Went out to check on the horses yesterday, after not seeing them for a week. First thing I noticed was horse turds in the barn where the hay and grain is stored. I noticed the lid was off the sweet-feed bin. I knew somebody had left the barn door open and the horses had been into the feed. When I walked into the pasture, the old gelding, that normally has to be caught, came trotting up to meet me, while my mare stayed out in the pasture in a run-out shed. I went ahead and haltered the gelding and trimmed his hooves, thinking Penny would eventually come on up. Nope. When I finished with the gelding she was still standing there in the shed. That’s when I knew something was wrong.

My worst fears were realized when I walked down to her and she never even looked up. I could see all four legs were swollen from the knees down and she was standing in an odd way, with her back bowed, sort of hunched up. I knew she had foundered. She looked bloated as well. I haltered her and got her to move a few steps, and she painfully made it out of the shed into the pasture. She immediately started grazing. She was hungry, which told me she had been standing there in the shed for some time. I walked back up to the barn and brought her a bucket of water, which she drained.

I figured she had gotten a belly full of sweet-feed and I was not only worried about founder, but also about colic, particularly with the way she was standing; she appeared to be bloated. I could hear her stomach growling, so that was a good sign, but there was no fresh manure in her vicinity. I was truly worried. A horse that is colicked and foundered is in a very bad way. Once out of the shed, however, she was grazing and moving around a little.

I contacted my vet. Her first recommendation was to get her off the pasture grass, as it tends to be high in carbohydrates (sugars). Apparently sugars exacerbate founder. I found a couple pipe fence sections and made a makeshift gate and shut her back in the shed. The vet also instructed me to take some grass hay and soak it in water for about an hour, then pour off the water and feed the wet hay to Penny. The water, she explained, leaches the sugars from the hay. By the time I had all that done, the vet was there.

The vet, a nice young lady named Katie, from Haymarket Veterinary Service, with her husband as a helper, took one look and pronounced it a serious case of Acute Laminitis. She administered an intravenous solution, about a quart of it, I think, which was to help wash the toxins from her system. It also contained a anti-inflammatory medication. Katie then put foam pads on both front hooves. Poor Penny could hardly stand on three legs while the vet attached the pads. She was certainly in a bad way, but at least she was still standing.

 

Katie gave me a container of Phenylbutazone, commonly known as “Bute”, and vial of Acepromazine Maleate with instructions to administer both each morning and evening. The Bute is to reduce inflammation and the Acepromazine Maleate is to dilate the blood vessels in the hoof.

This morning when I went out, Penny was still in pain, but she was moving around better. The swelling in her legs had gone down considerably. She had also passed a couple bowel movements, which was a great relief (no pun intended). This evening another vet (from the same office) came by to check on Penny. She administered another IV treatment of two quarts and put a new pad on Penny’s right front (the first one was slipping out of place). Penny’s temperature was normal, but her heart rate was still a bit elevated. We are hoping she continues to improve. The vet thinks we caught things early and it looks like she is recovering well. We’re hoping we were able to stop the process before her coffin bones begin to rotate. They will take X-rays next week, once we get the inflammation down and the Laminitis in check, to see where we are with that. If the coffin bones do not rotate at all, I may be back in the saddle within a few weeks.

Hopefully the fact that I have kept her in barefoot trim and kept her hooves in good shape will help in her recovery. We’ll see.

It appears, that since Penny is the dominant of the two horses in the pasture, Penny kept the old gelding from having access to the sweet-feed bin. He was apparently relegated to raiding the stack of grass hay bales left over from winter feeding. He apparently found the grass outside the barn more to his liking. He has shown no ill effects of the day’s mischief.

The sad part is that this pretty well seals the deal about whether I’ll be taking Penny on my Mexico-Canada ride. Once a horse has foundered due to feed, it becomes susceptible to founder and recurrence is not uncommon. Their feed has to be closely watched and regulated, but if that is done, the horse can have a full recovery and a long and trouble-free life. However, I couldn’t risk the chance of being a week or two out on the trail and have her founder or go lame. Her hooves are smallish as they are, and if they are weakened at all from this episode, she may have problems carrying a load on a long, rough trail. I can’t see how I could risk it…for her sake.

In the past two days, I have learned a little about Founder, also known as Laminitis. Most of what I will write here is from various sources on the Internet. I won’t attempt to list the sources (you can look it all up as easily as I did), and there may be some fine points I don’t have exactly right, but I think I have gained a basic understanding of it. I thought I’d share some of what I have learned, in hopes it may be useful information to someone.

Founder and Laminitis are the same ailment, but not precisely synonymous. From what I have read, Founder is essentially the culmination of Laminitis. There are different levels and causes of Laminitis, which, if left unchecked, matures into Founder.

Laminitis is the inflammation of the tissues surrounding the coffin bone in the horse’s hoof. The coffin bone is shaped somewhat like a hoof, with a toe and heel. The surrounding tissues, the laminae, keep the coffin bone firmly located in the middle of the hoof, and the hoof wall and sole attached to it and each other. When a horse suffers some sort of shock to its metabolic system, whether from feed, infection, or other cause, toxins may form in the bloodstream, which have the effect of causing inflammation in the hoof laminae tissues. This is the beginning of Laminitis, known as Acute Laminitis.

Inflammation in the hoof causes the blood flow in the laminae to be restricted. If the inflammation is severe, the loss of blood flow may cause the tissues surrounding the coffin bone to degenerate, or even die. This results in the tissues holding the coffin bone in place to weaken. This is severe Laminitis.  If the tissues weaken sufficiently, the weight of the horse causes the coffin bone to begin to rotate, pointing the toe downward into the sole of the hoof.  This is Founder. In the most severe cases the coffin bone may breach the sole of the hoof, creating an entry for infection.

In severe cases of Founder, it is not uncommon for abscesses to form in the hoof sole during recovery, due to infection from dead tissues surrounding the coffin bone. These must be cared for to avoid or reduce the chance of further infection.

There are two primary types of Laminitis. Acute Laminitis may be caused by a drastic or sudden change in feed, such as when my mare got into the sweet-feed bin and ate her fill. This was a shock to her system, because she is normally pastured on grass and hasn’t even tasted sweet-feed in more than a year. It may be caused by a change from grass hay to alfalfa, or even from hay to a nice, green spring grass pasture. The problem comes from the drastic change in the nutritive value of the feed, shocking the horse’s system. Of particular concern is the carbohydrate content (sugars) of the feed. Much depends on the susceptibility of the horse. Acute Laminitis may also be caused by things unrelated to feed. My family once had a mare who foundered due to an allergic reaction to fly strips in her stall. Horses may founder, as well, due to hard use on a hard surface, known as “Road Founder”.

Horses that have suffered founder due to feed conditions sometimes become more susceptible to future episodes, and must have their feed monitored and regulated to avoid recurrence of Laminitis. Horses that have suffered Laminitis due to causes other than feed do not seem to suffer this susceptibility. Our horse that foundered due to an allergic reaction fully recovered and never again had an episode. She became a wonderful trail horse, riding some extremely rough mountain trails, for days on end, for many years afterward.

A second type of Laminitis, known as Chronic Laminitis, tends to occur in overweight horses, much the same way Type II Diabetes tends to occur in humans. They develop a sensitivity to carbohydrates, which causes a low-level Laminitis on a chronic basis. The result of this is often seen in horses and ponies with elongated hooves, which begin to curve upward. The toe of the hoof wall separates from the sole, which becomes dished, while the heel continues to grow, pushing the toe forward and upward. If left untrimmed, the hoof eventually turns upward and begins to look somewhat like the horn of a bighorn sheep. In order to keep the horse from becoming permanently lame, constant care must be taken to keep the hoof trimmed, as it will continue to grow in this fashion.

While much progress has been made over the past few years, much is still unknown about the root causes and mechanism of Laminitis. However, with modern treatment methods, full recovery is possible, whereas there was a time when there was little hope of recovery from severe Founder, and euthanasia was a common prescription.

Upon discovering a horse is suffering from Laminitis, the first step for remediation is to call a veterinarian. Do not hesitate. The quicker you begin treatment, the greater the horse’s chance of full recovery. Secondly, immediate determination and correction of the cause is important. With my mare, the cause was her free access to the sweet-feed bin for an unknown period of time. This caused an overload of carbohydrates in her system. The veterinarian instructed me to immediately take Penny off the pasture grass, which is also rich in carbohydrates. Thirdly, it is imperative to reduce inflammation of the hooves. When my mother’s horse foundered, we made the mare stand in the muddy bottom of a running stream that came to about the mid-point of her cannon bones. We kept her there for about two weeks, as I recall. She fully recovered. Some horses will allow one to pack ice on the hooves, or will stand in a bucket of cold water. Standing in cool mud will help. Anything that serves to cool the hooves will slow or reduce inflammation. Additionally, the horse may be placed in a stall or run with a soft floor, such as bedding, sand, mud, or one site suggested pea gravel, which will give support to the hoof sole, rather than causing the horse’s weight to be supported by the hoof wall, as is normal. If the horse can move about, this is good, as the movement causes the hoof frog to help pump blood throughout the hoof tissues.

In most cases, catching Laminitis early, and interrupting the degenerative process, by eliminating the cause (whether feed, or other cause), reducing and eliminating inflammation, and making the horse as comfortable as possible by padding the hooves when necessary, full recovery may be expected. Even if the coffin bone has rotated, farriers have developed shoes and pads which support the hoof sole and protect it from further damage from objects, such as rocks, on the ground, and aid in the eventual recovery of the integrity of the hoof. While permanent lameness is still a very real possibility with Laminitis, advances in treatment, both on the part of veterinary services and farriers, have greatly reduced those odds. In most cases, a horse that is recovered from Laminitis, and that is carefully regulated in its health and feeding, may yet live a long, happy, and productive life, free from the effects of Founder.

Comments to add to my commentary, or to correct anything I got wrong, are welcome.