Maggie Gone Lame

Keith, our farrier, applies shoes with a special gel insert to support the frog and sole of both front feet that are affected by laminitis.

Poor Maggie was discovered to be suffering from laminitis a few weeks ago and has been receiving treatment by the vet in conjunction with the farrier.
This entails box rest with a comfortable soft bedding of wood shavings, pain killers and a strict diet.

Laminitis is one of the most serious, crippling diseases of horses, ponies and donkeys. Severe and recurring cases of laminitis can reduce a horse's usefulness or result in the horse being destroyed to prevent further suffering. Treatment can require a lot of time and money (whether successful or not) and requires a good deal of energy from the carer for an extended period of time.

What is Laminitis?
Laminitis is a painful inflammatory condition of the tissues (laminae) that bond the hoof wall to the pedal (coffin) bone in the horses hoof. It can affect any horse, of any age or sex, at any time of the year. Although it is traditionally considered a disease of fat ponies, laminitis can be triggered by a variety of metabolic or physical causes in any horse.
Laminitis is caused by weakening of the supporting lamina within the hoof, leading to painful tearing of the support structure suspending the pedal bone within the hoof. If laminitis is not treated promptly, the pedal bone drops (these cases are described as "sinkers") or the pedal bone can rotate downwards.

The laminar bond is made up of two layers:
* The insensitive nonliving layer that grows from the coronary band (comparable to our finger nail).
* This is attached to the sensitive laminae (similar to the sensitive skin under our finger nails), which interlocks with insensitive tissue forming a remarkably strong bond.

Some horses show tremendous pain while they are laminitic, and others show very little. Maggie is one of the latter, and we were not really sure until it was confirmed by the vet and the farrier. Apparently a lot of horses and ponies in Dorset are affected. The vagaries of this year's spring on unusual grass growth may have something to do with it.

The prognosis for Maggie is optimistic, providing we continue to work closely with the vet and farrier, and pray hard for a good recovery!