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Laminitis-Founder
Laminitis and Founder are
two distinctly different things.
Founder, is a sinking or a rotating downward of the front of the
Distal Phalanx (coffin bone) within the hoof capsule. The rotation of the Distal Phalanx can occur via two
distinct reasons.
1. Road Founder is, when a horse is working
on a hard surface such as a road or paved surface, and for what ever
reason the foot is pounding the surface upon landing with each step. In
this extreme action the laminar attachment of the coffin bone to the hoof
wall becomes stretched near to the ground surface of the foot. This
stretching may cause a flair or dish at the dorsal (front) of the hoof
wall. If this condition persists with out correction, the stretching of
the dorsal of the hoof would very well continue up the hoof from the
ground surface to the coronary band at the top of the hoof wall. This
stretch and subsequent weakening of the Laminar attachment would decrease
the structural integrity of the shock absorbing qualities that the lamini
are the function of. As more and more of the integrity is lost, the coffin
bone would even, by the weight of the horse, could or would sink and rotate
towards the ground.
2. Systemic Founder
would have the same weakening of the lamini, and
subsequent rotation of the coffin bone, this condition being triggered by
Laminitis. But the reasons for a weakening of
the Laminar attachment are quite different.
Laminitis
can be caused by many things, of which the most
commonly thought of, is the Grain Overload, Over Feeding, or Spring
Grass issues. Other causes can be stress, retained placenta
in mares during foaling, and over reaction
to any Intravenous Injections. All of the fore
mentioned cause a fever in the blood.
. .
Hot or cold blood is not good for the brain, and the first thought is
that, the brain is far from the foot. So how does this relate? First
lets remember that the origins of the horse is in aired countries in the
middle east. Very Hot sands and ground is the turf of the horses foot.
The design of the foot is to compensate for the ground heat, where as if
the blood were to flow through the foot as it was on the hot ground, the
heat would transfer to the blood, and then making its way to the brain.
This hot blood to the brain would cause a heat stroke and possible death
because a brain in pain is not a good thing. And a brain can be
severely injured this way.
Hence, in the foot are Blood shunts between the veins and arteries called
"Arterial Venial Anastomosis"
or AVA's. The design of the AVA is to detect heat and shunt the blood
away from the foot. That is to say the AVA detects heat and opens. As the blood is pumped to the foot, the
AVA's redirect the blood from the arteries to the veins before the blood
enters the foot. Thus the blood does not rise in temperature, protecting
the brain.
This function, is the process of Laminitis. Before we look at the
laminetic cause of founder, we'll look at another cause of laminitis.
. . .
As we are considering systemic laminitis, we need to remember that AVA's
detect heat. And AVA's do not distinguish between Physical heat as
above, or Chemical heat. In systemic laminitis we are looking at a
chemical heat or a fevered blood, caused by a blood toxicity. For what
ever the reason for a fevered blood, the heat of the toxic blood
triggers the AVA's into shunting the blood away from the foot. If the
condition remains and the blood does not clear of the problem, the blood
vessels in the foot become necrotic (dead) and never rebuild. As the
condition progresses, the lack of blood flow to the Laminar attachment
of the Coffin Bone to the hoof wall, begins to become necrotic as well.
The Laminar attachment losses integrity and strength, and can not hold
the weight of the horse. It is the weight of the horse under this
condition that pushes the coffin bone through the hoof down towards the
ground. The laminetic disease has now progressed to Founder, the
rotation of the Distal Phalanx.
Quickly,
The horse has a digital pulse and we suspect Laminitis.
Do not
wait for the Vet.
Start soaking the horses feet in cold water.
All four
feet.
Up to the knees.
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How Does Cold Water work ?
"Think about eating very hot Thai or Mexican food, and your mouth is on
fire. Just water does not seem to work. But mix into the water a little
sugar, and the sugar water instantly relieves the pain of the hot
tongue. The sugar water works because there are more sweet sensors
in the tongue than sour sensors. The sugar water only over-powers the
brain into thinking all is well. The tongue is still burning.
The same is true of the AVA's in the horses foot. The blood is still
toxic and would trigger the AVA's to shunt the blood from the foot. But
the cold ice water over-powers the AVA's into thinking all is well,
cool, no heat. When in fact the blood is still toxic. And it is not the
toxic blood that will harm the foot. It is the lack of blood over an
extended period of time that allows the Laminitis to progress to
Founder."
Bradley SaintJohn
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One of the most important researchers of Laminitis is
Professor Chris Pollitt.
He was inducted into American Farriers
International Hall of Fame for his contributions to education on the
horse's foot. In 1997 he received the RIRDC-Vetsearch Equine Research
Award as Equine Researcher of the Year for laminitis studies and in 2003
received the Pfizer Scientific Award.
During an interview conducted at
EQINradio.com Dr. Pollitt mentioned that upon his arrival to an
incident of laminitis, that, the Resident Veterinarian had under
control, for ongoing of a number of days, every thing seemed to be going
quite well. As the soaking of the front feet of this horse seemed to be
doing the intended cure of enabling the blood to flow through the feet,
an unthinkable event occurred. As the hind feet were not being soaked
(the normal thought being, "its the front feet that founder") the blood had
been shunted from the hind feet for the entire time, and, as they were
not being cooled. . .
". . . the coffin bones of the hind feet pushed right through each hoof,
and it was as though the hoof were being removed like slippers. . .the
horse was put down."
For a normal horse, that is not pounding its feet on the track in a race
or such like events (road founder), when we see fever rings on the foot,
that tells us that there has been an interruption in the blood flow.
Interruption in blood flow normally says Laminitis.
And my guess is that horses are some what laminetic more than we realize.
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