# Our Shetland has laminitis



## HaleyBugs (Sep 12, 2012)

Well, poor Bucky has laminitis again. He is a 17 year old Shetland pony. He's had it before but it cleared up pretty quick after we had him trimmed and stalled with tons of shavings. I'm pretty sure he got it this time from the hay, nothing else has changed. We had some REALLY nice green, rich 2nd cutting from our usual supplier in the beginning of winter. When we needed more he told us it was all sold, so we bought some from down in Kentucky that was pretty much grass and nothing else and they had that for the middle of winter with no issues switching them over to it. We called our guy again when we were almost out (a month and a half ago) and he had a buyer back out and we got his last load of 2nd cutting. We had no problems switching back again, but now Bucky has laminitis. The hay is the only thing I can think of that would cause it, but it took a while for it to hit him.

He doesn't get grain, only hay. He is in his stall right now with tons of shavings, I gave him bute with a little bit of beet pulp to help get it down to help ease his pain. Farrier is coming out tomorrow. He was laying down last I checked on him, but he doesn't look that uncomfortable. He is still acting somewhat normal. I was wondering if you guys have any remedies that have proven to be useful? Anything would be greatly appreciated  Thanks!


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## goodhors (Sep 6, 2011)

You probably should have the Vet out when the Farrier comes, to get X-rays of Bucky's hooves. The Farrier needs to know if hoof has bone rotation inside, to help the hooves, especially if this is a repeated Laminitus issue.

Around here, the soft bedding, getting some MUCH less rich hay for THIS ANIMAL is a start. Green leafy, nice quality hay is BAD for ponies and most easy keeper horses. Just too rich for them unless you limit hay severely. Ponies like Shetlands are made to THRIVE on eating weeds in limited quantity, doing daily work at the same time! So some ugly brown, first cut grass hay is still "good stuff" to them and they WILL gain weight on even that, unless you limit their consumption.

You might ask about styrofoam cushions on the hooves, which required daily changing. They are to support the bone inside the hoof, prevent further rotation as horse is dealing with his issues. The crushing of the styrofoam makes for a custom fit, but once animal is up and moving a bit, a day of crushing means the padding needs replacing because it finally lacks support quality anymore. This is labor intensive with daily attention, but can help the hoof bones stay in place and not rotate. 

Only the blue styrofoam, wallboard at the lumber yard, seems to have the right consistancy to crush as needed. You have to cut the shapes to fit hoof, duct tape them too the hard hoof wall every day. Your Farrier is probably familiar with this method, will give you more details if needed.

But without the X-rays, it is hard to guess exactly what is going on inside the hoof walls. One hoof may be in worse shape, more rotation than the other. If it is a bad attack, he may be laminitic in ALL FOUR FEET which is pretty bad. Having Vet and Farrier there together, they can get the pictures or angles needed for Farrier to work from to correct things, if possible.

It is so hard, to feed ponies the ugly, not-green hay that is BEST for them. Letting ponies or easy keeping horses get heavy, to obese, is VERY EASY when feeding them well. You have to be hard-hearted about this to keep them healthy, ATHLETIC looking, which is how equines should look. Do a finger poke in the mid-barrel of ribs to TRY to find one! If you can NOT find a rib, food (hay or any grain) needs to be fed in less quantity, or buy a MUCH less quality of hay that won't give them so many calories per serving. I buy first cutting grassy hay for our horses, helps keep them from eating "too well". Still have VERY shiny coats, plenty of energy, and not so fat they don't run and play a lot. They are very easy keepers, gain easily, even when worked hard. So we OWNERS have to be the meanies that prevent eating every minute they are not being used. Dry lots, stalled without food, smaller quantities fed to them, keep them svelte and able to be the athletes they are MEANT to be. 

My friend with Minis gets winter hay that is OLD, totally LIMITS how much each animal is fed. They get no grain, ever. For a TREAT, the minis get 15 MINUTES of grazing in the field, before she puts them back in the dry lot for the DAY. Her animals are NOT laminitic because they are not fat, obese or wearing those fat pad signs of problems. Her animals get used hard, pull carriages for long distances, with no problems, never get stressed because they are in fit-to-work shapes.

Best of luck with Bucky, hope he comes out of this well. Do rethink your management methods, since this is a repeat problem. Get out your Hard-Heart, change what you feed him, limit his grazing severely to VERY short times on SHORT grass, maybe muzzle him for grazing to keep his intake much reduced. Exercise him regularly and make him sweat if his feet will take it, to keep him from being so suseptible to laminitus again. 

Sure hope you have a better story to tell us about his recovery.


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## Irish Pixie (May 14, 2002)

You should have Rocky x-rayed to see if the coffin bone has rotated or is sinking so the farrier will know how to treat him.

The standard for laminitis is isoxsuprine, aspirin and bute but I'd substitute BL Solution for the bute just because there is a much smaller chance of stomach upset or ulcers. Since he has just started showing symptoms cold water therapy can help reduce swelling as well. 

Does he show any signs of Cushing's disease? His age and being a pony predispose him to it. 

Since you know it was the hay that triggered this episode you know you need to feed a lower quality so I won't labor the point. 

I'm sorry for you and Rocky laminitis is a pain for all involved.


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## Stonybrook (Sep 22, 2007)

You can give the pony the hay you have, but you need to soak it in water for 30 minutes first and then dump the water. That will leach out sugar. You can also substitute some alfalfa pellets for some of the hay. Again, if it has molasses in it you need to rinse it out first so that you limit the sugar. As the others suggested, get x-rays too.


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## bergere (May 11, 2002)

Alfalfa is a big no no with a horse/pony with founder. 

There are hays like, Triple Crown Safe forage that is really good for horse/pony's that have foundered. 

You can also look for Tested hay. Some of the bigger hay producers will test the hay for you. 

Have one mare here, I have to keep a close watch on. 

Sorry you have to go through this... is not an easy thing to deal with.


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## lowrider04 (Dec 18, 2012)

I always soaked my ponies feet in a small stream. It seemed to feel good on his feet and he would walk around fine after a good soaking too. It was an old 80 yr. old farmers 
way of doing it! That was 40 years ago too....


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## offthegrid (Aug 11, 2009)

Pretty much what has been said above. I have a mini that had a laminitic flare last year from grass (that had been dead in the drought, but a day of rain triggered laminitis). So she needed attention and treatment to get her back on track. Then I got a "free" pony off Craigslist to be her dry lot companion, and he turned out to be on the brink of metabolic crash with undiagnosed Cushings disease, so after only a couple of days here he started to go downhill fast and required a lot of intervention, medication and special farrier work to get him back on track.

So...I have been there, done that, own the t-shirt! 

The immediate things to do -- what you're doing is good. Deep bedding, soak the hay or switch to a lower sugar hay (or both, at least for now). My vet said that you really want to stop the "cycle" of inflammation so trying to hit all bases is good. 

My vet preferred previcox and banamine paste over bute for inflammation for little ponies & minis, because bute powder can be hard to dose well for little horses. I'm sure all of the above are useful but do be careful about the dosage for bute. Ice and/or soaking in cold water won't hurt and might help reduce some inflammation but it can be hard to do if your pony isn't comfortable standing, or standing in a bucket. It's hard when their feet are sore!

My vet had some special moldable clay stuff that would firm up into gel-like pads for my minis feet - this was better than styrofoam because it could stay on her feet once it was put in, and it didn't need changing. She molded it right on the soles of her feet and taped it on with that super strong tape and it stayed in for more than a week.

I agree about xrays and also testing for Cushings. Laminitis is a sign of Cushings, but just taking the horse off grass and/or getting lower sugar hay doesn't fix the underlying problem, and they may not recover fully -- or can have full blown founder in all 4 feet like my poor guy did. Once you get to that point your choices are pretty much euthanasia, or a lot of time and money trying to get them stable without any promises. (My guy did recover, but he still needs to be very carefully maintained - on medication, with very frequent trims, and very careful about hay quality...we're still working on that).

Good luck and I hope you get him stabilized and can move on. It's really tough to deal with chronic laminitis - and it's terrible to see them in pain!


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## Stonybrook (Sep 22, 2007)

bergere said:


> Alfalfa is a big no no with a horse/pony with founder.


I didn't mean alfalfa. I meant beet pulp shreds. Gees. Thanks for catching that.


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## bergere (May 11, 2002)

Easy Boot also makes an RX boot, and they are sooo much easier to use.


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## GrannyCarol (Mar 23, 2005)

I used the Rx boot on my foundered mare. They helped her a lot to be comfortable and were fast and easy to put on and off to treat her feet. I'd recommend them.


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## goodhors (Sep 6, 2011)

bergere said:


> Easy Boot also makes an RX boot, and they are sooo much easier to use.


Unfortunately that boot is much too large for a Shetland pony, with smallest size being 00.


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## GrannyCarol (Mar 23, 2005)

Look into it a bit more, size 00 in the Rx boot is much smaller than it would be for a shoe. I used size 2 on my Arab and she'd shoe about a 0. You have to measure and check on the website. Be worth seeing if it would work.


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## levi1739 (Jul 25, 2003)

http://www.softrideboots.com/Default.asp

Soft Ride boots are expensive but they do come in smaller sizes to fit ponies. They have different inserts available to provide maximum comfort. Our vet recommended them for foundered ponies.

Have fun, be safe

Jack


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## bergere (May 11, 2002)

Here is one that should fit. 

Sabre sneaker


Here is a big list of all the different boots.


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## HaleyBugs (Sep 12, 2012)

Ok Bucky is doing well, we got him a few bales of grass hay that he's not crazy about (I don't blame him lol) but he is eating it, and I've soaked it for an hour before i feed it to him. He's not overweight, he does have a little winter fat on him but you can feel his ribs when you try. He doesn't get any grain besides the handful of beet pulp (no molasses) to mix the bute with. I have his feet cushioned and he is in boots. We went for a walk around the farm today after I put the boots on and he immediately walked better. He hasn't been laying down at all today and he wants out bad so I'll probably take him for another short walk later. It's only his back feet, they aren't hot or anything so I caught it early. He looks to be on the mend!

Thank you guys for the information, I'm going to try the cool water treatment in a few to see if it helps!


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## offthegrid (Aug 11, 2009)

I would not walk him, even if he appears sound. You really want the inflammation inside the hoof to go away, so if anything you should be prohibiting him from moving around, not encouraging him to move. If he is not sound walking, I would probably say to put him on stall rest for a couple of days - which sucks for everyone, I understand - and if you can't stall rest him, then I would give him a restricted area to be in so he can't walk too much. 

FWIW, my Cushings pony was quite underweight when I got him - the laminitis was worse when he was on grass, but the underlying cause was metabolic. Does your pony have other signs of Cushings besides laminitis? -- long coat that doesn't shed normally (hard to tell in wooly ponies), atrophy of topline/loss of muscling in general, sweats easily even in cool temperatures, drinks a lot, has fat pads/dimpling and/or fatty deposits over his eyes?


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## goodhors (Sep 6, 2011)

bergere said:


> Easy Boot also makes an RX boot, and they are sooo much easier to use.





offthegrid said:


> I would not walk him, even if he appears sound. You really want the inflammation inside the hoof to go away, so if anything you should be prohibiting him from moving around, not encouraging him to move. If he is not sound walking, I would probably say to put him on stall rest for a couple of days - which sucks for everyone, I understand - and if you can't stall rest him, then I would give him a restricted area to be in so he can't walk too much.


I would strongly agree with this. Animal should move as HE desires, not be forced to exercise. I would also reduce or quit the Bute, so he is FEELING his feet and not moving if they are painful. Too many give the bute or painkillers, then animal moves when he should be quiet, or even laying down. Rips the inside of hoof apart, letting the bone rotate with weight above and exercise he can't avoid or doesn't feel the pain with medication.

It is kind of odd that he had hind feet problems, rather than his fronts which is most common in Laminitus.

Yep, no consistancy in hoof measuring by vendors of hoof items. But unless he was a LARGE pony, he wouldn't normally come close to wearing a 00 in shoes. Boots are even more confusing to measure and fit, using "normal" hoof sizes of shoes. Everyone fits boots on equine hooves differently, with sizes all over the place.


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