Holly, my TWH mare had two bouts of acute laminitis about three months apart, about 12-13 years ago. At the time, a thyroid condition was believed to be a primary cause of laminitis, so I agreed to the vet's suggestion to immediately put her on ThyroL, even though her thyroid function tests were inconclusive. When she had her second bout, we upped the dose, and she stayed on it for about ten years, until she transformed away from her old "easy keeping" self a couple of years ago - I suppose a natural progression due to her aging. My vet treated both bouts of laminitis aggressively, and after she has been laminitis free since we got the dosage adjusted. Now, of course, researchers know tons more about IR, something that wasn't really on the radar screen when Holly was diagnosed. I have never regretted putting Holly on ThyroL, even though it became clearer with advancing research that IR was more likely her problem as opposed to a malfunctioning thyroid. She was initially VERY uncomfortable, and I was initially afraid that I'd have to put her down to spare her pain. However, thanks to an aggressive vet and a skillful farrier who worked together as a team, her final coffin bone rotation was negligible, and she soundly returned to barefoot within a couple of months after each attack. She is still fully rideable and completely sound at age 23, and still barefoot, just wearing the therapeutic shoes during the acute phases, about four months total. She hasn't had any ThyroL for about 2-3 years, and has been barefoot for virtually all of her life. I can't imagine a more successful case study on a well-thought out treatment - I owe my vet and my farrier a ton for their insightful and effective work.
Interesting article in the current web issue of The Horse: http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=11215&WT.mc_id=news I guess we weren't just lucky with the ThyroL treatment after all. You may have seen me become a little testy over some of the exaggerated claims that some of the new-generation barefoot gurus make, claiming that they and they alone pioneered the successful treatment of laminitic horses. As my dear old country farrier told me when he came out to work with Holly during her first acute attack, and I was in a panic: "Don't worry about her feet. I can fix her feet. Find and fix the CAUSE of her laminitis and her feet will be fine." Boy, was he ever right. My vet assured me that my farrier had been successfully "fixing the feet" part of the equation for many years at the time...and I think that was at least two years before Pete Ramey even took up farriery! Thank goodness for this ongoing research on laminitis, Cushing's, IR and Metabolic Syndromes - the knowledge gained since Holly's first attack is just staggering. Karen Thomas, NC
