Laminitis

So we think it all started mid-late summer.  Cody is always kind of tender footed that's why we put hoof boots on him when we ride anywhere that isn't the arena.  But it started to get to the point where he couldn't even walk from the pasture to the barn without looking like he was going to fall over in pain.  A few other horses were having some foot issues around the same time so we chalked it up to the weather and the ground hardness.  So we put some shoes on him and he got a little better.  But he was never quite right after that.  We pulled the shoes at the beginning of November and he remained not quite right.  We gave him some time off and evaluated him again.  He was hard to figure out.  He'd go from lame, to sore, to lazy all in a few minutes and we couldn't ever really tell which leg was bothering him.  It was kind of vague and hard to pinpoint.  So he had a little more time off.  I was out there last week and he was worse than before so I called the vet and put some boots on him.

The vet made it out the next afternoon and by then he'd been in the boots for 24 hours and was looking quite a bit better.  He did test sore with the hoof testers on the sole of his foot.  But judging how tender he usually is that alone wasn't really indicative of anything specific.  He was also reactive to concussion on the hoof wall which the vet said could indicate laminitis.  He figured it was a pretty mild case and we couldn't really determine why.  He was off sweet feed already, he's not a fat horse, so it pretty much leaves something like "road founder" from hard ground, maybe from stomping flies.  Might just be one of those things.  He had a similar issue several years ago, a round of bute and shoes fixed it up at the time.

So Cody is on 2g of bute a day for 7 days to reduce any inflammation.  And the vet recommended pink foam insulation duct taped to his feet.  The alternatives being special boots ($190) with special orthotics ($90), or corrective shoeing.  We figured trying the insulation was the cheapest route and he had the best luck with it apparently.

Instead of using just the duct tape I figured we'd put the foam in his boots, I thought that would keep it on a lot better than just tape.  So he's had 5 doses of bute and has been wearing his boots with the foam in it.  And he seems like he's feeling pretty good these days.  They put a different horse in the pen with them this weekend and I guess there was a lot of running around and Cody looked like he was feeling just fine.

So the bute will be done tomorrow and Cody will be happy for that.  He's not a big fan of how the bute tastes.  Surprisingly he's been pretty decent about it though.  He yanks his head up about 4-5 times and then he just stands there and lets me put it into the corner of his mouth.  So in the grand scheme that's not too horrible if you ask me.  He has been "running" away from me now though, really just walking away when he sees me coming.  I think that'll stop when I stop making he eat gross tasting medicine.  I'll have to make sure to give him some treats when I go out there for a while after the meds are done.

After the week of bute we'll have to see how he does.  I'm thinking I give him the rest of the week in the boots with the foam to give the bute a chance to wear off.  Then maybe no boots for the weekend and we'll see how he is.