Thank you, Dr Kellon for your reply.

"Only about 50% of IR animals fit the overweight profile. I agree with doing a TRH stimulation."
We planned to do the TRH test in June as that is when our herd has their annual. Should the TRH be done sooner than that .... or are we headed into a "safer" period?

"High insulin causes vasoconstriction and cold on top of that only makes it worse. Cold can also make insulin readings erratic but it can't be the sole cause here. Gabapentin is used when nothing else is left but it doesn't seem to do much of anything. Try Laminox https://uckele.com/laminox-3lbs.html 1/2 scoop twice a day and use coupon code ECIR for 5% off."
Just looked at the Laminox ingredients. I see that there are some of ingredients used in the "mito cocktail" used in people. This is something I have been wondering about since I have been caring for these ponies. I will ask more about this another time. What percentage of horses w/ PPID and or IR respond well to Laminox? And is it ok if the horse is on something like Vermont Blend?

"I'm not aware of Anaplasmosis causing laminitis. All chronic illness comes with some IR but not to this degree. I'd repeat the testing to see what's going on. Maybe you were lucky and caught Lyme early."
Lyme test was repeated with the Metabolic panel in Dec and was the same ... a weak pos. I am from CT and have dealt with LD issues since the early 90s ... part of the "issues" were doctors (including infection disease from two different states) having varying opinions on tests and results and to treat or not treat. I don't know if a weak pos in a horse means anything or not. What are your thoughts on the fact Sparkles had significant improvement on Doxy ... enough so that she wanted to be back on the track with the herd but declined once the course of Doxy was done. I know Doxy has some anti-inflammatory properties ... but does it have that much? More effective than Bute ... or Banamine? Incidentally, I never thought bute was that effective ... I foolishly continued to give out of guilt and needing to do something. On days she was more uncomfortable I would give Banamine instead ... this seemed more helpful. I only tried this a handful of times though.

"It's because her heels are too high. The palmar angle - angle the coffin bone makes with the ground - should be no more than 5 degrees. Her toes should be backed up a bit too but don't disturb the sole in the front half of the foot."
Does it look like the toes were "disturbed" in the Feb pictures? We noticed heel was high after the rads and farrier trimmed more than she had been ... Sparkles was quite sore after this for about five days whereas previous trims Sparkles always felt better afterwards. Farrier is coming this afternoon.

You can put her out for as long as you like as long as she can't get any grass (winter or not).

RE putting her out. Boots or not boots? And speaking of boots, We had to try 3 different kinds before we found boots that fit her well which were the soft rides. We tried the clouds too. Both Clouds and SR came with wedged pads. Prior to that I was making pads including pads from Easycare which are not wedged. We wopted to continue making our own as we were not sure if the wedge would bother her. After realizing she is creating a wedge with pads I am wondering if she should be using the wedged pads that came with the Softrides as it might be more comfortable .... OR if we should continue using the flat pads as we can analyze how they are wearing?
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Jen and Sparkles in New England 2022
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Sparkles Case History