Laminitis

A Simple Approach

By Stephen Ashdown of Global Herbs

Owners need to consider:

1. Restricting grazing times e.g. before 10am and in the evenings or just sparse paddocks.
2. Strip grazing
3. Grazing masks

The key to avoiding laminitis is getting the feeding right with digestive supplements and minerals and vitamins. With a well-managed fibre based diet supported by supplements or medicines ponies can be kept free of problems indefinitely. The main problem is sudden flushes of grass, which are out of the norm. Such surges in lush food can cause problems and it is wise to plan for such situations well in advance. An effective digestive supplement can be given along with box rest while the situation settles down.

Classical grass based laminitis is quite easy to control and eliminate without too much interference with normal grazing. However you do need to use the best modern nutritional approaches for improved digestion and a worry-free time.

Laminitis is a painful, sometimes fatal condition of the feet and is mainly caused by poor digestion. Grass is mostly commonly the culprit and improving digestion is the best way of avoiding problems.

Laminitis is caused by a disturbance in the blood supply to the laminae in the foot. This disturbance is normally caused by toxins in the blood coming from ‘bad’ bacteria in the bowels. Rich food upsets the balance between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ bacteria in the bowels. Bad bacteria multiply more than normal and produce more toxins. When these leak into the rest of the body, the blood supply to the laminae is reduced and the laminae get damaged, causing pain, heat and lameness.

Other factors do very rarely cause laminitis and disturb blood supply e.g. stress, steroid injections, roadwork & concussion, infections, Cushings disease and obesity.

Ponies which have already had laminitis will be at higher risk and obesity makes things worse by disturbing the body’s hormonal balance. However when spring grass is available, or even winter frosty grass, any horse can be at risk because of the upset caused to digestion. Modern feeding and management can weaken the digestive process. Although there is a trend for higher roughage diets with less use of concentrates there is still a very large horse feed industry that is encouraging concentrates.

Fertilised pastures are often dangerous and can produce grass that is unnaturally rich and hard to digest. However the most dangerous is spring pasture in the mornings because of the presence of ‘fructans.’ These are special growth sugars that grass uses to grow quickly in the early days of spring. Horses find fructans hard to break down and ‘bad’ bacteria feed well off them. The best grazing for a laminitis pony is sparsely covered well-grazed mature grassland. Such grass should be slow growing and not rich.

If effective digestive support is provided for sensitive horses and ponies many more types of grassland can be slowly introduced as normal grazing. However without digestive support many laminitic ponies need to be removed from all pasture.

For further information and images, please contact Claire Allmett Fizz Equine Marketing Tel – 0788 917 0957.