My horse will be 8 y/o in Sept.  He has recently developed bruising of the white line this spring/summer. He was just trimmed on June 25th and the farrier found the bruising in all 4 feet. The horse in not tender nor lame and the farrier stated this is caused by insulin and advised the horse is at risk of laminitis.

My horse is in a small bermuda grass paddock, which stays eaten down to the nub always because it is so small (approx 1/4 acre).  He is not overweight. He has a round bale of coastal bermuda hay free choice. I also feed 1.5 Lb of Triple Crown Lite with 1.5 Lb of Stanlee Alfalfa/Timothy pellets in 2 feedings daily.  Since the bruising was first noted, I added Remission. He also gets Vit E, 2 T salt, 1 cup of ground flax, 2 T chia seeds and MSM daily.;

What would be recommended to hopefully prevent laminitis in terms of feed changes?

The stable has no option but small paddocks, there is no barn, no stalls. Cannot be removed from grass.

Hi Merle,

It's been a while since you last posted. This should really be posted to the main group unless you have testing showing he is NOT IR. Rather young for PPID to be an issue.

It is possible the cause is smoldering, sub-clinical laminitis or it could be mechanics. You need blood work to parse that out: non-fasting insulin and glucose. We are moving into seasonal rise, so if he is IR that will only become worse. Remission is only expensive magnesium and whether you need it or not depends on the hay analysis. Sparse or heavily overgrazed grass can be extremely high in sugar, which will be dangerous for an EMS/IR individual. Unfortunately, TC Lite is not safe and alfalfa can be problematic as it makes some horses foot sore.

For safety's sake, put him on the emergency diet and get the blood work pulled:

https://www.ecirhorse.com/DDT+E-diet.php

https://www.ecirhorse.com/treatment-EMS.php

Whether he needs to be off grass or not will depend on what his insulin level is. You can prevent him from consuming grass by using a sealed grazing muzzle, should that be necessary.

Set up a Case History file for him and add hoof photos into an album on the Case History sub-group if you'd like to get trim feedback to help rule in/out mechanical issues:

https://ecir.groups.io/g/CaseHistory

--
Lavinia
Jan 2005, RI

Moderator/ECIR Support