This past September my dear horse Baby got a strange very high fever up to 106.1F that lasted about 3 days fluctuating from 104 to 106 to 103 until finally the NC State Vet School brought the fever down to normal. They gave a diagnosis of colitis although, Baby never did develop diarrhea. We will never really know what caused his fever and just as things started to improve for him and the doctors gave the ok to take him back home after a 3 day quarantine at there emergency clinic in Raleigh, NC, he started to lean back on his rear legs giving the signs of laminitis in his front hooves.
The Vets did say that endotoxemia could yield Laminitis at some point after a horse runs a high fever. I had cautioned the vets that he might also develop Laminitis from standing for days on their hard concrete floors. I had called the first day he was admitted to request that he be given extra shavings for his bedding since he’d not been used to standing on hard floors. His stall is clay with rubber mats and Streufex.
When I was ready to pick Baby up they called me and said he would not be cleared to go home due to this development. I immediately thought of Barbaro and all the long months on a hard floor. My friend Rex Brewer, a sale rep of Magna Entertainment, where Streufex horse bedding is made and I had attempted to get some Streufex over to the New Bolton Center for Barbaro but no one would call us back to arrange to receive the product for Barbaro. I always thought that Barbaro would have survived his broken leg and the Laminitis had he been provided a clay floor and lots of Streufex horse bedding.
Sure enough, I would get the real chance to find out if I had been right about how good clay and Streufex is for Laminitic horses. I told the doctors and NC Vet School that I was taking Baby home. I thanked them for doing such a great job bringing his fever down but I would not leave him for another moment on those hard floors. I knew that would kill him for sure.
So I loaded him up, paid my bill and left with the antibiotics that were prescribed for him for the entire month. I did as the doctor requested and got some xrays of his hooves the next day from my local vet. Yes, he had some slight rotation but not ready for Euthansia. Thank God! I could see he was sore and could not stand long. He was leaning back for a few hours but once he spent the night back on his own bedding and got off the hard floors he stopped leaning in pain off of his fronts. But he was still very sore and took many rests laying down. He was not able to hold his hooves up for cleaning and rasping for long. I began to have him stand on a wooden 4 by 6 by 2 inch treated wood board, positioned so I could rasp under his hooves while he was standing on the hoof being rasped. That worked great. The hardest part of this process was putting on the pads at first as he couldn’t hold his leg up long and I had to be very accurate and fast getting the pad on correctly. But the routine became more manageable as he was an intelligent patient. He helped me as he learned what he needed to do to get those pads on. I then began to apply Davis boots to his fronts after a while and that was good and much easier for him. This helped him stay out a little longer each day.
He had been barefoot most of his life and this was also a blessing. It seemed to me that his great hard hooves were better able to recover or better able to endure whatever damage from the Laminitis. The damage was mitigated by his healthy barefoot condition. He was able to heal as he was encouraged to rest lying down often in the soft Streufex horse bedding. His hooves kept contact with natural earth elements of the clay floor covered with Streufex, cushioning his sore hooves. This type of floor most likely plays a role in drawing out infections and healing hooves.
Having had the advantage of being barefoot and having very healthy hooves before the bout with fever and Laminitis, he really did fare much better than many horses who normally wore shoes all of their lives. His hooves were tender but in good condition to endure what must have been very painful. He took his meds each day with molasses, bute and antibiotics for the first week and then after about a week the bute was discontinued. He had been turned out each day in a pasture with little grass just to get some circulation and light exercise. He looked ready to come in after about 2 hours and carefully walked in. I had been duck taping pads to his front hooves and wrapping his legs with Icey Hot liniment. This really seemed to help him endure and move as needed so that he would get the circulation into his damaged hooves.
In about two weeks he was walking on rocks again and as the pads would fall off he felt ok to walk on rocks regardless. He was getting better rapidly after about one month of the gradually increased turn out.
Three months later he is in the pink. No pain in his hooves and back to normal with daily routine of 12 hours out and 12 in. He gets ridden lightly in Dressage and in pasture. Soon the work of collection will resume. He has made what I consider a full recovery and I must conclude that Streufex and clay floors as well as barefoot routine rasping is the way to keep a horse sound after Laminitis as well as a diet with Nutrina Lite horse pellets and good grass hay.
Baby will no longer be allowed to graze on a pasture with much of any grass, especially in the Spring time. He will have to be kept on grass hay and very little turn out in grassy pasture. He will always be vulnerable to Laminitis. But He did manage to recover very nicely as long as he was not left to be stalled on hard cement clinic floors in Equine Hospitals.
