Laminitis-Founder

Laminitis and Founder are two distinctly different things.

Founder, is a sinking or a rotating downward of the front of the Distal Phalanx (coffin bone) within the hoof capsule. The rotation of the Distal Phalanx can occur via two distinct reasons. 

1. Road Founder is, when a horse is working on a hard surface such as a road or paved surface, and for what ever reason the foot is pounding the surface upon landing with each step. In this extreme action the laminar attachment of the coffin bone to the hoof wall becomes stretched near to the ground surface of the foot. This stretching may cause a flair or dish at the dorsal (front) of the hoof wall. If this condition persists with out correction, the stretching of the dorsal of the hoof would very well continue up the hoof from the ground surface to the coronary band at the top of the hoof wall. This stretch and subsequent weakening of the Laminar attachment would decrease the structural integrity of the shock absorbing qualities that the lamini are the function of. As more and more of the integrity is lost, the coffin bone would even, by the weight of the horse, could or would  sink and rotate towards the ground.

2. Systemic Founder would have the same weakening of the lamini, and subsequent rotation of the coffin bone, this condition being triggered by Laminitis. But the reasons for a weakening of the Laminar attachment are quite different.

  Laminitis can be caused by many things, of which the most commonly thought of, is the Grain Overload, Over Feeding, or Spring Grass issues. Other causes can be stress, retained placenta in mares during foaling, and over reaction to any Intravenous Injections. All of the fore mentioned cause a fever in the blood. . .

Hot or cold blood is not good for the brain, and the first thought is that, the brain is far from the foot. So how does this relate? First lets remember that the origins of the horse is in aired countries in the middle east. Very Hot sands and ground is the turf of the horses foot. The design of the foot is to compensate for the ground heat, where as if the blood were to flow through the foot as it was on the hot ground, the heat would transfer to the blood, and then making its way to the brain. This hot blood to the brain would cause a heat stroke and possible death because a brain in pain is not a good thing. And a brain can be severely injured this way.

Hence, in the foot are Blood shunts between the veins and arteries called

"Arterial Venial Anastomosis" or AVA's. The design of the AVA is to detect heat and shunt the blood away from the foot. That is to say the AVA detects heat and opens. As the blood is pumped to the foot, the AVA's redirect the blood from the arteries to the veins before the blood enters the foot. Thus the blood does not rise in temperature, protecting the brain.

This function, is the process of Laminitis. Before we look at the laminetic cause of founder, we'll look at another cause of laminitis.

. . . As we are considering systemic laminitis, we need to remember that AVA's detect heat. And AVA's do not distinguish between Physical heat as above, or Chemical heat. In systemic laminitis we are looking at a chemical heat or a fevered blood, caused by a blood toxicity. For what ever the reason for a fevered blood, the heat of the toxic blood triggers the AVA's into shunting the blood away from the foot. If the condition remains and the blood does not clear of the problem, the blood vessels in the foot become necrotic (dead) and never rebuild. As the condition progresses, the lack of blood flow to the Laminar attachment of the Coffin Bone to the hoof wall, begins to become necrotic as well. The Laminar attachment losses integrity and strength, and can not hold the weight of the horse. It is the weight of the horse under this condition that pushes the coffin bone through the hoof down towards the ground. The laminetic disease has now progressed to Founder, the rotation of the Distal Phalanx.

Quickly,

The horse has a digital pulse and we suspect Laminitis.

Do not wait for the Vet.

Start soaking the horses feet in cold water.

All four feet.

Up to the knees.

One of the most important researchers of Laminitis is Professor Chris Pollitt. He was inducted into American Farriers International Hall of Fame for his contributions to education on the horse's foot. In 1997 he received the RIRDC-Vetsearch Equine Research Award as Equine Researcher of the Year for laminitis studies and in 2003 received the Pfizer Scientific Award.

During an interview conducted at EQINradio.com Dr. Pollitt mentioned that upon his arrival to an incident of laminitis, that, the Resident Veterinarian had under control, for ongoing of a number of days, every thing seemed to be going quite well. As the soaking of the front feet of this horse seemed to be doing the intended cure of enabling the blood to flow through the feet, an unthinkable event occurred. As the hind feet were not being soaked (the normal thought being, "its the front feet that founder") the blood had been shunted from the hind feet for the entire time, and, as they were not being cooled. . .

". . . the coffin bones of the hind feet pushed right through each hoof, and it was as though the hoof were being removed like slippers. . .the horse was put down."

For a normal horse, that is not pounding its feet on the track in a race or such like events (road founder), when we see fever rings on the foot, that tells us that there has been an interruption in the blood flow. Interruption in blood flow normally says Laminitis.

And my guess is that horses are some what laminetic more than we realize.