Laminitis is a complex metabolic disease whose final result may be the separation of the helmet from the limb.

Symptoms can vary from a slight limp on one side to the horse lying down.

Also sweating and complaining, sometimes the symptomatology is diagnosed as colic or azoturia.

Treatment against laminitis

The first step when a horse shows symptoms of pain in their hooves is: Call the veterinarian.

Then it is necessary to comply with the doctor’s orders and wait for it to work to apply treatment against laminitis

What to do while …

While the veterinarian arrives take the following precautions, which are part of the treatment against this disease.

• Reduce the food drastically.
• Apply heat.
• Place the helmet in a hot solution of magnesium sulfate (which we pour over a bucket).
• Sell the area, without squeezing.
• To alleviate the pain dissolve a few aspirin (around five) in a little water
• Mix this with honey and flour and spread this mixture on the tongue every four hours until the veterinarian supplies a more adequate analgesic.

Notes:

• In case of acute laminitis, the most usual treatment will be to immediately inject antihistamines of 27 mg x 50 kg. of weight, in addition to cortisones of 100 to 600 mg.
• We must also help the functioning of the intestine, for which it is necessary to use laxatives and place the animal in very soft beds.
• Occasionally, 300 mg of corticosteroids are injected into each vein of the foot and a tourniquet is applied to ensure its permanence in the arterial venous network for one hour.

Other care

In case laminitis is chronic, a pathological hardware is applied, avoiding touching the heels.

The foot should also be cleaned daily, lime baths with 10% copper sulphate and then lubricated with vegetable tar and grease (foot ointment).

To harden the sole, it is also very appropriate to immerse the foot or feet in gasoline or petrol, leave 10 minutes and, once dry, apply ointment. It will be observed that as the case grows (1 cm per month) the total recovery is achieved in about 6 months.

What is laminitis

The problem with this disease is that the blood supply is interrupted in the horse’s hull blades.

For this reason, the basement membrane of the leg is affected.

The function of which is to join the distal phalanx of the inner wall of the helmet.

The pain is very strong in addition to an inflammation in the area and this union is weakened significantly.

Among the consequences of not discovering in time is a depression in the frontal zone of the crown of the helmet, until the total separation of the sheets of the same.

Symptom

Among the symptoms of laminitis are:

• Lameness, especially when the horse turns in circles
• Heat in the helmet
• Increase in digital pulse
• Pain in the area of the tip of the frog when pressure is applied with a helmet pliers
• Resistance to walk (they walk sore, as if they “stepped on eggs”) If the animal does not want to walk when we force it walks with measured steps short and fast
• Antalgic posture (to relieve pain stretch the fore limbs forward and the hind limbs also forward, as if falling backwards)
• When affected in all four extremities the pain and discomfort is so strong that the animal lies down.

Many people simply put the horse on a “starvation ration” and severely limit the horses’ diet of all nutrients. This is one of the worst things you could do as horses still require maintenance energy to function as well as essential amino acids, vitamins and minerals to assist in repairing damage caused by laminitis. At a bare minimum your horse requires approximately 1% of his own body weight as roughage.

Laminitis is a disease that requires extreme care. The call to the veterinarian in this case and give all the necessary care to the horse should be considered urgently. Timely care guarantees total healing in the face of this terrible disease. With a good diet and preventive measures we can save many headaches.

Sources:

https://www.a-alvarez.com

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