Page 4 - Spring 17

Protective posture, Pepe on July 15, 2016
Pre-report
Before he was bought in January 2016, Pepe was kept in a stable and mainly got cattle food to eat (maize, silage etc.) He had never been ill and was vaccinated against tetanus for the first time in January and February 2016. Five weeks ago (first week of July) he fell ill with an acute laminitis. He couldn’t stand up from pain and remained on the ground for one week, stretching his legs up in the air to avoid any contact with the ground. Two vets had treated him with phenylbutazone, heparin, Vetranquil®
minutes after starting to pull the carriage as well as when just walking. He sweated a lot after five minutes on the lunge.
Behaviour
Very sensitive, reacts fast, is no typical heavy horse, easy to handle. He is cautious with strangers, must build up confidence. In the team (6 horses) he is number two. He accepts new things (e.g. blanket) on the condition that he trusts the people present. He is easy-going, wants to please and doesn’t dilly-dally, is a
When examining the hooves I found an interesting symptom. Normally the horn of the hoof grows by 8 mm per month. In this case the lowest transversal circle was about 2 cm below the coronary band of the front hooves and clearly over 3 cm below the coronary band of the rear hooves.
happens, when one leg is burdened
e.g. after a fracture on the other leg • After extensive work on hard soil
4 Intoxication e.g. with yew tree 5 Administering of cortisone
6 Stress
Chronic laminitis
in a heavy horse called Pepe, 14 year old gelding
Dr. Bernhard Hornig, Germany
(Acepromazine 1% granules; Ed), ointment dressings, infusions and locally applied cold packs. The blood test showed no signs of intoxication, the blood parameters were normal. The X-ray’s showed a laminitis with slight rotation of the coffin bone (5°).
Pepe refused food. The laminitis attacks happened mostly at night and were especially painful in the mornings. After two weeks the horse could only stand up with great effort. However, he hardly made any steps and remained standing on the same spot nearly all day and night.
Three weeks after the first symptoms had appeared he could make the first tentative steps. Moving seemed to do him better – rather in cold weather than in the sun. He preferred the shade. At last he could be led to the paddock that is situated right next to the stables. The other horses warmly welcomed him and every horse showed its sympathy in its own way. Pepe seemed to be a really popular guy.
Examination on July 15,2016
Five weeks after the first attack of laminitis I was consulted. The owner reported that Pepe used to have a dermatomycosis that was slowly healing after treatment with Imaverol® (Enilconazole; Ed). During the laminitis attacks Pepe’s droppings were small and hard, probably because he didn’t drink enough. The droppings are now back to normal. The hooves were not hot during the acute phase. He easily perspired before the illness, as early as two
completely decent horse. He can’t be alone, has always been in the team. Since he fell ill, he doesn’t always want to be in the team. He is alone in the stable, while the others are outside on the paddock. His appetite has grown a little, he eats well but only half of the food at once, then he eats the rest later. The thirst is unremarkable.
Clinical diagnosis
Apart from a minor pain reaction as a result of the hoof tester there was nothing out of the ordinary. Clinical symptoms were just transversal corrugated hoofs at the front and the hind legs and he was unwilling to move. One of the described pathognomonic reasons could not be found. What is interesting in this context is the number of reasons listed by Uta Blaich [1] (www.enpevet.de):
Transversal circle on the front hooves, July 15, 2016
.... on the rear hooves
These results indicated an attack had been present 3 months ago. When asked, if this was possible, the owner told me that the horse had moved rather carefully then. When asked what had troubled the horse either physically or mentally, the owner answered: “The two mother sheep were taken out of the paddock for delivery. And Pepe was very sad, since they were his best friends and he had been like a father to them”.
Since no pathomorphological reasons could be found for a laminitis, I treated the horse on the basis of a psychosomatic cause (“remaining grief after having been left”)
1 Appearance of endotoxins in the blood; endotoxins can build in various contexts, e.g.
• Diseases of the gastrointestinal tract
like colic, colitis-X or diarrhoea
• Laminitis after parturition
• Infectious diseases
• Plenty of fresh grass or grain rich in
carbohydrates leading to an increase of certain bacteria in the intestinal flora that produce endotoxins
2 Hormonal disorder
• Cushing syndrome
• Equine metabolic syndrome • Hyperlipidaemia
3 Overloading
• A one-sided overloading laminitis
2