#laminitis

"How many seconds in eternity?"

first appointment this morning was a doozy 🥴

When I first came to vet school lots of people (especially horsey people) would talk about their horses with Laminitis and I didn't have a clue what it was. I sort of worked out it was to do with feet and was BAD and made appropriate noises when others discussed it. So you don't be an awkward me here is an explanation of what laminitis actually is...

Laminitis

Laminitis is an equine disease that is caused by inflammation of the connecting bit between the bone and the hoof outer horn. It is a very painful and serious condition that causes lameness often on multiple limbs and if serious enough can lead to euthanasia.

Lamin (laminae) - itis (inflamation) = inflammation of the laminae, the connection between the bone of the hoof (distal phalanx) and the horn of the hoof (the keratinised bit you see on a horses hoof).

Understanding the anatomy of the hoof can be really useful to understand laminitis.

The distal phalanx (or the coffin bone or the pedal bone) is suspended in the hoof capsule and connected to the hoof wall (the horn). The horns surrounds the outside and bottom of the hoof and is made of keratinised epidermis growing down from the top of the hoof. The full weight of the horse travels down to the coffin bone and then needs to be transfered to the horn of the wall. This means there needs to be a super strong connection between the bone and the hoof.

The way to make this connection so strong is to interdigitat the horn and the dermis attached to the bone. This creates a really large surface area and a very strong connection. - think two yellow pages stuck together page by page = its really strong! This means the bone and the horn work together as a cohesive unit.

In laminitis the connection becomes inflammed - this lead to it weakening. It becomes very painful for the horse to stand on its foot/feet and the bone is no longer attached strongly to the horn. If the inflammation is bad enough then the bone will rotate inside the hoof capsule, eventually pointing through the base of the hoof. This can be grounds for euthanasia. 

predisposing factors

overfeeding/ grazing on lush pasture

metabolic/endocrine disorders - e.g equine cushings

sepiticaemia / toxaemia

stress / steriod treatment

increased weight bearing

past laminitis increases the risk of future laminitis occuring

clinical signs

pain, lameness and a reluctance to move

‘sawhorse’ stance - taking it's weight off its front limbs (the front limbs are more commonly affected than the hind)

digital pulses