Please! I haven't had to deal with this personally until now. My horse, hes 16yrs old was just recently diagnosed with chronic laminitis. Hes currently on stall rest for 30 days with daily bute and soft rides (which I haven't gotten yet, but they are on their way) vet shared with 2 of my farriers... yes, they both know and work on my horses when one can't do it... they work together on several cases and in my opinion,  the best guys for the job! So I feel confident in that area that between both of them theyll know what needs to be done. My main concern is diet related. I was told by my vet to put the horse on well solve ... I dont want to use that stuff, I've fed it in the past to an older horse with ringbone and he needed to drop weight.. this horse wouldn't touch this stuff... none of my horses would eat it.. I tried. Its extremely expensive and I'm just not a fan :-/ ... vet said fine, low starch... low NSC you can get.. so I picked up Bluebonnet X factor ... comes in at 10% NSC. feeding rate is 4lbs per day... horse eats it readily so no problem there getting his thyro-l in him.. vet also put him on that .. he wants some weight off him and said this would help him out. I'm not feeding him 4lbs but wondering if I should be .. I'm doing closer to 2lbs.. I'm kinda scared to give him too much feed! Every feed, I've fed I always kept it around 5lbs per day and fed lots of grass hay. I just want to do right with him and get him better. For those that dealt with this type of thing what did you do to help your horse? Feed wise, supplements? I've got some BOT wraps I use on him and i have some BOT therapeutic bell boots coming too. I was wondering if a ration balancer would be better for this case or not? I'm not giving him the recommended amount of x factor because hes overweight as it is... ???? Help! 

my vet had me take one completely off grain. soaked bermuda grass hay only, all she can eat. (soaked put water on hay 30 min b4 feeding to release sugar)

But I've also been reading that soaking the hay will remove vital nutrients and minerals the horse needs to be able to recover. I've been soaking his hay and the water is BROWN when I'm done. I feed coastal.. no idea what the NSC is but my husband cousin grows it and cuts it in the summer months, we typically buy a 1st cutting and then another 100 on 2nd cutting and sometimes 3rd... just depends. My sister in law has a mare that had severe laminitis, really bad... she couldn't walk and had rotation. This same vet, had her put her on well solve and hay.. also this mare is in foal... they did not advise her to soak her hay and we get it from the same field every year. Her horse made a full recovery and her x rays are almost completely back to normal... we also use the same farriers. 

we also feed moormans growstrong mineral.

The loose minerals? Just by itself? I'm just wondering if I should try to feed a ration balancer instead of the x factor but the protein content might be an issue for laminitis? I know I have so many questions! I also know vets do not do much on the nutrition side .... seems like this particular vet recommends either purina sr or well solve to EVERYONE that steps foot in there. Only thing I've read that's consistent is staying under 12% NSC with a feed for laminitis. I dont want to starve my horse or neglect his vitamin/mineral needs during this time. I know its vital to his recovery. 

we use tubs in pasture and loose mineral for performance horses that are kept up in small traps/runs.

I havent dealt with laminitis but with epm. I used Joni McKim and its the best thing I ever did!  Both my horses are getting compliments on how they look!  Ive tried alot of feed and variations and suggestions for a long time and finally! ugg! .  You just gotta keep trying til you find what works for your horse.  What caused his laminitis?

I dont believe in cutting back on horses feed bc they are not like us.    Their system is so different than ours! 

The horse is worse... even more worse then when I first discovered it. Hes never done well being stalled for long periods of time... I know the vet said to leave him up but I'm so tempted to turn him out.. we have no grass it's just dead winter grass and very little of it. He seemed better when I left him out the first night. Hes standing so bad, hes ripping his tail out.. I put it up because hes got a very long thick tail that drags the ground. I dont even think the bute is making a dent! No heat in his legs or feet this morning,  just looks so stiff and uncomfortable he can barely walk but he darn sure has an appetite 

The inflammation and swelling in the wall of the hoof is very painful and causes the coffin bone to rotate.  The coffin bone is like a little hoof inside the hoof and when it rotates (turns down because of the swelling) that part of the coffin bone can be very near the sole and it hurts for the horse to walk on it.  I've lost one horse to laminitis and two of my very good friends have also.  In the end all of our efforts along with huge veterinary bills were a lost cause and we had to put our horses down.  Anybody contributing a better description.....welcome.  It's been a long time since I dealt with this but I did try to understand it.

Wrap your hand around your horses hooves and you'll probably feel the heat.  Keep trying and I know you will because we all love our horses but sometimes this condition is very hard to deal with.  

What is causing the laminitis. Have you had him tested for Cushings and insulin resistance?

Recently dealt with this in August.  10-yr-old gelding that is out to pasture 24/7, never had a health issue and has the best feet of any horse I've owned.  Past summer he looked as though he was slowly gaining weight and then foundered in fall.  No rotation. Farrier set up special shoes with a form-a-hoof silicone padding built inside.  That did wonders.  Kept him in a stall for a month with hay (sometimes I soaked it).  Yes, he lost a lot of weight but needed to lose anyway.  Vet suspected EMS but bloodwork came back Cushings as the cause.  A 10-yr-old with Cushings?  Way too young.  It's frustrating but he recovered from the founder.  He is back on straight pasture/hay now as before (for winter anyway).  I've lost my best horse to founder years ago so I know where Frodo is coming from.  

I want to give you a huge hug! Laminitis is so difficult...there aren't any cures...all we can do is try to keep them comfortable for as long as we can. I lost a good horse to this a few years ago. Once the bone starts to rotate, there's no bringing it back. It is so difficult to watch horses go through this. Try to just keep him comfortable, and if it keeps getting worse...you'll know when it's time. I am so sorry you are going through this!

I've been awake all night reading about this awful thing! I feel strung out!  Ok so per the vet there is no rotation or very very minut ... I have photos on my phone from the xrays I can share if anyone wants to see and maybe share some input. I hope and pray it's not a lost cause... we've had this boy less than a year but we are all so attached to him already. I am going to have him tested for cushings Saturday morning when I can get him to do a fast and have the time in the morning to get over there. Vet said possibly cushings as hes 16 but not sure... does anyone know how much a cushings test is? I thought the vet said it was a blood test?? 

I know zero about Cushings Disease but out of curiousity looked up how Secretariat's laminitis came about.  It was Cushings.  He got better and then worse.... humanely put down at the age of 19.

My cushings gelding gets it, plus he has thin/soft soles which doesn't help. Keeping him stalled makes it 10x worse, I try not to stall him unless I have to. My farrier put shoes & pads on him a couple weeks ago for the hard frozen ground. He eats around 2lbs of Kalm N Ez daily and he gets alfalfa hay and some soaked alfalfa pellets. If it is a metabolic issue, like cushings, alfalfa is lower NSC and usually lower in sugar than grass. He lives on a dry lot, where I board there's 10 horses on less than 2 acres so grass doesn't exist for any of them which works in his favor. I've used the buteless in the past with good results, but if your guy isn't responding to bute then that may not work for him. If he is a fairly easy keeper I wouldn't hesitate to switch to ration balancer. I had good luck with mine on one of the Progressive ones a few years ago. I just had to travel too far to get it at the time. If yours does come back with cushings if you test, I've had great luck with SmartPaks Smart Pituitary supplement. It's kept me able to avoind the Rx meds for years now. Took about 4 months to really get a difference in him, but it helps a lot & is very affordable. 

Cushings test is bloodwork.  The vets around here get a couple of free tests every fall so I was fortunate to be able to jump on that offer.  I believe my vet quoted somewhere between $150-180 as original cost.  I need to look up the SmartPak recommendation....

Thanks for the replies. Hes getting worse it seems. I took him out of his stall today... had to drag him. I cold hosed his legs to get rid of the swelling from being stalled and he started walking a little better after about 15 minutes of hosing. We let him walk over to the dirt pile where he likes to roll and he looked like he wanted to but I think it's too painful to try to get back up so he didnt :-(  my softrides should be arriving tomorrow... but for the time being my farrier had me get some magic cushion and I packed him with a diaper and some vet wrap... gave him a bit more bute and put him back up. I'd like to say he was better, but hes not. His condition is getting worse and we dont even know why because his xrays werent that bad .. you can see the slight inflammation but its honestly not bad enough to be this painful in both my farriers opinion... we talked on the phone today with the vet and them... i cannot afford much more xrays and this n that... I'm trying my best to get him better or at least comfortable.. I just feel awful I sat in his stall and bawled my eyes out after I packed his feet. Hes not interested in eating his feed tonight but is eating hay and drinking water. He kept almost falling over when I was packing his feet. I'm mentally trying to prepare myself for the worst case scenario... if hes not better in a week or so, I'll try pulling his shoes and just turning him out in our dry lot and see... and if that doesnt help or he gets worse I know what has to be done. I cant stand seeing him like this. Hes not a wimpy horse so I know the pain is bad for him. My BOT wraps took his swelling out wonderfully this evening and he seemed a little more comfortable with them on. 

How much bute are you giving him? I would not give him any feed at all even when you think he would eat it, just hay. How fresh is your hay? I cant feed my IR gelding fresh hay at all and I have to feed hay that is not fertilize, his hay has to be older cut hay, if he gets hay thats high in sugar he will have a relapse and then his laminitis will kick back in, I have to be really carefull of his hay. 

When my gelding was first diagnosed I thought the worst, he was laying down and had a pulse in his left front hoof, it was awefull I thought I would have to put him down, but keeping him on bute the first week and doing everything my Vet asked me to do he pulled out of it, the first week was really hard on the both of us, he had to stay in a smaller pen where he could lay down and rest, I let him rest all he wanted the first week, but he had to have a pen to beable to lay down without worrying about a wall or getting hung up. The right amount of bute and the right type of hay was the key to getting him to wear he could get better. You horse needs to beable to lay down and rest himself.. But dont put him in a tiny stall make a pen big enough to move around and stretch out while he lays down.

We have a mare with EMS. She gets fed the wellsolve, around 1 to 1.5 lbs amorning and night. It’s very good stuff. I hope you can get it under control. We buy tested hay for my EMS mare. Cushing test is a great idea. And early morning and evening grass is terrible. Late fall early winter grass has quite a bit of sugar in it too. We feed a tested Tifton 85 to keep NSC down. 

I had hoped for a good report today. . . . I'll keep him in prayers