What Causes Laminitis

This can all occur before any symptoms are apparent and once the process has started it is extremely difficult to stop.

What causes laminitis. Laminitis is a complex cascade of events that causes the soft tissues laminae within the hoof to swell weaken and die. There are 3 main causes of laminitis. Relatively less commonly horses can get laminitis from overload typically associated with non weight bearing conditions in one limb thereby overloading the opposite limb. Although laminitis occurs in the feet the underlying cause is often a disturbance elsewhere in the horse s body.

Before we get into what causes laminitis in horses let s quickly cover what is laminitis. Common causes of laminitis in horses laminitis in horses is caused by the number of different factors acting alone or in combination. Many causes of laminitis have been suggested but currently only 5 causes have reliably induced laminitis experimentally. Laminitis involves the failure of the bond between the hoof wall and the distal phalanx commonly called the coffin bone pedal bone or third phalanx p3.

80 causes predispositions and pathways of laminitis henry w. Laminitis commonly known as founder is a painful disease that causes severe lameness in horses. The type of food that causes laminitis is rich young spring grass with high levels of fructans. The causes vary and may include the following.

The most famous example of this was the american racehorse barbaro who had a. However rich grass can cause the problem at any time of the year and even frosty grass in the winter can damage the digestion in the gut so much that the wrong sort of bacteria starts to multiply and release toxins. Overload inflammatory and metabolic. Laminitis means inflammation of the laminae of the horse s hoof.

Starch black walnut oligofructose fructose and insulin. It can often cause lameness in two or all four feet at one time but it is preventable.