Equine Podiatry Rehab

01/01/2024

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy new year!

25/12/2023

29/09/2023

UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine farrier Shane Westman sees fewer hoof problems when a horse has a shorter shoeing schedule, he tells attendees at the Northeast Association of Equine Practitioners Symposium in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

28/04/2023

I am pleased to offer this introduction PowerPoint presentation aimed at Equine Laminitis Prevention.
I will follow up with more in depth information on the subjects we address in this presentation.
Please watch and share with your friends! Thank you!

First video in a series about the prevention of Laminitis. By Dr. Richard A. Mansmannwww.EquinePodiatryRehab.com Since the mid 1980’s Dr. Mansmann has had a...

04/02/2023

We use SURE FOOT Pads by Wendy Murdoch to observe foot loading tendencies by the horse. This is a case of a chronically laminitic mare who had overloaded her hind end for the last three years. Here we were testing whether she preferred a bit higher heel behind to help with her abysmal posture. She loved the SURE FOOT hard slants and we saw huge releases in her neck, back, sacrum as she shifted to a more square stance with all 4 legs like a table, cannon bones perpendicular to the ground.

16/01/2023

Prevention is difficult to "sell". Then when it becomes a judged standard then it becomes a really difficult problem. The hunter show world likes fat, over weight horses & ponies. It is probably not fatal when the horse/pony is kept in regular exercise but when that exercise decreases that is when that BCS >6/9 horse/pony is at higher risk of laminitis. If you think laminitis is an easy problem for a horse/pony & their owner you are a very poor horse person and have not much idea of horse/pony welfare. Look toward prevention in your horses/ponies in 2023

Obesity is a critical problem in the equine industry, with ponies being at particularly high risk of developing obesity-related conditions such as met…

18/11/2022

There are ways to prevent many laminitis cases.
It is such a terrible disease for horses and their caretakers!!

An equine veterinary podiatrist gives 6 steps for addressing the acutely laminitic horse.

15/03/2022

There are 3 major types of Equine Laminitis. The least common is the Supportive Limb Laminitis with its highly publicized and very brave “representative”, Kentucky Derby winning Barbaro. He shed a light on the long and tragicness of laminitis. Along with all their daily roller coaster ride of laminitis his owners graciously provided significant funds for research which ultimately has helped all our horses. Even though it is the least common type of laminitis, if your horse gets a wound, infection or trauma to a leg that causes excessive weight on the opposite limb within a very few days a protective plan needs to be put in place to see if laminitis in that foot can be avoided. Immediate podiatry radiographs. The second most common form of laminitis is caused by endotoxic issues like acute colitis, pleuropneumonia, retained placenta or drug or vaccine reactions. It is interesting since this type of laminitis has occurred more frequently in veterinary school hospitals it got much more research related to its pathology back a couple of decades ago. But during that early research of the endotoxic type of laminitis equine practitioners outside of veterinary hospitals were recognizing laminitis in overweight horses in the 70’s and 80’s as a more common and insidious type of laminitis. Over the past 2 decades it has come to be recognized as by far the most common form of laminitis. It is related to endocrine problems like overweight (easy keepers), post corticosteroid injection, insulin resistance (Equine Metabolic Disease), Equine Pituitary Pars Intermedia Dysfunction (PPID, Equine Cushing’s Disease). Some or all these diseases can occur at the same time. Remember our first horse seen again?

How many clinical signs do you see on this horse that scream; “LAMINITIS”!!??

None of these types of laminitis have a simple way to treat once the active inflammation causes pain. Certainly, early recognition and immediate action is critical. If any OTVF Team member mentions or even thinks about the possibility of laminitis in any of these types of cases an immediate podiatry lateral radiograph of each of the 4 feet is critical. The OTVF Team then needs to huddle to develop a plan of attack.

09/03/2022

Look, See and Ask. A critical equine health care team are composed of the owner and/or trainer, equine practitioner and farrier (OTVF). Each member whenever they are looking at their horse see the entire horse. From all 4 feet to the total top line and back down again or vice versa! Each Team Member needs to be willing to strike up a conservation related to any question with any OTVF member. Each Team member needs to be respectful and willing to work together toward a consensus. If the team members are not willing to work together a new OTVF Team needs to be assembled ASAP. Each of our goals must be predicated on the belief that early recognition is the best way to manage a potential health problem. Laminitis prevention or recognition of early signs are no different. A typical history related to me from owners about their veterinarians’ role with laminitis cases is; “they never looked or commented on my horse’s feet during the preventive care vaccinations”. Another common history was that the veterinarian was asked to examine their moderately lame horse & the veterinarian looks for an abscess first. That is for sure the first rule out, BUT IF PUS IS NOT SEEN AND DRAINING, then podiatry radiographs to evaluate for laminitis need to be done at that time or the next day. Don’t wait a few days or week to see if “it” is a bruise. A typical owner’s comments to me about their farrier after laminitis is finally diagnosed is that their horse has never had any soreness post trimming/shoeing in the past, but this time (or sadly, the last few times) the horse was sore for a few days but recovered. After subsequent shoeings or trimmings it takes the horse longer to recover from the shoeing or trimming. This probably is not that the farrier trimmed the horse to close but more likely this is a horse problem and podiatry radiographs are needed immediately in this first “offness” post trim or shoeing. The typical comments from the veterinarians and/or farriers to me about the owners or trainers related to the laminitis case history is; “we having been telling the owner/trainer that they need either more farrier help or radiographs, but they want to wait and see”. Waiting to see what might happen is a false sense of security. Time is of the essence! Time means blood flow. Podiatry radiographs need to be taken now.

02/03/2022

Welcome to my very first post with my new adventure! My initial goal with this site is to work at providing my thoughts & stimulating “conversation” about equine veterinary topics and provide ideas about how to prevent and/or deal them. Please feel free to pass onto folks that you might think could benefit from the conversations or who might positively add to the conversations. The first group of posts will be related to laminitis and possibly how to prevent. Especially since we are fast approaching “April – Laminitis Prevention month” with the onset of lush spring grass. Albeit every month should be Laminitis Prevention Month! Laminitis is the worst disease that a horse can get, and the worst horse disease owners, farriers and veterinarians must deal with.
There has been a great deal of important basic and clinically applied laminitis research over the past 3 or so decades. We all have learned a great deal, but… the bottom line there is no one drug, no one blood test, no one shoeing plan, no one diagnostic image that solves this horrendous disease. When a horse gets laminitis, it is impossible to predict the course of that horse’s disease. Thus, prevention is the key. And for sure, prevention can be is difficult to communicate. But maybe you as an owner or trainer want to avoid this look to your horse (picture 1) or avoid getting onto the roller coaster of good and not so good days as you navigate the weeks of emotionally and financially draining treatments and shoeings only to end up in a hospice situation. (See picture 2) Oh yes, and how would your horse like all that roller coaster ride? Maybe as a veterinarian, farrier or other equine health enthusiast you might gain some ideas for your clients or provide some positive input to the discussion.

29/01/2022