Main Causes Of Laminitis

Digestive upsets due to grain overload such as excess grain fruit or snacks or abrupt changes in diet.

Main causes of laminitis.

Horses that pound their feet can sometimes cause sufficient damage to the laminae to cause concussion laminitis. Overload inflammatory and metabolic. Blood poisoning or toxaemia can also be a cause. From diarrhea and colic to black walnut toxicity to a horse that has binged on feed to a mare with a retained placenta or even a horse with a fever.

Systemic diseases that have a septic or toxic focus can cause laminitis. The main cause of laminitis in horses in australia and in most parts of the developed world is from allowing horses to overeat and become obese. This includes pneumonia pleurisy diarrhea colic and purulent metritis. Horses and ponies are heavy creatures.

Anytime they have an injury and must bear weight unevenly there is a huge risk of laminitis due to overload in that weight bearing limb. Horses especially ponies allowed unrestricted access to pasture particularly lush spring grass before the digestive system has had time to adapt are at extremely high risk. Relatively less commonly horses can get laminitis from overload typically associated with non weight bearing conditions in one limb thereby overloading the opposite limb. There are 3 main causes of laminitis.

Laminitis caused by overload. This includes many seemingly unrelated situations. Although laminitis occurs in the feet the underlying cause is often a disturbance elsewhere in the horse s body. Lack of sufficient movement alone or in combination with other factors can cause stagnant anoxia which in turn can cause laminitis.

Inflammation can also be a cause of laminitis. This sometimes leads to static laminitis particularly if the animal is confined in a stall. Overload metabolic and inflammatory. When these conditions cause laminitis the initiating cause must be identified and treated before you can turn your attention to the laminitis.

In addition any infection in the body can produce enough toxins to damage the sensitive blood vessels and cause laminitis. Around 90 of cases of laminitis are thought to be caused by endocrine diseases such as equine metabolic syndrome or pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction ppid which is also known as cushing s disease. The horse is designed to digest carbohydrates starches and sugars in the small intestine and fibre in the hindgut. Essentially there are three main causes of laminitis.

Affected horses have an abnormal response to the sugars in grass which can make them more susceptible to equine laminitis. The causes vary and may include the following.