Main Founder Page
The difference between founder and laminitis
Laminitis is the inflammatory stage and founder is when the coffin bone has lost it's attachment. Laminitis can be caused by toxins like vaccines, sugars (in grass or grain) that turn toxic in the gut, retained placenta, and allergies. These can be food allergies or environmental. Also mechanical laminitis is when the horse has direct trauma to the lamina via a long hard gallop on a hard road when it is not accustomed to that.
If the laminitis occurs when the hoof is not balanced and healthy (barefoot and trimmed properly) or is shod, the horse can experience additional damage due to imbalance. Conventional treatments "work" by squeezing the blood out of the corium with pressure from shoes and pads. Holistic treatment of founder seeks to rebalance the hoof and encourage healthy laminar horn production so that the wall grows in a healthy balanced attachment. We try to keep the inflammation to a minimum by using cool water and walking the horse to have the blood circulate. We may also give the horse Arnica which is a homeopathic.
A horse can have a laminitis episode and walk out of it if they have relatively healthy balanced feet. We can't always protect our horses against toxins in their environment. Clover as well as other legumes have a chemical in them that can provoke an allergic reaction resulting in laminitis. A mare can have a retained placenta or a horse can have a toxic reaction to injected vaccines. Shod horse owners don't even notice when their horse has a mild laminitis episode but these episodes eventually cause damage and then something triggers a major inflamation and the diagnosis is usually founder because by that time, the coffin bone has rotated away from the dorsal wall.
There is a huge difference with a natural hoofcare practioner's assessment of a founder and a conventional vet's assessment. The hoofcare practioner will trim the foot to rebalance the coffin bone and be sure that no excess bar causes pain. A conventional vet will usually advise drugs in the form of pain killers and anti-inflammatories (NSAIDS) then suggest a farrier nail on wedge pads which tilt the coffin bone down and forward so that the blood in the lamina is squeezed out by pressure. This will help the horse experience instant relief. But it actually does further damage.
Also when a hoofcare practioner sees that the coffin bone is not ground parallel, we call that "rotation without separation". When the attachment of the coffin bone is lost and pain from bars and high heels cause the horse to walk on his toes, then we call that "rotation with separation". A vet's diagnosis of most foundered horses will be "rotation" in whatever degrees that they measure looking at an X-ray. To the hoofcare person, this means the same as "rotation with separation". The vets do not consider it rotation unless the dorsal wall has separated and is no longer parallel with the dorsal surface of the coffin bone. The hoofcare person is going to trim the hoof so that the coffin bone is ground parallel so that the new hoof wall will grow in with a healthy attachment.
Conventional treatment with wedge pads tips the coffin bone up into the dorsal hoof wall.
We trimmers want to help the horse grow in a healthy attachment to the coffin bone by returning the coffin bone to ground parallel by trimming the bars and heels so the horse will comfortably weight his heels. This will help the toe lamina receive blood flow thru the coffin bone via the digital arteries. These arteries meet inside the coffin bone (transverse arch) and feed the smaller arteries exiting the dorsal surface of the coffin bone. When the heel is jacked up with wedge pads, the coffin bone is pushed into the hard hoof wall pinching these arteries shut. The pressure on the arteries inside the coffin bone causes the openings to enlarge. This same pressure causes the openings for arteries in the navicular bone to enlarge too.
The vets want to quickly stop the pain, at whatever costs. They are not concerned or are unaware of the long term effects by only trying to get the horse to be "sound" immediately. By prescribing wedge pads, drugs and stall rest, this is accomplished by causing the blood flow to damaged areas to be reduced.
But the holistic approach is to fix the problem. This may be painful, takes a long time and requires much effort on the horse and owner in rehabbing. It is like if your roof in your house was leaking and you saw a stain on your ceiling. If you hire a painter to come in and paint the ceiling, the roof is still damaged. The next time it rains, the stain comes back. If you keep doing this over and over, the roof gets more and more damaged until you may have to replace the whole roof or it caves in on you! Horses in wedge pads that are walking on their toes and kept in a stall may be so excited to come out and their feet are so numb that for a while, they seem sound.
The vet will eventually tell you that you will have to euthanize your horse because there is "no known cure" for founder. (This happened to me!) There is no known cure because holistic hoof care is not taught in vet schools and has been shunned by the vet community because this method does not make the horse sound (numb) immediately. It also doesn't make any money for a vet or farrier!
The horse industry is built around shod, stalled and eventually lame horses. Look at all the products that would become unneccesary if horses were kept naturally!
A horse can heal itself if it is provided with a balanced trim and supportive rehab measures. Blood flow is important to healing the damage and inflammation. The inflammatory fluid is made up of a lot of pus (dead white blood cells and cellular debris) and blood. In order to get that stuff out, we hoofcare people want you to walk the horse to promote the blood flowing thru. The vets will want you to put your horse in a stall and limit movement!
But the worst thing you can do is have your horse trimmed incorrectly or infrequently so that the heels and bars grow and get that coffin bone out of balance again. Walking the horse on an unbalanced (not ground parallel) coffin bone causes damage to the bone.
Too much walking, even on a ground parallel coffin bone, if the bone has sunk all the way to the bottom of the hoof capsule is not good either.
So before you think all this natural hoofcare stuff is simple, think again! That is why most successful rehabilitations of foundered horses happen in a hoof clinic where the horse is trimmed frequently and the surfaces are covered in rubber and level. Also if a horse has had so many laminitis episodes that his lamina are permanently stretched out, his coffin bone has dissolved more than 20%, it is almost impossible to ever get them to become performance horses ever again. But they can become sound enough for some limited use. Getting an x-ray tells us how much coffin bone is left and whether it's even worth it to try.
Anyone that has horses should read Dr. Strasser's book, "Who's Afraid of Founder?"
If the laminitis occurs when the hoof is not balanced and healthy (barefoot and trimmed properly) or is shod, the horse can experience additional damage due to imbalance. Conventional treatments "work" by squeezing the blood out of the corium with pressure from shoes and pads. Holistic treatment of founder seeks to rebalance the hoof and encourage healthy laminar horn production so that the wall grows in a healthy balanced attachment. We try to keep the inflammation to a minimum by using cool water and walking the horse to have the blood circulate. We may also give the horse Arnica which is a homeopathic.
A horse can have a laminitis episode and walk out of it if they have relatively healthy balanced feet. We can't always protect our horses against toxins in their environment. Clover as well as other legumes have a chemical in them that can provoke an allergic reaction resulting in laminitis. A mare can have a retained placenta or a horse can have a toxic reaction to injected vaccines. Shod horse owners don't even notice when their horse has a mild laminitis episode but these episodes eventually cause damage and then something triggers a major inflamation and the diagnosis is usually founder because by that time, the coffin bone has rotated away from the dorsal wall.
There is a huge difference with a natural hoofcare practioner's assessment of a founder and a conventional vet's assessment. The hoofcare practioner will trim the foot to rebalance the coffin bone and be sure that no excess bar causes pain. A conventional vet will usually advise drugs in the form of pain killers and anti-inflammatories (NSAIDS) then suggest a farrier nail on wedge pads which tilt the coffin bone down and forward so that the blood in the lamina is squeezed out by pressure. This will help the horse experience instant relief. But it actually does further damage.
Also when a hoofcare practioner sees that the coffin bone is not ground parallel, we call that "rotation without separation". When the attachment of the coffin bone is lost and pain from bars and high heels cause the horse to walk on his toes, then we call that "rotation with separation". A vet's diagnosis of most foundered horses will be "rotation" in whatever degrees that they measure looking at an X-ray. To the hoofcare person, this means the same as "rotation with separation". The vets do not consider it rotation unless the dorsal wall has separated and is no longer parallel with the dorsal surface of the coffin bone. The hoofcare person is going to trim the hoof so that the coffin bone is ground parallel so that the new hoof wall will grow in with a healthy attachment.
Conventional treatment with wedge pads tips the coffin bone up into the dorsal hoof wall.
We trimmers want to help the horse grow in a healthy attachment to the coffin bone by returning the coffin bone to ground parallel by trimming the bars and heels so the horse will comfortably weight his heels. This will help the toe lamina receive blood flow thru the coffin bone via the digital arteries. These arteries meet inside the coffin bone (transverse arch) and feed the smaller arteries exiting the dorsal surface of the coffin bone. When the heel is jacked up with wedge pads, the coffin bone is pushed into the hard hoof wall pinching these arteries shut. The pressure on the arteries inside the coffin bone causes the openings to enlarge. This same pressure causes the openings for arteries in the navicular bone to enlarge too.
The vets want to quickly stop the pain, at whatever costs. They are not concerned or are unaware of the long term effects by only trying to get the horse to be "sound" immediately. By prescribing wedge pads, drugs and stall rest, this is accomplished by causing the blood flow to damaged areas to be reduced.
But the holistic approach is to fix the problem. This may be painful, takes a long time and requires much effort on the horse and owner in rehabbing. It is like if your roof in your house was leaking and you saw a stain on your ceiling. If you hire a painter to come in and paint the ceiling, the roof is still damaged. The next time it rains, the stain comes back. If you keep doing this over and over, the roof gets more and more damaged until you may have to replace the whole roof or it caves in on you! Horses in wedge pads that are walking on their toes and kept in a stall may be so excited to come out and their feet are so numb that for a while, they seem sound.
The vet will eventually tell you that you will have to euthanize your horse because there is "no known cure" for founder. (This happened to me!) There is no known cure because holistic hoof care is not taught in vet schools and has been shunned by the vet community because this method does not make the horse sound (numb) immediately. It also doesn't make any money for a vet or farrier!
The horse industry is built around shod, stalled and eventually lame horses. Look at all the products that would become unneccesary if horses were kept naturally!
A horse can heal itself if it is provided with a balanced trim and supportive rehab measures. Blood flow is important to healing the damage and inflammation. The inflammatory fluid is made up of a lot of pus (dead white blood cells and cellular debris) and blood. In order to get that stuff out, we hoofcare people want you to walk the horse to promote the blood flowing thru. The vets will want you to put your horse in a stall and limit movement!
But the worst thing you can do is have your horse trimmed incorrectly or infrequently so that the heels and bars grow and get that coffin bone out of balance again. Walking the horse on an unbalanced (not ground parallel) coffin bone causes damage to the bone.
Too much walking, even on a ground parallel coffin bone, if the bone has sunk all the way to the bottom of the hoof capsule is not good either.
So before you think all this natural hoofcare stuff is simple, think again! That is why most successful rehabilitations of foundered horses happen in a hoof clinic where the horse is trimmed frequently and the surfaces are covered in rubber and level. Also if a horse has had so many laminitis episodes that his lamina are permanently stretched out, his coffin bone has dissolved more than 20%, it is almost impossible to ever get them to become performance horses ever again. But they can become sound enough for some limited use. Getting an x-ray tells us how much coffin bone is left and whether it's even worth it to try.
Anyone that has horses should read Dr. Strasser's book, "Who's Afraid of Founder?"
Founder cases (click on the name of the horse):
Jubilee and Sugar Two Tennessee Walkers with severe founder
Cody My Son's Pony
Noah Sub-clinical founder
Grace a foundered mare
Giliad
Foundered Mini
NEW info to prevent laminitis from THH
I just read that PROBIOTICS can help your horse with preventing laminitis! For more info, go to www.thehorseshoof.com and look to subscribe to this fine publication.
X-ray of a severely foundered horse treated with conventional vet and farrier care
This is a photograph I took at a farrier and vet meeting. It is of a 6 yr. old mare that had a re-section of the toe wall by the vet and was being reshod. It was OBVIOUS to me what the mare's problems were. It's those honker bars visible on the xray and high heels not to mention serious contraction!!! There is no laminar connection of the coffin bone to the dorsal wall and the coffin bone can be seen to almost come through the sole of the foot. This is the "normal" treatment of founder by conventional farriery and veterinary methods. It does not return the hoof to health and eventually results in euthanasia.
Coffin Bone of Foundered horse
Coffin bone comparison
The coffin bone on the left has concavity while the foundered coffin bone on the right is flattened and convex. See the lateral and frontal views of this foundered coffin bone below. To see this case, click here
Foundered coffin bone upside down
