Your Healthy Horse

Laminitis: Autumn Risks

Equine laminitis isn’t just a springtime affliction. Learn how laminitis seems to change with the seasons, and why it’s especially important to understand the risks that come in the fall. As you learn how to manage these risks, your reward will be a healthy and happy horse whose feet won’t let him down.

Is your horse more at risk for laminitis in the cooler autumn months? Use our expert information to help prevent this potentially crippling disease.

The sky is so blue! The air is so crisp! The woods are ablaze with color, and the bugs are finally gone! But when you bring in your horse from the pasture, he balks on the lead line and shuffles his feet. He seems to say “ouch!” with each tentative step. The last time your horse’s feet were sore was when he ate too much spring grass. But this can’t be laminitis again. Laminitis is a springtime disease. Or is it?

Here, you’ll find insights into how equine laminitis seems to change with the seasons, and why it’s especially important to understand the risks that come in the fall.

Laminitis may strike at anytime and for many reasons. What we’ve always called “grass laminitis” is the most common form of the condition and often recurs. It strikes most often in spring and fall, but often coincides with the end of long periods of drought or extreme weather that affect the grass’ lifecycle, regardless of what it says on the calendar.

“Laminitis may strike at anytime and for many reasons.”

Laminitis is the most serious disease of the equine foot and causes pathological changes in anatomy that lead to long-lasting, crippling changes in function (termed chronic laminitis or founder). It’s the second-biggest killer of horses after colic.

A horse has laminitis when the foot’s lamina, the connecting fibers between hoof wall and bone, suddenly fail. Without the bone properly attached to the inside of the hoof, the horse’s weight and the forces of locomotion drive the bone down into the hoof capsule. Arteries and veins are sheared and crushed, and the blood-delivery system to the coronet and sole is damaged. This results in unrelenting foot pain and lameness.

Laminitis’ clinical signs, the extent and severity of the condition and the response to therapy vary, making treatment and accurate prognosis difficult.

Severe damage to the hoof can occur within a few hours. The severity and extent of this initial damage is the single most important factor influencing the final outcome. —Chris Pollitt, PhD, MRCVS, Australian Equine Laminitis Research Unit (www.laminitisresearch.org)

6 Signs of Laminitis

1. Your horse may assume an unusual stance, with his front legs stretched out or he may shift his weight from one foot to the other.

2. Your horse may walk gingerly, or rock back and forth in his stall.

3. On the lead line, your horse may balk when asked to turn.

4. Your horse may lie down more often than usual.

5. You may notice changes in the growth of your horse’s feet. His heels may grow faster than the toes, and growth rings may look curved instead of symmetrical. The white line at the toe may be stretched.

6. You may feel a strong pulse at the back of your horse’s pastern and/or an abnormally warm hoof wall; these are danger signs.

Spring grass produces large amounts of sugary substances to give the pasture energy to grow and blossom, and the pasture hums with activity until the hot sun slows things down into midsummer dormancy.

10 Ways to Prevent Autumn Laminitis

1. Track your horse’s condition.

2. Work your horse. Keep your horse active.

3. Watch the grain. Don’t increase your horse’s grain ration just because the air is crisp.

4. Analyze hay. The best hay has less than 10 percent nonstructural carbohydrate (NSC).

5. Note the weather. Cool nights and warm sunny days usually create the most lush pasture grass.

6. Use a grazing muzzle. Use a slow-grazing muzzle on at-risk horses, even for short turnout times.

7. Use a dry lot. Turn a fenced-off area into a dry lot for an at-risk horse.

8. Know your horse’s foot condition.

9. Keep a horse-health diary.

10. Be prepared. If your horse has had laminitis in the past, discuss it with your veterinarian and farrier.

Weight control, grazing restriction, medication, and special diets are easier to add to a horse’s routine than treatment for laminitis and months of pain and experimentation with trimming and shoeing.

Laminitis may strike at any time and for many reasons. What we’ve always called “grass laminitis” is the most common form of the condition and often recurs. It strikes most often in spring and fall, but often coincides with the end of long periods of drought or extreme weather that affect the grass’ lifecycle.

PHOTO BY CLIXPHOTO.COM

Emergency Steps

If you believe that your horse is suffering from laminitis, don’t panic. Slowly and carefully move him to a stall. Feed hay, but not grain or sugar-rich carrots and apples. Call both your veterinarian and your farrier. Donald Walsh, DVM, recommends standing all four of your horse’s feet in deep ice water for the first 24 to 48 hours.

Fran Jurga is a freelance writer and editor based in Gloucester, Massachusetts. She’s the owner of Hoofcare Publishing and the author of the The Hoof Blog, www. hoofblog.com.