Disappointment & Smiles-An Update

Last month Maark went to his new home. His new owner is an endurance rider who was looking for a new horse. She was looking for a project who was kind, calm, & wanting to bond with the human partner. She found what she was looking for in Maark. She picked him up on a rainy night & he was so good getting in the strange trailer in the dark. I did get an email the next day that said after the first few miles he travelled like a pro. She was very pleased with her new horse.

A week later I got an email that Maark was dead lame. His new owner & I were both devastated because her vet said he was not only foundering, but had a blown suspensorary ligament. To say his owner & I were shocked at the diagnosis is an understatement. We were both skeptical but since we aren't vets... I offered to take Maark back but she said she loved him & wanted to work him through whatever was wrong. Her farrier looked at Maark & pronounced that he was not only NOT foundered, but never had foundered. He thought maybe the trouble was an abscess. You can imagine my relief when I got a phone call a few days later saying an abscess had blown out at the coronet band. With that, Maark came sound & the leg swelling disappeared. Obviously the swelling was from the abscess & infection, NOT from a damaged suspensorary. Smiles all around.

Last week I received a holiday email with the awesome news that Maark's new mom had not only started saddling him, but she'd actually been sitting on him & letting him wander around the roundpen. I could hear the grin in her words. It made my day. What a great year end it's been for the fattest horse I've ever known.

Botox For Laminitis & Founder?

I read an interesting article in Equus magazine this morning & thought I'd share. The article was about using Botox to aid in the prevention & treatment of laminitis & founder. Botox is the trade name for a botulinum toxin. The toxin blocks muscle contractions & causes localized muscular paralysis. It's this property that makes Botox popular for reducing facial wrinkles.

A pediatric neurologist & a vet teamed up on a study of Botox use for laminitic & foundered horses. They also studied it's use as a preventative to these 2 devastating diseases. Their study consisted of 7 horses, 6 with varying degrees of laminitis & founder plus 1 horse who had a serious injury to a front leg. The premise for their study was to see if Botox injections would relax the deep digital flexor tendon so it didn't contract & pull the coffin bone into the classic, founder rotation. This would be equivalent to cutting the tendon, which has been the traditional method of treatment for rotation, barring euthanasia. The study horses were injected with Botox above the knees of each affected leg. After 2 weeks, x-rays showed that rotation in the affected hooves had stabilized. The horse who was given Botox as a preventative because of the severe injury never developed laminitis. The effects of Botox begin in a few days & peaks at 2 weeks, with about 3 months being the lasting length of 1 injection.

Botox treatments aren't cheap & depending on the severity of the laminitis & founder, multiple treatments might be needed. The article stated the cost between $1500-$2000 per leg. But when faced with laminitis & founder, there is now one more option that gives our horses a chance at life.

CRM Xpression

I got a call from a friend the other day about a horse who had just been returned to her. She'd free leased her older gelding to a friend. My friend was so upset over the condition of her gelding. She told me he was morbidly obese & having trouble walking on his sore feet. I could hear the pain, anger & fright in her voice. She was afraid he was foundering & that she'd have to euthanize him.

When I started this blog to follow my own story of dealing with foundered & obese horses, I had hopes that my horses would help someone else going through the same painful journey. I did hours of research on founder, laminitis, IR & cushings. I was fortunate to have someone as mentor & to hold my hand as I went through the ups & downs of saving a horse I thought was unsavable. It was now my turn to "pay it forward".

As I was speaking with my friend, she sent me this photo. No it's not a pregnant mare, it's her gelding. It's obvious that he wants to rock onto his backfeet to relieve his sore fronts. She told me he kept pawing the air with one front foot, not wanting to stand on it. I couldn't see his expression in this photo, but she said his eyes were dull & wrinkled in worry & pain. Such a shame because this used to be a vibrant, bright horse who carried more than one person down the endurance trail.

I was so glad I could tell my friend that her horse was very savable. I told her to look at my blog & read about Maark & Lady. We knew her gelding had been on irrigated pasture & I explained that he could not be allowed any more grass. He needed to be on dry lot pasture. I told her how I spread hay out all over the pasture to keep my horses not only moving, but to prevent them from gorging their meal. Boy did I feel smart explaining about sugar & starch content in hay, & that she needed to find hay low in both. I told her how I rinse the beet pulp until the water runs clear to insure it's as low in sugar as possible. But I think the most important thing I learned on my journey was that these obese horses can NOT be put on a shorter ration diet. I've learned that like people with rapid weight loss, there can be internal organ damage associated with rapid weight loss in horses as well. My friend said she was so glad she'd called because she'd barely fed her gelding that morning. She was going to go feed him a normal ration of hay, spread around his pasture, as soon as we got off the phone. I asked if she'd gotten his weight & it was estimated (taped) at just over 1100lbs. This for a horse who's normal weight was barely over 900lbs.

A few days later my friend called to say her gelding was moving better & his eyes were brightening. We talked some more about what had happened to him & how to prevent it from happening again. Fortunately my friend knows the importance of good hoof care & she's already addressed what she feels was a very bad trim. I was glad to hear he was doing better & offered to loan her some Easyboots with pads if she thought her horse needed them. She said he was walking really well in his sand paddock. It will be a long, slow process, but my friend & her gelding will be just fine.

I can't stress enough that allowing your horse to get morbidly obese is life threatening. If you have an easy keeper, please monitor the weight & health so you don't have to go through the pain of trying to save your horse. Founder is extremely painful & no horse should have to go through the agony. With good management, you can prevent founder.

The Biggest Loser

Maark is doing & looking good. He's starting to get some muscle tone & he's enjoying running & playing. It's amazing to see him run & then check his pulse & respiration. When he arrived he was puffing just walking across the pasture. Today he can run with the rest of the herd with his pulse & respiration recoveries are almost as fast as my endurance mare. He's doing so fabulously well that I find it hard to remember that day in Sept when he stepped off the trailer. I've almost forgotten how I tossed handfuls of hay around an entire acre to keep him & Lady not only moving, but to keep them from gorging while trying to feed them appropriately. Maark's no longer that obese horse heading for a metabolic crash. He's gone from 1467 lbs to 1170 lbs. It's been tough feeding the calories he needs without contributing to his obesity. But I have succeeded. He's becoming the dynamic horse he was meant to be & one day soon he'll become an athlete. It's been suggested that I open a Biggest Loser Ranch for horses. I might just do that.

Maark-Hooves Uncast

After Maark had has his Equicasts on for 4 weeks, they started to come off. This was helped along by the rain & Maark moving around the pasture with the other horses. His best friend is a 2 year old filly who keeps him hustling. On 10/25 Sally, James, & a student trimmer came out to work on Lady & Maark. Maark was quite the pest as Lady was getting her hoof makeover. He wanted to see what everyone was doing, probably just to be sure Lady wasn't getting any treats.

For the two weeks that Maark's casts had been off he'd been running around sound so didn't need casts back on his feet. His hooves had grown a lot & needed a trim. It's amazing how fast his hooves are growing & I'm sure some of that can be attributed to the minerals my horses get. CA Trace has increased the hoof growth in all my horses, as well as giving them shiny & dappled coats. Although on second thought the hoof growth might not be such a good thing because they need trimming more often. I might have to reconsider giving the minerals. NOT! They really have helped grow Maark a healthy hoof faster than I could have expected. I hadn't thought of it as Maark was being trimmed, but I'm sure the CA Trace had a part in making Maark feel good enough to misbehave. He was quite wiggly & stubborn, not wanting to stand still. A behavior he hadn't exhibited before Sun. While this is a down side to a horse feeling well, I'll take the fractious horse over the "not quite right" horse any day.

Maark did settle down & it was decided that he would get new casts so the student could practice. It's nice having horses that behave well enough for students to work on them. Not only does it benefit my horses, it benefits all the other horses the student will one day trim & possibly cast. Maark sure does look spiffy in his pretty purple & black hoof casts. I wonder if they're the reason he now runs like the wind?

Lady-Hooves Unveiled

On Sept 7th I began my education in equine founder when Lady arrived from Minnesota. This is a picture of her hoof that day. I had called my trimmer on the Labor Day holiday because it was obvious to my inexperienced eyes that Lady was in crisis. Sally came out & did an emergency trim in the hopes of elevating the pain & pressure Lady was experiencing. We scheduled an appointment for the following weekend & I got on the phone to the vet for x-rays. Sally wanted x-rays before she started trimming to rehabilitate Lady's hooves. X-rays are a crucial tool in rehabbing foundered horses. Without x-rays the trimmer has no idea what can be trimmed away & what must be left. There's no way to know the condition, location, or degree of rotation of the coffin bone without x-rays.

On Sept 13th Sally came out with James, another natural hoof care practitioner. It was amazing & scary watching them cut away layers & layers of Lady's hoof. There was so much dead tissue & without the x-rays to guide their way, it would have been impossible to do as beneficial a trim as Lady got that day. Once Sally was satisfied that they'd trimmed as much as they could without causing harm, Equicasts were applied to Lady's front feet. There was an instant improvement in her quality of movement. Within a couple weeks she was trotting sound across the pasture. It was uplifting to watch her emerge as a spunky, loving life mare. I really couldn't wait to see what her hooves would be like when the casts were removed.

Oct 25th was the day of revealing. Sally came with a student who was hoping to learn not only about founder, but how to use Equicasts to help foundered horses. James also came to see the changes. He had spent a lot of time "fixing" Lady 6 weeks earlier & it was going to be fun to see the results of his handiwork. When everyone had arrived, I was asked if someone else could be called to come to see the success of the Equicasts. This person had a foundered horse & the student was trying to convince her that the casts would help her horse. Of course I would let someone else come. I hope Lady, & her son Maark, can be used as models for people wanting to help & save their foundered & laminitic horses.

It was fun to see the casts taken off so that Lady's hooves were exposed. There was close to an inch of wonderful, healthy, tight growth from the coronet band. Her hooves had grown a lot & there was a lot of dead tissue to be removed.

You can see in the above picture that there's quite a bit of toe that needs to be removed. In the next picture you can see where Sally has lowered the heels & taken back the toe on one of Lady's hooves. The thickness of dead tissue is visible at the toe. This was such an amazing transformation to watch. Once this hoof was trimmed, note the really nice angle that is finally being reached, the student put on a new Equicast. It was then on to the other hoof.

In between trimming hooves, Sally discussed the anatomical effects of founder & explained how the coffin bones rotates. While she was talking Lady was walking around uncast, just as sound as she could be. I'm sure my grin was quite wide.

It's been such an amazing journey in such a short time. Less than 2 months ago I never would have believed Lady could survive her condition, let alone progress to soundness. I'm so glad I've had this chance to learn that founder is NOT a death sentence. I hope that other people & their horses are as fortunate as I've been in having a great trimmer to support me through what can sometimes seem like insurmountable odds. Lady is proof that life can be good.

Founders I Have Known

As I'm dealing with a foundered & a laminitic horse, I've been reflecting on the horses in my past. Looking back it's pretty amazing that I never saw a foundered horse as the stable of my youth. In fact, I'd had horses for 20 years before I saw my first founder. Knowing what I know today, I find that unbelievably amazing. Our horses were kept in stalls & fed high quality, dairy alfalfa with large quantities of grain. Maybe part of the reason for no founders was that a number of the horses had young girls who rode them constantly. But what of the idle horses standing around in stalls with bins of feed? Why did these horses not founder?

Rick was the first horse I knew who foundered. He was an early teen, chestnut gelding of unknown heritage. i occasionally rod Rick when his owner was out of town. He was a nice horse, one that I enjoyed riding. One day his owner noticed he was slightly lame. Thinking it probably a stone bruise, he let Rick have a couple days stall rest. Rick didn't get better, in fact he got worse. Finally, after about a week, the vet was called. The horrifying diagnosis was road founder. Rick's founder wasn't caused by feed, it was caused by being over ridden (his owner liked to run for miles in the deep riverbed sand & it took it's toll) into exhaustion. Back then it was common practice to euthanize horses when diagnosed with founder. Rick's owner wanted to save his horse so he did as the vet prescribed. Rick was put on anti-inflammatories & the shoer was called. Eggbar shoes were put on to keep the sole off the ground. When Rick continued to worsen, he was reshod with shoes put on backwards. This was to relieve any pressure at the toes & to give him a better breakover. Still he worsened. Finally the day came when his coffin bones pushed through his soles. The decision was finally made to lay Rick to rest. I personally would have opted for euthanasia sooner. Rick was in a lot of pain, he refused to move, he had lost massive amounts of weight from the pain (causing lack of eating), & he battled numerous hoof abscesses. It was a relief to finally see he didn't have to suffer any longer.

VM April Dawn was a gorgeous bay, arabian mare. She belonged to an elderly friend who loved her horses to death. Each spring Dawn & her companions were allowed free access to the lush grass during the day. At night they were brought into the barn & fed alfalfa. Each received a scoop of grain (or sometimes chicken scratch) as a treat. Dawn & her companions were obese. Every spring the four horses would become foot sore. I don't know when Misty Foundered but it's evident today by the structure of her hooves that she did founder at some point. While she's sound today, Dawn wasn't so lucky. A couple of years ago Dawn foundered. The original x-rays showed 26 & 28% rotation in her front feet. She was given Bute & put on stall rest (12 x 12 box stall). She stopped eating because she couldn't move. By the time I was called, Dawn was emaciated & dehydrated. Her coffin bones were through her soles. I had her owner start feeding her beet pulp & rice bran, we moved her water trough closer to her, & we put her in a roundpen instead of the box stall. When I called a few days later, i was told Dawn was doing better & the farrier was upbeat on her outcome. It was a couple more months before I got a phone call that Dawn was worse again. It took some doing but I convinced her owner to let me take them to UCDavis. New x-rays showed that Dawn had no coffin bones left. The bones had de-mineralized to nothing. It was a sad trip. Dawn did not come home.

Cougars' Charmer was a palomino, quarab mare who belonged to one of my best friends. While she didn't belong to me, I loved riding her. She was very forward, bold, & covered a lot of ground with little effort. She was a very successful endurance horse. One day while my friends & I were out riding, Charmer stepped on a pine cone. She was sod with pads so we didn't think much of the small hole the pine cone put in her pad. Little did we know what had really happened. A few days later Charmer was lame. When the shoe & pad were removed, there was an abscess brewing from where the sharp point of the pine cone had not only gone through the pad, but into her sole. Laminitis set in, as well as a mild case of founder. Over the next few years Charmer continued to be ridden endurance but she had to have pads to protect her tender soles. Anytime she got early spring grass she would become foot sore. It was finally decided to retire her because it was difficult to keep her feet sound under the stress of competition. For a few years she was occasionally ridden by friend's grandkids. The day came when she was no longer ridden & she became a "pasture puff". As Charmer aged she would have laminitic bouts that always resolved. Then one day while my friends were on vacation, Charmer foundered again. When my friends got home, Charmer was in extreme pain & it was decided her time had come & she was laid to rest.

Laminitis & founder are horrible & devastating conditions. Their causes are many & not often understood. There are various treatments & no guarantees of success. Once a horse has foundered, it's always at risk for another episode. While we can do everything to control diet & exercise, we have no guarantee that we can keep founder at bay. It is my hope that someday we'll beat these conditions that can take our horses' lives.