Sudden Winter Laminitis Surge - any ideas?

[Rose Folly]

On 27 December I went out to give our horses - all out 24/7 - their morning feed and haylage - to find my poor cob mare, who has never had a day's lameness in the 5 years I've had her, crippled with an acute attack of laminitis. The emergency vet who attended was very helpful, but remarked that in the last two days she had had three call-outs to previously non-laminitic horses. A laminitic-prone pony here had a bout of it two weeks ago.

I'm wondering if anybody else has had this happen? We've had nearly a month of sub-zero temperatures and some snow, and she had not been ridden. I had been generous with the haylage (though they do not have it ad lib, and she can't have hay because of RAO), and it was damper than I would have liked (local farmer's first attempt at making it). The vet advised putting her on to a laminitic-targetted haylage, but remarked that there seems to be a connection between frozen grass and laminitis (my mare had been busy digging for it).

I'd love to hear if anyone else has experienced this. My poor girl is still very uncomfortable, I'm depressed, and also wondering whether this is a one-off due to the extremem temperatures etc. or whether I now have a horse who is both RAO and a laminitic. Gloom, gloom....

[spotty_pony]

Snow can bring on Laminitis. It is believed that the cold blocks the blood supply through the Laminae into the hoof. One of the horses at the yard I work at came down with it after being turned out in the snow.

[Honey08]

If you look on the vet forum, there was a big thread about this - someone had put a lot of info about frost and laminitus.

We had a pony that we'd owned for 3 years suddenly develop laminitus last winter. I turned out to be due to the haylage - my eventing mare showed slight signs of it too. We changed back to hay this year. Interestingly they had been fine on haylage when it was our home made rubbish haylage, that worried me as it was such poor quality...

Hope you find the cause, and the horse gets better. Its horrible.x

[Kirsty+Java]

My friends horse just got it,

vet said horses store fat for the winter, but usually dont need it as it doesnt get cold enough,

but with the severe cold we have had the fat stores are being released and too much is entering the bloodstream

[cptrayes]

Good grief how ignorant are your vets!!!!!!?????????????????

In freezing temperatures grass brings up sugar from its roots into its leaves to act as an antifreeze to prevent cell damage. Freezing grass is stuffed full of sugar and more dangerous than spring grass, which is why it causes laminitis.

I cannot believe your vets do not know this, it is so well recorded that there have been numerous HHO posts about the danger of frozen grass to laminitics!

[Dolcé]

Originally Posted by cptrayes

Good grief how ignorant are your vets!!!!!!?????????????????

In freezing temperatures grass brings up sugar from its roots into its leaves to act as an antifreeze to prevent cell damage. Freezing grass is stuffed full of sugar and more dangerous than spring grass, which is why it causes laminitis.

I cannot believe your vets do not know this, it is so well recorded that there have been numerous HHO posts about the danger of frozen grass to laminitics!

This is why we always make sure ours have hay on frosty mornings (well all the time at the moment) to try and keep them off the grass. The frozen hard ground can also bring on attacks if they try racing around on it as can hard summer ground.

[china]

Originally Posted by cptrayes

Good grief how ignorant are your vets!!!!!!?????????????????

In freezing temperatures grass brings up sugar from its roots into its leaves to act as an antifreeze to prevent cell damage. Freezing grass is stuffed full of sugar and more dangerous than spring grass, which is why it causes laminitis.

I cannot believe your vets do not know this, it is so well recorded that there have been numerous HHO posts about the danger of frozen grass to laminitics!

This! if you have a piggy horse like mine that would ferret for the grass rather than the hay provided then its safer to bring them in or put them in a non grass paddock like an arena or winter turnout paddock so they cant eat the frosty grass.

[ponypops]

Originally Posted by cptrayes

Good grief how ignorant are your vets!!!!!!?????????????????

In freezing temperatures grass brings up sugar from its roots into its leaves to act as an antifreeze to prevent cell damage. Freezing grass is stuffed full of sugar and more dangerous than spring grass, which is why it causes laminitis.

I cannot believe your vets do not know this, it is so well recorded that there have been numerous HHO posts about the danger of frozen grass to laminitics!

thankyou for above explanation as my daughter asked today WHY the frozen grass was bad for them to eat. we usually hold on until frost disappears on normal frosty mornings before turning out. just recently we too have put vast amounts of haylage on field sprinkled with pony cubes to make sure ponies do not scoff frozen grass. i noticed some will even dig thru snow to get the grass so they are quite keen on it. thanks for explanation anyway.

[Kirsty+Java]

Originally Posted by cptrayes

Good grief how ignorant are your vets!!!!!!?????????????????

In freezing temperatures grass brings up sugar from its roots into its leaves to act as an antifreeze to prevent cell damage. Freezing grass is stuffed full of sugar and more dangerous than spring grass, which is
why it causes laminitis.

I cannot believe your vets do not know this,
it is so well recorded that there have been numerous HHO posts about the danger of frozen grass to laminitics!

They are very good vets actually! One of the best in the north west !
They of course know what you have mentioned as being a cause but this what I stated can add to it

[thinlizzy]

it does happen quite scary