What’s the truth about laminitis?

 
When one of my donkeys Sergeant Pepper succumbed to laminitis in the spring of 2006 I was shocked. Although Ive kept donkeys for 30 years Id always been told donkeys dont get laminitis fallacy number one.
Ive spent time with horses since my early childhood. The Welsh pony that taught me to ride was a stock horse on one of the dairy farms of my extended family in north eastern Victoria. Shorty always went a little lame on his nearsidefront after a couple of hours work. My cousin told me Shorty had foundered a few years ago and pretended to be lame so he wouldnt have to work too hard fallacy number two.

When I worked weekends at a racing stable in my early teens I heard of the dreaded founder. Horses were said to never recover fallacy number three.
The six months after Pepper was diagnosed were a long road back to health for him and a steep learning curve of discovery for me.
Pepper was always a bit touchy about his feet. He often seemed a bit lame after a trim and at other times. I couldnt find anything obviously wrong and put it down to his change from the rockfree deep basaltic soil east of Devonport to his new home on a rocky dolerite hill in Reedy Marsh.
The first sign that he had a serious problem was in August 2006 when he played up while I trimmed his hooves. I persisted for a couple of months until he just wouldnt stand still for me. By this time October 2006 his feet were overgrown and he seemed to be lame on both front feet.
I called on a natural hoof care practitioner who was recommended to me. He came the next day and gave me the bad news. He gave Pepper a laminitis trim and me some advice about feeding and wished us both luck. He said with natural hoof care and correct feeding he would recover but might need some antiinflammatory drugs from the vet for his pain.
A few days later Pepper was very bad. He lay down and wouldnt get up. Of course it was the weekend. I went to see the vet on Monday. He provided some antiinflammatory drugs some aspirin to thin his blood and sedative that assists with the veinartery blood transfer at the coronary band. He was emphatic that I must get the donkey on his