This has been a rough couple of weeks for me, as well as for Penny. In my previous post, you read that on Friday, July 12, 2013, I found Penny standing head-down in the runout shed suffering from acute Laminitis. After initially stabilizing Penny’s condition, by aggressive vet care and keeping her off the rich, green fescue pasture, her swelling and discomfort abated and she seemed to be doing quite well. The vets were happy with her progress.

Last Thursday the vet x-rayed Penny’s hooves and determined that her coffin bones have rotated slightly, about 5 degrees in the left rear and 6 degrees in the other three. The vet opined that with careful trimming and management, she should recover and return to normal hoof conformation within 6 months or so.

The Images also revealed something I have suspected for quite a while, that Penny has unusually thin soles. I have been trying to increase the depth of her soles by keeping the walls trimmed and keeping a good “mustang roll” on the edges, but so far have met limited success. The vet indicated Penny might have suffered a previous bout of Laminitis, which resulted in the thin soles, or that it could be a congenital thing.

I have been doing some reading from Pete Ramey’s website, on hoof rehabilitation, and have learned I was doing some things wrong in my trimming technique. I plan to employ his instructions from here on out and hope to remedy Penny’s thin soles as much as possible. Time will tell.

Like I indicated above, by Thursday, six days after I first found Penny in trouble, the vets were happy with her progress. Her swelling was gone, except for a little puffiness in her left rear pastern, and she was moving well, exhibiting little discomfort. She was “out of the woods” and on her way to recovery. The vet told me to cut the Bute (Phenylbutazone) and Ace (Acepromazine) doses to once-a-day and continue another week like that, to wean her off the drugs. She told me to transition Penny back to the pasture slowly.

Things never seem to work out that easily for me.

When I went out to feed Penny on Friday morning, I was shocked to find that Penny somehow had defeated the latch on her gate and had spent the entire night out on 3 acres of lush green fescue pasture. She was already showing signs of swelling and soreness again.

Despite the setback, I continued with my plan to trim Penny’s hooves that morning, according to the advice of my vet. Penny was already over due for a trim when the Laminitis struck (I was going out to trim her when I found her in trouble).  In conformance with the vet’s recommendations and also the information posted by Pete Ramey on his website, I trimmed Penny’s hooves down to the sole without removing any sole at all. I rasped a good, rounded mustang roll on the toes and almost all the way around to the heel. At the heel I just rasped the sharp edge off. I cut the heels down sufficiently to allow the frog to be engaged in supporting the hoof. I find that if I rasp flat across the heels until the rasp touches the frog, that is about right.

Penny’s left front after trim

 

Since Penny’s hooves were already longer than I normally allow (I normally keep a running trim going, hitting her hooves lightly with a rasp about every two weeks, but had not been able to get out to work on them for about 6 weeks), ended up taking nearly 3/8″ off the hoof walls. With the mustang roll, her toes were shortened about 1/2″ or so. I noticed an immediate improvement in her movement. Trimming the hooves back to where the pressure was relieved from the hoof walls and placed more on the sole, relieved much of her pain. The stall I have her in has a muddy floor, which isn’t good hygenically (which is why I’d like to get her out of it), but is soft and supportive for the Laminitic hooves, as well as cooling. The pasture also has a soft, grassy floor with few stones and would be fine for her recovery. A horse in her condition would be at risk for injuring her thin soles and causing further damage and possibly abscesses on hard gravelly ground.

I went back to full doses of the Bute and Ace (1.5cc of Ace and 1gm of Bute twice daily) and by Monday the swelling and soreness was abating again. By Tuesday there was no swelling visible, except that little bit of puffiness around her left rear fetlock. She was moving easily and showing little discomfort.

I decided to start trying to transition her back to the pasture. I would have waited longer, but I have to go out of town again for a week the first week of August. I was hoping to be able to have her back on the pasture full-time before I left, as I will have no one to continue with the constant care she has required to get her through the Laminitis. I know the Laminitis was caused by her overloading on sweet-feed, and that she has never shown any problems on the grass pasture in the three years I’ve had her on it, so I thought I would be safe starting her back on the pasture by transitioning her over a few days, and I wanted to try it sooner than later, so I would know before I left whether she was handling it ok.

Grass has less sugars in it in the mornings, due to a night of little photosynthetic production. The sugars in the grass are higher in the afternoons. Also, grasses like fescue have growing spurts in the spring and fall, in which their sugar content are much higher than other times of the year. During the heat of the summer they tend to slow their growth and enter a sort of dormancy, during which their sugar content is much lower than during spring and fall growth. The high sugar content in the feed is what aggravates the Laminitis.

I have noticed that Penny’s pasture has turned a much lighter shade of green over the past two weeks, than the dark, lush green it had been. I concluded that allowing her to graze a little in the morning, then putting her back into the stall would be a good way of transitioning her back to the pasture. I also wanted her to be able to walk around and get some good blood flow into those hooves by using the frog as the hooves’ natural blood pump.

On Tuesday evening I let Penny graze after her normal feeding for about 30 minutes, then put her back in the stall. I did not give her any Bute or Ace. On Wednesday morning Penny was looking fine and there was no sign of swelling at all. She was still tender on all four hooves, but moving well. I fed her 1.5 pounds of alfalfa pellets with the Bute and Ace (I wet the alfalfa pellets and sprinkle the Bute on it and stir it in; she won’t take it otherwise), then let her out to graze for about 2 hours. I then put a grazing muzzle on her and let her remain on the pasture. The grazing muzzle greatly reduces the amount of grass the horse can take in, but allows water to drain out for drinking.

On Wednesday evening, Penny was showing no swelling, but was quite tender on all four hooves. I was hoping that was just from her walking around in the pasture on her tender hooves. I removed her grazing muzzle and let her graze for 45 minutes. I then put her back in the stall and fed her a couple flakes of dry grass hay (no Bute or Ace).

On Friday morning, I could tell Penny was noticeably more sore than the day before on all four hooves. However, there was no sign of swelling or fever at all. She was very careful in moving around, but was not as sore as when she first came down with Laminitis. I contacted the vet for followup and advice and was instructed to get her back off the pasture, go back to full doses of Bute and Ace, and continue to monitor the situation.

Today, Penny is pretty sore, but still moving around. She has a little swelling back in her rear fetlocks, but no fever. I reduced her alfaflfa pellets to 1 pound, morning and night, and will continue that, so I can continue to mix the Bute into it. I am also back to feeding her 2-3 flakes of grass hay, soaked in water for about 30-45 minutes before feeding (the soaking leaches sugars from the hay). I will continue to do this until all swelling and tenderness are gone before trying to transition her back to the pasture again. I won’t try to push it again. Patience.

Hopefully, over the next several days I’ll be able to get back to the point at which we had her last Thursday, before her great escape into the pasture caused the relapse. Yesterday I ordered a pair of Easyboot hoof boots from easycareinc.com, along with insert pads, as recommended by Pete Ramey. After I get back from my trip, I’ll put those on her and hopefully be able to start riding her again within a month or so.

Stay tuned.