Laminitis: Action Plan

The moment your horse begins to show signs of this devastating hoof disease, take quick action to slow its progress and reduce the extent of the damage.

Laminitis—the inflammation of the sensitive laminae inside the hoof wall—is a frightening disorder. Excruciatingly painful, laminitis can weaken the laminae and allow the coffin bone inside the hoof to sink and/or rotate downward, causing permanent deformity. In severe cases, euthanasia may be the only humane option, and survivors may never be sound again.

Any horse can develop acute laminitis, caused by an overload of carbohydrates, severe gastrointestinal illness or mechanical stresses. More common, however, is the chronic form, a milder condition triggered by hormonal imbalances associated with equine metabolic syndrome (EMS), pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (PPID, also called Cushing’s disease) or other disorders.

The earliest signs of laminitis may be alarmingly obvious or they may be subtle—but once you spot them, you need to act immediately.

When you suspect laminitis

If you see these signs:

• shifting of weight back and forth between the front feet or adopting the “founder position”—leaning back on the haunches with the forefeet stretched forward;

• recumbency and reluctance to rise;

• sweating, fever and shallow breathing or other signs of pain;

• hooves that are warm to the touch;

• a “bounding” (rapid and strong) pulse on the back of the pastern, either just above or just below the ankle;

Three key steps

Here’s what to do:

FIRST:

Call the veterinarian; say you have an emergency and explain the situation.

SECOND:

Put the horse’s feet in ice. Icing the feet is the one treatment that has been proven to halt the progress of laminitis under laboratory conditions. The earlier, the better. When researchers in Australia starting icing a horse’s feet immediately after administering oligofructose to induce the disease, they were able to prevent laminitis from developing.

Icing may be useful if a horse has broken into a grain bin and you strongly suspect laminitis may follow. And this therapy can also greatly reduce the severity of the disease, even if the treatment does not start until after signs of foot pain appear.