LAMINITIS
· Laminitis is a very complex condition. A major disease in horses and a very painful and debilitating life-threatening condition, that causes failure and in extreme cases, separation of the laminae, which connect the hoof wall to the coffin bone inside the hoof.
· Laminitis is a disease that damages the laminae tissue, specialised tissue that ensures the structural integrity of the hoof, by adhering the coffin bone to the inner hoof wall and ultimately results in cellular death.
· Once the laminae tissue becomes weakened, the connection between the hoof wall and the coffin bone separates, causing pain and inflammation.
· Laminitis can cause permanent structural changes in a horse’s foot and hoof. This leads to repeated bouts of disease and lasting lameness.
· Laminitis can occur severely and acutely, it can be a one-time occurrence or a chronic recurring problem.
· In a healthy hoof the inner hoof wall is tightly attached to the coffin bone.
· When your horse has laminitis there is inflammation between the two sets of laminae and the lamellar corium that produces the laminae.
· The sensitive laminae are attached to the coffin bone and connect with the hoof walls insensitive laminae, interlocking with each other to form a very tight bond. This bond always makes me think of locktite glue or velcro.
· In severe cases the P3 (pedal/coffin) bone in the hoof rotates downwards, potentially even puncturing the sole and can be seen as a bulge in the sole. Sometimes laminitis sadly prompts the decision to euthanise, although this is not necessary, there is a long road to recovery ahead.
· Laminitis is extremely painful, as unlike inflammation in soft tissue, where the tissue can swell, the hoof capsule and bone are both very rigid, which means that the swelling results in a huge amount of pressure that has nowhere to go.
· The arteries pump the blood into the foot.
· When there is inflammation in the foot there is no longer enough space within the hoof capsule and the blood flow is restricted, as a result of this it backs up in the digital arteries. The hoof essentially pushes the blood back up into the arteries, making the digital pulses feel much stronger, hence a bounding digital pulse.
· Because of the way the hoof laminae support the horses weight and due to the vascular nature of the hoof, which is particularly sensitive to systemic inflammation originating in the intestine or uterus, it presents itself as a physical problem.
· The highly vascular nature of the horse’s hoof is extremely susceptible to inflammation and damage, especially from digestive toxicity resulting from steroids, anti-inflammatory drugs, the over-feeding of starches and sugars and lack of exercise. Also if you have access to worm counts, these are better than just automatically pumping wormers into the horse. I do worm twice a year in Spring and Autumn.
· The laminae becomes stressed from high blood sugar levels, as well as leaky gut syndrome, where the bacteria, acids and toxins migrate from the hindgut to the hoof, initiating damage.
If left unchecked the coffin bone eventually drops, at which point the disease is labelled as founder.
· Laminitis is a very complex condition. A major disease in horses and a very painful and debilitating life-threatening condition, that causes failure and in extreme cases, separation of the laminae, which connect the hoof wall to the coffin bone inside the hoof.
· Laminitis is a disease that damages the laminae tissue, specialised tissue that ensures the structural integrity of the hoof, by adhering the coffin bone to the inner hoof wall and ultimately results in cellular death.
· Once the laminae tissue becomes weakened, the connection between the hoof wall and the coffin bone separates, causing pain and inflammation.
· Laminitis can cause permanent structural changes in a horse’s foot and hoof. This leads to repeated bouts of disease and lasting lameness.
· Laminitis can occur severely and acutely, it can be a one-time occurrence or a chronic recurring problem.
· In a healthy hoof the inner hoof wall is tightly attached to the coffin bone.
· When your horse has laminitis there is inflammation between the two sets of laminae and the lamellar corium that produces the laminae.
· The sensitive laminae are attached to the coffin bone and connect with the hoof walls insensitive laminae, interlocking with each other to form a very tight bond. This bond always makes me think of locktite glue or velcro.
· In severe cases the P3 (pedal/coffin) bone in the hoof rotates downwards, potentially even puncturing the sole and can be seen as a bulge in the sole. Sometimes laminitis sadly prompts the decision to euthanise, although this is not necessary, there is a long road to recovery ahead.
· Laminitis is extremely painful, as unlike inflammation in soft tissue, where the tissue can swell, the hoof capsule and bone are both very rigid, which means that the swelling results in a huge amount of pressure that has nowhere to go.
· The arteries pump the blood into the foot.
· When there is inflammation in the foot there is no longer enough space within the hoof capsule and the blood flow is restricted, as a result of this it backs up in the digital arteries. The hoof essentially pushes the blood back up into the arteries, making the digital pulses feel much stronger, hence a bounding digital pulse.
· Because of the way the hoof laminae support the horses weight and due to the vascular nature of the hoof, which is particularly sensitive to systemic inflammation originating in the intestine or uterus, it presents itself as a physical problem.
· The highly vascular nature of the horse’s hoof is extremely susceptible to inflammation and damage, especially from digestive toxicity resulting from steroids, anti-inflammatory drugs, the over-feeding of starches and sugars and lack of exercise. Also if you have access to worm counts, these are better than just automatically pumping wormers into the horse. I do worm twice a year in Spring and Autumn.
· The laminae becomes stressed from high blood sugar levels, as well as leaky gut syndrome, where the bacteria, acids and toxins migrate from the hindgut to the hoof, initiating damage.
If left unchecked the coffin bone eventually drops, at which point the disease is labelled as founder.
