Very Painful Laminitis Recovery Time

Laminitis can cause some permanent changes inside your horse s hoof and for a horse to completely recover some significant growth and healing has to occur.

Very painful laminitis recovery time.

Wait at least 30 days after your horse appears to be normal before resuming any sort of normal work. The terms laminitis and founder are used interchangeably. Over the longer term effective pain relief involves drugs from the non steroidal anti inflammatory nsaids family of which aspirin is a member. Just like a new horse see photo 13.

However founder usually refers to a chronic long term condition associated with rotation of the coffin bone whereas acute laminitis refers to symptoms associated with a sudden initial attack including pain and inflammation of the laminae. The chronic stage which generally begins within 72 hours after the acute stage began and during which time the coffin bone continues to move within the hoof capsule and clinical signs continue. Each year however thousands of horse owners encounter a very different form of laminitis one that develops slowly over days or even weeks. Laminitis is best known as a sudden crisis that causes excruciating pain requires emergency veterinary care and imperils not only a horse s future soundness but his life.

The perforated sole repairs progressively over the same period see photos 11 and 12. The toe area is usually painful for about three months and incapable of being a weight bearing structure. During recovery the hoof is actually growing down remodeling that tissue and that takes time about a year for the whole hoof to regrow completely from top to bottom he says. So we concentrate support on the back part of the foot the frog and the heels any area that is not painful.

A full recovery from a serious flare up can take 6 12 months and especially during the first few weeks good pain relief is essential for the animal s welfare.