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Laminitis: Take Precautions - Don't Take Chances

One of the cases I worked on came about under the following circumstances:

The horse lost a shoe right before he was scheduled to be shipped from Florida to Maryland . The owner left the foot bare and went ahead with the shipping plan. The horse arrived in Maryland two days later and he was crippled. When they tried to take the horse off the van, he could not walk. It took many people and the work of a vet using drugs to enable the horse to stumble down the ramp; obviously in terrible pain. X-rays were taken and the horse was diagnosed with severe laminitis with rotation of the coffin bone.

This is what I think is a possible scenario for what happened in this situation and how the owner could have helped to prevent this. When the horse pulled the shoe, a nail may have injured the sensitive laminae and started what eventually developed, during shipping, into an abscess. Whenever a horse is trailered, he must work relatively hard to keep his balance, yet this horse was put on the van for a very long trip with one shoe off and one shoe on, making one leg essentially shorter than the other thereby adding additional stress to a very long trip and placing undue strain on the affected leg. The abscess worsened and the horse began bearing much more of his weight on the non abscessed foot. He remained this way on the van for an extended period of time and when finally arriving at the destination, he had developed a severe case of laminitis.

In my opinion, it would have been best for the horse if the owner or agent of this horse would not have shipped him at that time. They should have kept him where he was to allow the time for the necessary treatment to resolve the situation. If they had no choice but to ship the horse, then precautions should have been taken. Call the vet. Explain the circumstances and ask what he or she recommends to make the horse's trip a safer one. From the farrier's perspective, the remaining shoes should have been removed. All four feet should have been bandaged with thick foam (1-1/2 inches thick) placed on the sole to absorb some of the concussion and to help support the bottom of the foot and then, when the abscess developed, he would have been in much less pain, therefore, the chances of this tragedy happening would have been greatly reduced. If you are able to travel with the horse or send a groom with the horse, then the feet could have been poulticed with a medicated poultice prior to shipping and then re-poulticed after twelve hours. After proper treatment, this horse survived and has a good quality of life; however, he was no longer able to compete as an upper level dressage horse.

Tradition has led some professionals to believe that severe cases of laminitis are almost hopeless. When dealing with a laminitic horse, it is important to establish the grade and/or severity of the lameness, the condition of the foot, and the overall condition of the horse before considering a possible prognosis. In my experience, and that of a few other farriers who are quite knowledgeable and experienced with laminitis, there have been severe cases that appeared to be hopeless and yet had a positive outcome because the owner did not give up and the horse was treated from every angle. Some of the tools for treatment are a combination of any or all of the following: nutrition, shoeing techniques, drugs, surgical procedures, acupuncture, electro stimulation, therapeutic ultrasound, hydrotherapy, etc.

Remember that there is a different level of expertise in every profession. If at all possible, make sure that your farrier and vet are at or near the top of their vocation. Be proactive in the selection of a veterinarian and farrier that have considerable knowledge and experience in dealing with this disease. Try to determine if they are involved in continuing education to stay up-to-date on the latest research, products, and treatments that can be used as a course of action. Ask them how many laminitic cases they have dealt with, the severity of those cases, how they were treated, and their outcome one-year later.

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