I have been treating laminitis horses for 28 years and they are by far the most challenging cases I see. Even with all the new knowledge of insulin resistance and Cushings I have yet to see anyone come up with a formula that works consistently. Diet and how you trim horses hooves is critical but no two horse founder cases present in exactly the same way. I believe the temperament of the horse may play a part in how horses respond, which means caring for the founder horse must be based on their specific symptoms while at the same time following the diet and supplement suggestions for their type of laminitis. For instance, some type horses are more prone to develop ulcers which limits their ability to respond to any treatment until these ulcers are treated.

Even with testing of horses hay and feed supplements and making an effort to balance minerals and lower the carbs in the diet some horses simply don’t respond. Other horses are picky eaters and it does no good to design a perfectly balanced low carb diet that the horse will not eat.

I have written an e book on laminitis and founder that give the guidelines to start with and I do consults to help individualize a program for horses that don’t respond to the general treatment. I did not do laminitis consults for years because of the difficulty in finding good trimmers to work on horses that did not live in my area. It is now a bit easier to find a good barefoot horse trimmer. I enjoy helping founder horses but they are a challenge and the owner must be willing to put forth the effort to understand and meet their special needs. Madalyn

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Chronic Horse Laminitis: The Road Back to Health