Laminitis season is here.
All this rain makes the grass grow with lots of sugar in it, and all over the land horses are getting sore feet.
So you give your vet a call, and I come take a look, and I say, yes, Fluffy has laminitis. Or founder. Just not flounder, that’s a fish. If Fluffy’s feet are pretty sore, you’ll likely see me put styrofoam pads on her feet, to support the sole.
Then, I’ll also probably tell you to “ice her feet.”
At this point you’re probably grumbling under your breath, “how am I supposed to do that with vet wrap, duct tape and foam insulation on her feet?”
Good question, I’m glad you asked! Here are two ways to ice your horse’s feet.
Icing Your Horse’s Feet – Option #1
For those industrious types that love handling your horse, and you love, love, love playing dressup and braiding her mane, you can take off the pads each day. Stand Fluffy in a wash tub of ice water, deep enough to cover the entire hoof. Keep her in the ice water for an hour or so, a couple of times for each front foot if you have an army of helpers. You can’t really ice them too much — and any amount will help.
When you’re done icing, dry her feet and rebandage with the duct tape, foam, and vet wrap. It’s a lot of work, but icing in a tub is the best non-drug method to reduce the inflammation that’s causing the damage to the feet.
Veterinary schools use this method, which is highly effective, and because they have indentured servants — er, vet students to do this for hours at a time.
Icing Your Horse’s Feet – Option #2
For the rest of us who would rather not put bandages on our horse every day, or multiple times per day, and would rather not lug bags of ice to the barn, and have heard of this thing called the Emancipation Proclamation, there’s another method.
Head to the grocery store and buy several bags of frozen peas.
No, don’t feed them to the horse. Use an Ace bandage to wrap a bag or two of frozen peas, lashing them to the horse’s leg, just above the foot.
This will cool the blood supply to the foot, and accomplish much of what the ice-bath method will do. I’d suggest having several bags, so you can swap them out to keep things cold. And you can refreeze the bags between sessions.
After a few days of this you’ll probably need to toss the peas to the chickens, or add them to the compost pile.
There. Now you know.
Illustrations by Kathy Connell, DVM
