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Lamnitis in horses
Ok. My horse Sullivan might be lame and I was just wondering if anyone knows a way to help heal lamnitis faster and how I can help pass time faster while I cant ride him.
Thanks!
♥♥♥♥Meggy and Sully♥♥♥♥
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Well what happened to Sullivan to cause his laminitis? If it's an abcess or some open injury to the hoof, soaking is best. If there's swelling, there are cooling gels & other products to help swelling. Since i dont know Sullivan's real diagnosis, (whatever caused his laminitis) i cant give much more than that. Sorry! Hope i helped!
=Cat
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soak his/her foot in cool water
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Laminitis has the potential to cause damage to the lamellar tissues. The damage may be minimal or devastating. Often the level of pain presented by the horse indicates the level of damage. But this is certainly not always the case. A recurrent theme in any discussion of laminitis or founder is the range of affliction from mild to severe. Because it is by no means esay to assess in an emergent case the degree of severity that may ensue it is prudent to assume the case will be severe and to act accordingly. Such a posture will not significantly increase preliminary costs or degree of intrusiveness but may well significantly reduce overall costs and improve outcomes.
Technically, when laminitis causes damage to the laminae founder is the result. I want to stress that laminitis does not always result in founder. Laminitis leaves behind no scar whereas founder does. The threshold between laminitis and founder is widely variable among individuals.
Therapies used during laminitis are expected to prevent progression into founder. Therapies used during or after founder may be expected to affect three very different purposes; ease the pain caused by lamellar damage, to prevent further lamellar damage, or to reverse lamellar damage. The first of these, efforts to ease the pain, are for the most part in fact not therapeutic but palliative. They are implemented with insufficient potency to redirect the course of the condition. The second, prevention of further damage, is important but stops short of the third, which is to reverse damage, thereby restoring the lamellar tissues to a healthy state.
When seeking information about the treatment of founder you must consider what outcome you desire. The so called therapies directed toward reduction of pain include administration of "bute", application of foam or putty to the soles of the feet, sand or other soft footings and insufficient application of cold therapeutics. Sometimes forced exercise is recommended. Therapies directed at prevention of further lamellar damage include (often in addition to the above) mechanical devices used to stabilize the hoof/bone bond such as Heart Bar Shoes or many other devices intended to affect stabilization. Therapies directed at the reversal of lamellar damage include removal of the damaged lamellar tissues permitting the the re-establishment of normal hoof anatomy thereby promoting normal hoof form and function.
My feeling is that understanding of these options is of paramount importance. However, even when these options are well understood they may not be available to all horse owners. In most instances availability of resources dictates the level of therapeutic response. The resources in question are money, knowledge/experience and time. In most cases the restrictive factor will be knowledge/experience.
Good Luck :]
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They pretty much covered it but I have one more piece of advice to give you...DO NOT PUSH HIS RECOVERY! Let your horse heal himself with the help of a vet but do not ride him before he's ready. We tried doing this once (becasue we had a screwed up vet) and my pony ended up being lame for another year.
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From what I know about Laminitis, the horse has to be confined on clean soft bedding like shavings so that it can't use the affected hoof much, it must not under any circumstances eat fresh grass, you need to bring in hay or a mix of alfalfa and straw in bundles, and it needs to see a horse vet asap, as the longer it goes untreated, the worse it gets and could affect it's chances of recovery.
The pain appears to be something like if we shut our fingers in a car door, not pleasant.
If you want to pass the time whilst you can't ride him, and he is confined, he will need a lot of company, so spend time with him. If there are any other horses in the same place, maybe you could help out there. If this is not an option, between caring for your horse, it will you the opportunity to try something you've perhaps been interested in but not had the time before. Only you would have the answer to this. But maybe meeting with friends, trying one of their hobbies, spending with your family, going on trips etc.
Hope that helps and your horse gets better really quickly.
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First of all I believe you are talking about
'Laminitis'. If I remember from my horse days, Laminitis is not a single illness or disease, but one symptom of disease or disorder. So therefore without knowing the root cause it will be difficult to tell you how to heal it faster. If the underlying cause is not treated the laminitis will most likely not heal properly.
"When you can start riding again depends on how severe the symptoms were and how good the treatment response has been. If there is any rotation it will take at least eight months for the damaged areas to grow out. If no rotation has occurred two months rest and correction of the predisposing factors should be considered. Your vet should direct you when it is safe to start riding again".
As far as passing the time faster try taking up a different hobby in the mean time.
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