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Sep 01 2020
Laminitis
Home » Laminitis
Laminitis means inflammation of the laminae of the hoof. Another term for laminitis is “founder”. The laminae are folded ridges that interlock and glue the hoof wall to the pedal bone. In laminitis, there is damage to the interlocking laminae resulting in separation of the pedal bone from the hoof wall. In severe cases this may allow the pedal bone to rotate or fall through the sole.
Horses that have had laminitis may have growth rings in the hoof wall, they may have a dished appearance to the hoof, a depression in the coronary band and often a dropped sole. Once an animal has had laminitis it will always be prone to laminitis. Laminitis is controlled, never cured.
Risk factors:
- Obesity – the most common risk factor!!!!
- Being a pony – ponies are at a higher risk of laminitis, but it still can occur even in the biggest of horses.
- Overeating of foods rich in carbohydrate or rapidly fermentable fibre ie. grains, coarse mixes, or simply new grass growth. The grass does not have to be long and lush, a small amount of new grass growth in a short paddock after a bout of rain is all it takes sometimes.
- Any illness which involves a“toxemia”. This may be a bacterial infection or following the ingestion of plant or chemical toxins.
- Cushing’s Disease. This is a condition due to an abnormality of the pituitary gland in the horse’s brain. Horses fail to shed their winter coat, the coat becomes long and curly, they may drink and urinate excessively.
- Weight-bearing laminitis. When the horse is severely lame on one leg and has to put all his weight on the other limb they often suffer from laminitis in the weightbearing limb.
- Concussive laminitis (road founder). When horses are subjected to fast or prolonged work on hard surfaces they may develop laminitis as a result of trauma to the laminae.
- Equine Metabolic Syndrome – Hormonal problems in animals which are “good doers”- similar to a type II diabetes.
Signs of laminitis:
If your horse gets laminitis, call your veterinary surgeon. Laminitis is just as much an emergency as colic, and often just as painful.
A correctly fitted frog support will improve the comfort of over 80% of laminitis cases. They gain immediate relief and change their stance. Laminitis cases tend to adopt a heel loading and toe relieving stance with the limbs thrust out forwards. After fitting frog supports, the horse brings his feet back under himself and stands with his affected limbs in a more normal position.
The principle of fitting frog supports is to increase the thickness of the horse’s frog so that when he stands, some of his weight is taken through the frog, and thus relieves some of the weight taken through the wall and hence the laminae. The laminae in laminitis horses are both painful and unstable. Frog supports therefore reduce the strain on the laminae and reduce the likelihood of the pedal bone sinking/rotating.
You will need two bandages; a soft cotton bandage to place along the frog, and an elastoplast type bandage to wrap around the foot in order to keep the cotton bandage in place.
Firstly, pick out the foot and brush it clean of mud and other debris. Place the cotton bandage along the frog and look across the ground surface of the foot. The cotton bandage should be about 1- 1.5 cm higher than the walls of the foot at the quarters.
If necessary cut down the bandage roll so that when one end is placed about 1 cm behind the true point of frog, the other end finishes at the base of frog.
One person then holds up the foot and keeps the cotton bandage in the correct place along the frog while the other person wraps the foot with the elastoplast bandage to keep the frog support in place. Be sure not to bandage tightly over the coronary band and the heels. If the elastoplast does go over the coronary band it should be trimmed with scissors. In stabled horses frog supports such as these may stay in place for up to one week. Monitor and change them if the heel areas are filling up with shavings or the toe is worn through.
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