably be worse. I gave her such a small does of banamine, it shouldn’t have helped THAT much. Hopefully it is just a mild case that she will snap out of

It does look like there might be a small bruise on the wall of her one white hoof. The wall has a small area of redness on the outside but isn’t hot and doesn’t have a strong pulse. Vet recommended ice either way, and the weather is providing that.

[WildandWickedWarmblo]

You check the digital pulse in the leg to see if the pony has laminitis. Then you have the vet out asap to do radiographs and check the pulse also.
Take the pony off of grass now. Let the vet determine the cause of lameness.

[Bellathemustang]

@WildandWickedWarmbloods

You check the digital pulse in the leg to see if the pony has laminitis. Then you have the vet out asap to do radiographs and check the pulse also.

Hers is always super faint. Her vet in our old state was a teaching hospital, and most of the students couldn’t find it. So if I can feel it I know something is REALLY wrong. I couldn’t find it today and it was faint for the vet.

She seems much more comfortable, and there isn’t a strong heat from any hoof. She is walking normally and standing normally now, and was when the vet came. Hopefully she just had a mild bought of laminitis that is passing. If she is off again tomorrow vet will bring the radiology truck out.

Good news is we are doing everything the vet would recommend for laminitis. Stalling wont be ideal for her, since the stress of being stalled might have caused it. The only additional thing he might recommend is a grazing muzzle. But he agreed the grass is an unlikely culrpit, it is more likely another stressor associated with the move. Including overdoing it when she finally got turned out.

I actually feel a lot better after looking insane in front of the vet. And her hair hasn’t even grown back from her eye removal, so she’s just the hot mess express!

[Highflyer]

I would do the muzzle, personally. It falls under “can’t hurt, might help.”

[Bellathemustang]

The vet called to follow up, she is 100% normal now, she walked away from me just fine when I went to check on her

He mentioned something that seems so obvious, I feel so stupid for not considering it. He suggested it might be arthritis. She got so much better once she warmed up this morning. I made her walk to show her where I moved her water, but she took each step so gingerly and on her toes. At first it looked like all 4 were off, like she didn’t want to put weight anywhere. And she kept shifting her weight when she was standing still, like she couldn’t get comfortable. But it just didn’t feel like laminitis, she wasn’t trying to alleviate pressure from her heals, and her hooves are like the one thing she has going for her. So I thought maybe bruising from her moon crater mud freezing. But she got better SO fast. I gave her 5ml of banamine, which should not have been enough for this drastic response, especially since it has been 10 hours. That improvement would fit if it was arthritis and she felt a lot better after walking around more. And the sun probably warned her little legs up.

She is the right age (18), and her chiro has pointed out an old stifle injury. Its on the opposite hind leg I thought the lameness was, but I very well could have been wrong. And she just tore around the yard after being confined for a week, so maybe she is just a little sore and feeling her age.

She really didn’t want to go 5 steps this morning and now she is 100% fine. I would hop on and ride her no second thought if I didn’t see her this morning and just came home to ride.

I might not tell the husband about this vet call. He will think I was crazy. But you have to call if it might be laminitis. Limping and not wanting to walk was reason enough for me to suspect laminitis.

[Bellathemustang]

@Highflyer

I would do the muzzle, personally. It falls under “can’t hurt, might help.”

I think I will have to use one occasionally anyway for optimum pasture management, so its not a bad idea to use this as an excuse to get her used to it. There will be times where its either grazing muzzle or locked in the dry paddock (once that gets built). I am sure she would prefer the pasture to paddock. And with the muzzle she can still graze and get a little bit of long grass. Enough to help the day pass.

[Scribbler]

Dead grass isn’t necessarily low sugar, just like hay isn’t necessarily low sugar.

[Palm_Beach]

OP I think you were dealing with laminitis and should not discount the dead grass as harmless. There is a lot of good information on this website: www.safergrass.org.

[SummerRose]

You mentioned that she raced around for a while and it sounds like there have been some pretty significant conditions/environmental changes recently - is tying up a possibility?

[Bellathemustang]

@SummerRose

You mentioned that she raced around for a while and it sounds like there have been some pretty significant conditions/environmental changes recently - is tying up a possibility?

I thought about that too. Especially since she normally gets soaked hay cubes, but has been grazing instead. The decreased water intake might have exacerbated symptoms. She was REALLY crazy, bucking and full out galloping around the yard. I had really never seen her move like that. She drank half of her 5 gallon heated bucket last night, which is a lot for her. I wish there was snow on the ground so I could check her urine color and poop.

I REALLY wish I could get just one clear cut diagnosis with one horse related issue! I have 6 other animals and they are super easy to diagnose. What is it with horses!?!

Good news is she is still 100% today. I can see her from my office window and she has been walking all over the yard. He steps are perfect and she is moving at various paces within the walk and standing completely normally. She really was SUPER lame yesterday. I could barely get her to walk, and she stumbled twice in the 15 or so steps I did get out of her. She was just as bad straight as circling, but in the afternoon was making small, perfect circles. She lost her right eye and circles a lot to get a full field of view. Lameness lasted maybe 3 hours, and she has been fine since.

I am going to ask the vet if I can get radiographs to establish a baseline in case it pops up again. And I am going to lunge her at the walk with a few trot transitions tomorrow if she is still doing well. I will wait until this weekend to do a quick ride at the walk and just count steps to see if I can feel anything I can’t see. I don’t want to borrow trouble, but she deserves the best!

I did also order a grazing muzzle so I can limit her grass intake while out on pasture. Just in case that is a contributing factor. I also found a place that will test the grass. I am going to do that now and in the spring to get a handle on the sugar content. We are getting a mini as a companion and I don’t want to risk his cute little self foundering either.

[Palm_Beach]

You gave her banamine, right? If her feet were bruised, they’d still be bruised today. I’d just really be careful with the grass until the muzzle gets there.

[Bellathemustang]

@Palm Beach

You gave her banamine, right? If her feet were bruised, they’d still be bruised today. I’d just really be careful with the grass until the muzzle gets there.

Yep, I gave her 5ML banamine orally on Monday. She has been 100% fine since. I seriously would be riding her if I didn’t see her Monday morning. I am super happy she is fine, but really wish I knew what happened!

She laid down in the sun yesterday and I got her up and made her walk, she was fine. Then she laid down again and I watched her instead. She rolled (not thrashed, rubbed her face on the sun warmed grass and looked thrilled) then got up, shook off, and walked off across the pasture fine.

My husband thinks I am being over protective and noticing every little thing now that she is home. But not wanting to walk is not good! No matter how brief. Thank god for COTH You all make me feel sane for fretting!

I will say when I look at her hooves I can see the change when I got her. She was SUPER sick and on dex for a while. There is a ring where the hoof wall kind of dents in for a while. So I know weird things can change the hooves. She has been through a lot the past week and a half. The radiographs came back fine though, we could trim her toes a little more, normally the farrier files the mustang roll which takes a hair more off the toes, but didn’t this last time, and I didn’t notice at the time but looking back I know he didn’t. I might talk to the new farrier about me filing between trims, especially her back toes which she will drag every so often (tight stifles and laziness).

I’ve been extra diligent with checking her feet, Frogs are fine, white line is tight, walls and sole look good. I poke and prod and nothing gets a reaction. Vet scraped off some frog, and no sign of abscess or sole bruising. I found a great barefoot farrier by recommendation that I will get out for a trim here soon. She just got done 2 weeks ago. And the grazing muzzle should be arriving here today or tomorrow.

Anything else any of you would do?

[pologirl27]

I’m just going to say, since no one else has, that work on hard ground can set off a laminitic episode. So racing around on frozen ground could cause it. Sounds like the issue has passed, but keep that in mind for the future.

[Bellathemustang]

@pologirl27

I’m just going to say, since no one else has, that work on hard ground can set off a laminitic episode. So racing around on frozen ground could cause it. Sounds like the issue has passed, but keep that in mind for the future.

That would definitely fit. She was bucking and jumping too, definitely more than I had ever seen her do and more than her body is used to. I am obviously hoping it is something like that and not the grass.