VACCINES & LAMINITIS

Once again, this spring, I've noticed a dramatic increase on the number of laminitic horses around Vaccinating time. So much so that I am researching frenetically to put together a viable article on this topic.

Last year at this time I received an overwhelming number of "emergency" calls that came in similar to this, "Hi Gwen. Just thought you might want to know that "Lady" has Laminitis! She's REALLY sore in her fronts! I called the vet and he said she had Laminitis. He thinks that she may have to go into shoes ..." Blah, blah, blah. With every call from one of my own clients I had to seriously question what *I* might have done wrong to cause Laminitis in my normally very sound barefooted clients! When trimming a horse for maintenance hoofcare I don't change the angles or do much else other than to bring back the toes a wee bit (by beveling a 45* angle) as nature would do and level the heels a bit. I never touch sole, rarely touch the bars and generally speaking on my regular clients I rarely rocker the toes as they maintain their own rockers nicely. So what in tarnation causes the horse to go laminitic with a regular maintenance trim!?!?!? I rack my brains, worry myself sick and begin to doubt myself every time. But EVERY CASE it came up (I finally got a bit savvy about it this spring whereas last spring I was stumped for awhile before figuring it all out) that the horse in question had just received Spring Vaccinations within a day to a few prior to the trim!

Last spring, as I stated, I got alot of "emergency" calls from "new" clients ... ones who were calling me for the first time. Again, looking back, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM had *just* received their spring vaccinations a day or two prior to the laminitic attack! This spring, as a current example, I pulled the shoes and trimmed up a horse who was very sore in her recently re-set shoes. Her hooves were very imbalanced, she was very long in the toe and low and forward in the heels; the shoes were not fitting her correctly and the owner asked me to pull them and trim her. So I did. That was in March. In that case I did change the angles of the hooves dramatically and while the horse was a bit tender for the first few days it didn't take long to get another phone call from the owner stating that her horse was moving better and she was more comfortable than she had been for a couple of years! Over the following 5 weeks or so the horse continued to improve and it was noted by all in the stable where she resided as well as by her trainer. The 2nd trim, 5 weeks after the initial trim, I did VERY little to the hooves except to bevel the wall at a solid 45* angle, level off one of the heels and that was it! About a week later I got a note stating the horse was very lame, laminitic and was going back into shoes! The vet felt that since the angles were so altered that it was a "mechanical" laminitis due to the trim. I have to question that strongly as the angles were altered 5 - 6 weeks prior to the laminitic attack and if any 'mechanical laminitis' were to pop up it would have been then. Developmental laminitis lasts for up to just 60 hours before the Acute Laminitic stage. It was weeks past that 60 hrs. time frame. However, upon further questioning, the horse had received Spring shots just shortly before the 2nd trim. That tells me that the Laminitis was metabolically caused; not mechanically.

It seems, upon researching, that horses who have metabolic issues, are going to be more sensitive to vaccinations than those who are healthy. While many horses "appear" to be healthy (ie. easy keepers) it may well be that those "healthy" horses are acutally experiencing upsets in the glucose metabolism and also the hormonal systems which are going undetected. The overloads of carbohydrates, sugars, chemicals, additives, etc. all wreak havoc in any animal's system. More and more research is being done on this topic with more and more alarming findings. ( AHVMA )

My caution to all, now, is this .... IF you have your horses vaccinated do NOT have hoofcare work done within a couple of weeks following the vaccination day. Plan your vaccinations in between hoofcare appointments. Better than that see what vaccinations you can eliminate from your regular "scheduled" routine. It's been recently found that Americans are over-vaccinating their animals (and kids!). There are some excellent websites with good, solid information. Google up a search on "over vaccinating" or just plain "vaccinations" and see what you come up with. Your horse DEPENDS on you 100% for his/her total well-being. It behooves us to learn as much as we can and not just "believe" everything we hear. (including reading this! *grin*)

I will be publishing an in-depth article on this topic shortly. Keep an eye on www.thepenzancehorse.com and www.barefoottrim.com for updates. Thanks! Happy and Safe Horsemanship to You! (and lots of Blessings, too!)