Are you ready to join the "Laminitis Revolution" webinar?

A much-anticipated webinar on endocrine laminitis is scheduled for Wednesday, April 10, at 8 pm London time, which is probably about 3 pm New York time or 2 pm St Louis time.

British veterinary surgeon David Rendle, from the Liphook Equine Hospital in Hampshire, England, will discuss how the veterinary profession’s understanding of laminitis has been revolutionized in recent years and provide useful tips to help you manage this debilitating disease.

Learn lots, lots more about laminitis and Cushing's disease at the website www.talkaboutlaminitis.co.uk.

Visit www.bi-learn.co.uk/categories/equine to "join the revolution" (by attending the seminar).

AHF's Laminitis Q+A: What's the Key to Using a Grazing Muzzle on a Horse on Pasture?

Q. I promised my vet I’d be more consistent about using a grazing muzzle on my horse this spring when the grass turns green. I’m not sure I did it right last year. Can you give me some advice? 

A. (AHF) Grazing muzzles are effective in reducing the horse’s ability to eat grass.

The problem is that there seems to be a variety of reactions to wearing one. Most horses and ponies fight them at first. I assume this is because of frustration at trying to eat. I tell clients to teach them how to eat on a mown lawn so they learn how to push grass through the hole.

Then again, one client described how her pony got help from his two buddies, who both pulling at once on the muzzle. So far, three-horse power has won the fight of the muzzle.

Other horses, once accustomed to wearing one, seem to accept it and in those horses they remain trim and healthy.

The benefit of the exercise they are getting being turned out in very important to controlling insulin levels in all horses.

The movement is also important to strengthen the laminae in the foot.

--Don Walsh DVM for the Animal Health Foundation

How about you? Have you used a grazing muzzle on a horse at pasture? What was your experience? Do you have something to add to Dr. Walsh's tips?

Use the comment box below to add your advice about grazing muzzles.

Photo by Judith Whelan--thanks! You can post of a photo of your horse wearing his or her grazing muzzle on the Animal Health Foundation's Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/laminitisresearch.

Spring Ahead: The Animal Health Foundation’s Planning Guide to Avoiding Seasonal Laminitis

Horse owners look forward to spring, and horses do too. But first you have to get through winter, and mud season, and shedding season.

There’s a lot of work to do before spring even gets here. The most important plan you need to have is how to make sure your horse doesn’t suffer from laminitis this spring. The biggest majority of laminitis cases happen when horses are turned out on green grass. Yet out of every group of horses, some will handle the grass just fine, while others will develop telltale lameness.

Which group would your horse be in? And do you know?

Use our list of suggestions to get ready for spring. Be prepared for the emergency of laminitis, and hope that you won’t have to worry about it.

You need to see your horse’s feet when they are freshly trimmed. Look for signs of blood, a flat sole and a stretched white line. Ask your farrier if your horse’s feet looked this way on the previous trim. Exercise and a change in diet will help your horse’s feet. 

1. Is your horse at risk for laminitis? Any horse can get laminitis. Your horse may have been the one who never got laminitis in the past, but horses change. As they age, their metabolism changes. They are more susceptible to Equine Metabolic Syndrome (insulin-resistance) and Cushings disease. Obese or “easy keeper” horses are at especially high risk.

2. Have you moved your horse or has your pasture changed? Changes in the grass itself, the size of the pasture available, the number of horses in the paddock, and the number of hours and time of day your horse is turned out can affect the laminitis risk. Even the weather can affect how much carbohydrate is in the grass.

3. How much are you feeding your horse? Grain, hay and grazing each contribute calories and carbohydrates to your horse’s diet. If your horse is on grain, start cutting back before the grass comes in. If your horse is overweight during the winter, he will have a significant increase in calories when the grass is added in the spring.

Don’t just look at the foot; look at what the farrier has trimmed off, before your dog can grab it. Is the white line tight or is it stretched and deformed like this hoof clipping? Arrows point to area of hemorrhage where the coffin bone pressed on the sole; circled area shows blood in the stretched white line. 

4. Have you had your hay tested? You probably don’t know if your hay has more or less calories than last year’s hay. If you think there is any possibility that your horse is at risk for laminitis, you can soak your hay. Visit safergrass.org for information on soaking hay from Katy Watts, a researcher funded by the Animal Health Foundation.

5. What is the condition of your horses’ hooves? Schedule a spring appointment with the farrier and be there when she or he trims your horse’s feet. Look for a stretched white line, tiny signs of blood in the white line, and rings on the outer hoof wall. These are possible signs of insulin resistance and should be considered warning signs. Whether you see those signs or not, it is a good idea to take photos of your horse’s feet.

6. How much does your horse weigh? How much did he weigh last year? Get a weigh tape and follow the instructions to compute your horse’s weight. Plan to use the tape again, once a month, through the spring.

7. Have you felt your horse’s ribs lately? Your horse will probably be shedding a lot in March. While you are brushing your horse, feel the ribs, or try to. Did you feel them in the fall? Are you using a different hole in your girth, or have you said lately that you need to get a bigger girth? These are warning signs that your horse is overweight.

Grab your camera and take some photos of your horse’s feet from closeup, like this. You can show these photos to your vet and have something for comparison if your horse’s feet get worse--or better! 

8. Do you have supplies for laminitis? If your horse has had laminitis before, you may already have a halter muzzle, styrofoam hoof blocks, supplies for icing your horse’s feet, Soft-Ride boots, poultice, and other supplies in your tack trunk. Pull them out and see that you are well stocked for another year, even if you don’t need them.

9. Does your horse show subtle signs of foot discomfort? Do you notice that your horse doesn’t stand patiently when you clean his feet or does he suddenly not want to lift a foot for you? Is your horse less active during turnout than he used to be? There are many reasons for these problems, but a predisposition to laminitis is high on the list.

10. Can you get your horse into a daily exercise program? This might be the most important thing you can do for your horse’s feet. Just fifteen minutes each day of lungeing or working your horse in a round pen can make a big difference in your horse’s metabolism. It is also easier to exercise a horse that isn’t lame. Losing some weight and adjusting the metabolism will decrease the risk of your horse developing laminitis.

What are you doing to anticipate spring for your horses? Does your barn or farm have a plan? Use the comment form below to tell the Animal Health Foundation what you are planning for this spring, so other horse owners can learn from your good ideas!

As always, thanks for supporting the Animal Health Foundation and giving feedback that puts you right in the middle of laminitis research.

Story by Fran Jurga
Photos by Donald Walsh, DVM
© Animal Health Foundation 2013, all rights reserved

AHF Laminitis Research Soundbite: Katy Watts

Happy Valentine's Day from the Animal Health Foundation

How to Prevent Laminitis, Rule #1: Video Evidence Why Horses Are at Risk

Mariska the Friesian is not acting, she is just doing her mischievous best to get to where she wants to be--in the feed room. But sometimes that can get a horse in a lot of trouble--like laminitis!

Whenever the Animal Health Foundation presents a program on laminitis prevention, you will always hear Dr. Walsh say that there is one very simple thing that all horse owners can do to prevent laminitis.

You might think he's about to prescribe a new medication, or a pasture plan or a high-tech pair of horseshoes. But he's not.

In his best James Herriott voice he admonishes, "Each and every one of you should go home and put a lock on the door to your grain rooms."

And he's right, of course.

Horses know the routine. They also know where the grain lives.

The type of laminitis caused by a horse's midnight feast on grain is known as "grain overload". This can be a very serious form of laminitis--and it is totally preventable.

Veterinarians often get phone calls from worried horse owners who say, "Bobo got loose in the night and broke into the grain room!" The vet knows that the risk of laminitis is suddenly very real, and that time is of the essence, if the horse ate a sizable quantity or if was already at risk for laminitis. 

The vet also knows that the horse's binge could have been prevented.

The worst calls, the ones that vets really dread, is "She got into the grain again."

If your horse ever gets into the grain, call your vet immediately. She or he will give you instructions of what to do, both for potential colic and laminitis prevention. Follow those instructions, and say a little prayer.

But today is the ideal day to check all the latches and locks on your horses' stalls and gates, and particularly the lock on your grain room door. Make sure it isn't a flimsy door, either, because horses can be destructive burglars. 

This is especially true of barns that portion out feed buckets at night for ease of feeding in the morning. The horses can probably smell the grain, especially if it's sweet feed. Keep grain in a bin with a latch. If you have to portion feed in advance, try to use buckets that stack inside each other, and put them into a latched bin.

We all need to protect our horses from their own appetites--and their curiosity!

As for Mariska, all's well that ends well. The feed room is now carefully locked and, in fact, all the locks and latches on the Misty Meadows Farm have been replaced so Mariska's mischief days are over...unless someone forgets! To think her owners put the grain in the freezer, thinking it would be safe!

Thanks very much to Sandy Bonem of Midland Michigan, for both making the video and sharing it, and giving up so much follow-up information. We're glad that Mariska and her friends are both beautiful and smart, and hope that we'll see another video in the future.

Be sure to read the followup blog post about Mariska and the popularity of this video, which has now been viewed over 600,000 times.

Barn aisle photo by Paul Shillinger. Horse in stall by Amanda Tipton.

Happy New Year of Laminitis Research and Exciting Discoveries

The Animal Health Foundation Will Support Your
Horses' Health Through Laminitis Research in 2013...
Will You Support the Foundation's Laminitis Research In Return?

The challenge of laminitis is bigger than any of us, but it's not bigger than all of us.

Please end your old year begin your new year by funding research that benefits horses who have laminitis today, and that will prevent future horses from getting laminitis in the first place.

Laminitis research through the Animal Health Foundation attacks the disease on many levels, from the most high-tech science to simplifying insulin resistance testing. We're fighting laminitis in the laboratory, in the vet hospitals, in the shoeing shops and--most of all--in your barn. And your neighbor's barn.

But AHF doesn't stop there.

Soon, horse owners and veterinarians will work together to test 

horses for insulin resistance, a common risk indicator 

for laminitis, with a simple, inexpensive test currently 

in research by the AHF. 

Our research is affecting what goes on in the feed store--and the seed store, too. On the hay truck. In that bucket of supplements you just ordered, or the contents of the horse treats you just stuffed in your pocket.

The Animal Health Foundation attacks laminitis on all these fronts because everywhere we look, we see laminitis that could have been prevented--if we'd only known a year or two ago what we know now, thanks to the funds that you have put into the study of this terrible disease.

Did your horse have laminitis in 2012? 

The work of the Animal Health Foundation means that

the chance of your horse having laminitis in 2013 has been reduced. 

As you know, laminitis affects horses of all ages and all breeds and you only have to visit an auction or horse rescue farm to see how many unwanted horses have come to these places because of either active laminitis or evidence of a history of the disease. 

No matter how large or small your donation may be, your dollars will get you involved in the forward progress of our work to stop laminitis. We can do so much more for horses, with your help. 

Today's the day, and the champagne will taste much sweeter 

(or drier, depending on your vintage) if you know 

you ended your year on a horse-helpful note. 

Please contact AHF if you'd like to know more specific information about our future research projects that are in need of funding support and remember that your donations--large and small--have made a huge difference in fighting this disease in the past and will in the future, as well.

P.S. Be sure to sign up for the Animal Health Foundation's email newsletter to receive the latest news; the box is in the upper right corner of this web page.

Follow AHF on Twitter, too. 

And have you had a chance to "like" our Facebook page yet?