02/11/2025
*** LAMINITIS CAN BE CAUSED BY DIET ALONE ***
In response to the dangerous misinformation that has been shared on social media in the past few days, I thought it would be worth posting. I have received numerous messages, along with several comments on my post last night, regarding this terrible misinformation; my initial response was to laugh/call these people ridiculous, but actually, their terrible information may result in lives being lost.
For those who haven’t seen it - and please DO NOT NAME OR TAG THE PEOPLE WHO POSTED AND SHARED IT - a post was put on FB stating that “laminitis is not diet related”. This is 100% wrong, and 100% dangerous. Although it often isn’t JUST diet related, the dietary intake of a horse or pony hugely contributes to him/her coming down with laminitis, and the feed/forage fed to laminitics, and those prone to laminitis, is enormously important.
PLEASE do not read any truth into the statement that laminitis isn’t diet related; the number one cause of laminitis is now metabolic, but even that has likely been caused by the diet (pony gets too fat and becomes insulin resistant).
This post isn’t to go further into laminitis, as people may switch off; it’s to say that you MUST keep DIET at the very forefront of your laminitic management. Do not turn laminitis prone horses/ponies out onto good grass; keep soaking your hay; add straw (see my post from a few weeks ago) if you want to increase low calorie forage; do not feed cheap nuts and mixes which are often high in starch and sugar. The list goes on.
A good farrier and good trimming are essential in the management of laminitis, but put down those farrier/vet voodoo dolls - your farrier hasn’t caused the pedal bone to rotate, and your vet normally (we try!) does know what they are talking about. Correcting a rotated pedal bone is something that takes time, and must be done in tiny stages if the pony is still sore.
