Laminitis

This has been a hard year for many reasons and this one is at the top.  My 22 year old Morgan mare had laminitis with founder (aka rotation of the coffin and pedal bone). The vet thinks we caught it early but I'm very quick to blame myself and wonder if I missed subtle signs. I noticed her walking very tenderly on the Oct. 10th and we had the vet out asap.  We'd iced her hooves and had a two week regimen of pain killers and other laminitis drugs.  I got her snazzy cushion boots and bedded up a stall to keep her on soft ground.  She's recovered well enough and walks around fine without pain or limping.  We had her tested, yet again (but with a more sensitive test) for Cushings.  She is positive for Cushings and insulin resistance.  So she will be on Pergolide (Prescend).

Dani has always been an easy keeper and never been slim in any sense of the word.  She's been in a grazing muzzle often.  This year has been a crazy year with my Stubs having a kidney issue, Chance having a strained branch of a tendon in his hind fetlock, then my carpal tunnel has gotten worse so I had injections which helped but were painful for the first few days.  I also had to go out to Colorado for two weeks to help my parents, my mom had three major spinal surgeries and my dad was her care giver but right when she got to a rehab facility in early September he gets admitted to the hospital with a major colon hernia. He nearly died and has been recovering since then, he's still not fully recovered.

There has been a lot going on and I feel like I must have missed something, must have slipped in my care.  I didn't get the horses off the pastures when we started having cooler nights (always something to worry about since this causes spikes in sugars of the grass). I did delay in getting weight off her this year, I didn't ride, I didn't, I didn't, I didn't.  I will beat myself up forever but it all comes down to one thing.  I'm human and if I missed something I can't be too hard on myself.

My farrier will be out in a week for the first trim post founder.  It will be many months for her to fully grow out any issues that develop in the hoof wall.  Trimming can help to realign the hoof to the bone inside and hopefully continue to keep her comfortable.  

She's a trooper.  Even in pain she had enough spunk to put up a fight about taking her medicine.  I had to pump a large syringe of ground Bute, aspirin and another med into her twice a day.  She is stubborn for sure, I love her though.

Looking at her 1 month after the beginning of the laminitis event she is doing well.  She's bossing the gelding Chance around (hopefully not too much where he restrains his tendon) and begging for food constantly.  They are both in the dry lot of the property, two of my pastures will be converted into a track system (Paddock Paradise - Information on how to create it (all-natural-horse-care.com)) since we were needing to redo the fencing anyways. I'll post more as we progress.  We have some planning and a small section of woods to clear out for this project.

I don't know the timeframe for healing Dani, I'm currently hand walking her when I can, have her on a Laminox supplement, and changed the ration balancer to one with an even lower rated non-structural carbohydrate ratio.  I'll have to consult with the vet in a couple months as to when it will be safe to ride her and then progress to other types of exercise for her as well. I also will be testing Chance for Cushings, he is 23 and has kept his coat some springs a little longer than normal.  He's been negative in the past but I don't think he was tested with this more sensitive test.  He already has heaves (COPD) and his tendon....man, old age sucks for ponies just as much as humans!