Who are the experts??

I know more about lamanits & founder than some people, but I don't consider myself an expert! If you suspect that your horse has this condition, please do lots of research.

The real experts on founder and laminitis are owners who sucessfully manage horses with founder and laminitis, and the vets and trimmers focused on successfully rehabing these horses back to health and soundness. Many experts works are contained in the list of links fron the Cushings YAHOO group links list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EquineCushings/links

Free Yahoo Groups Provide Information & Support

Many experts - owners, trimmers and vets - experiences & support are available to you at no charge! There are three different email groups sponsored by Yahoo that offer support, information, validation and suggestions.

In order to get the most value from these groups, be prepared to take pictures and upload them, and provide consise information related to your horses feet, environment and diet.

The Cushings group (3484 members) has the highest membership and, I'm told, some of the best expertise you can find. The Founder group (512 members) has a different group of folks with many of the same discussions. Both focus on diet, damage control and trimming.

The third group, Barefoot Horse Care (836 members) , is a barefoot trimming and equine management group.

Many folks join multiple groups; we usually read anything pertaining to our needs from all three groups, but participate on only one or two groups.

Each group has it's resident experts, and everyone is very helpful. Again, these are all free resources!!

EquineCushings@yahoogroups.com http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EquineCushings/
Equine Founder email group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/equine-founder/
Barefoot Horse Care http://groups.yahoo.com/group/barefoothorsecare/

The DDT Basics - Diagnosis, Diet & Trim!

Tribal Wisdom from the http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EquineCushings/ email list.

DIAGNOSIS by blood work.  We recommend the ACTH test.  Its a simple blood pull into a purple top.  You didn't mention the age of your friends' horse. If he's in his teens this would be a good test to get a baseline for Cushings.  The we recommend insulin/glucose - simple blood pull/test from the same draw.  This will tell us about IR.  We look for higher than lab normals in insulin or the insulin/glucose ratio.  And actually a thyroid panel would be good too.  By balancing your minerals to you hay can help improve a low thyroid.  Do these test early in the week, in a quiet barn, feed soaked hay (dont fast) 3-4 hours before the blood pulls.

DIET is the key to IR.  We aim for a low NSC (nonstructual carb or sugar and starch) diet.  The emergency diet that you were sent is really good!  By soaking  hay for even one hour can reduce its sugar by up to 30%.  Plain soaked and rinsed beet pulp has the same calories as oats but 1/100th of the glycemic spike.  A great way to add medicine, minerals, vitamins, salt, cinnamon (if IR) etc.

If you suspect IR you need to pull the horse off of pasture immediately.  No grass-no grain-no apples-no carrots-no treats!!!

The cresty neck is a big sign!  Then you need to get your hay analyzed.  You need to know the sugar/starch/minerals in the hay! It could be 'candy' and making the horse sore.  Soak it and pour the water where the horse cant get it.

TRIM.  Your friends foundered horse is now in need of proper trimming. Low heels, toes backed up, feet balanced.  Not a pasture trim but a balanced trim.  And frequently too.

Finding the right vet

Unfortunately all vets are human, and while they all know something about founder, their knowledge may be outdated or limited. Founder is considered a fatal disease because while we know a lot about it, some of the common "treatments" are worse than the disease!

Not all vets are founder experts, as this story illustrates, so your best bet is to shop around.

The objective of this article

I'm attempting to gather information from other sources and organize it here. I'm attempting to make it comperhensive without overwhelming people who suddenly find themselves owning a laminitic horse. See Understanding Founder for a good introduction!