I mosied on over to the lameness arena at the large animal hospital today to watch a study that was being done on horses that are prone to laminitis (aka founder). Laminitis is, literally, inflammation of the laminae. But, what also occurs is that the laminae also breaks down and cannot support the structures of the hoof and provide the shock absorption which is designed to do. Here's a diagram of the structures of the horse's distal limb:
See how the "sensitive laminae" surrounds all those bones and tendons within the hoof? It's uber-important. When the laminae breaks down, it often allows the coffin bone to rotate and this whole process is very painful for the horse and creates significant lameness. There are many causes of laminitis ranging from diet related issues to type of pasture to conformation. Conformation refers to a horse's basic structure, how they are put together. Did they get Aunt Edna's knock knees or Grandpa Frank's hunch back, etc. Horses that are conformationally prone to laminitis tend to walk more on their toes which reduces the use of the tissues in the heel area that do a lot of shock absorption (the "frog" plays a big role in that). Because of that, there is much more stress and trauma inflicted on the structures of the hoof. From my understanding, (this is where horse people are welcome to interject or make corrections) there is no real effective treatment for this condition. On horses that have laminitis issues due to conformation, special shoes and pads are often used that try to correct the angle of the hoof but still do not allow pressure on the heel and the frog. However, this approach doesn't actually treat the problem and, in some ways, makes it worse.
This vet at Auburn is doing a study to determine the effectiveness of "natural hoof care" on laminitis issues. So instead of using special shoes and such, they are trying to determine if there is a way to trim the horse's hoof and NOT use shoes so that the horse is actually healing itself by using all of the structures of the hoof as they were designed to be used. This is how the vet explained it to me: bones in a healthy animal/person will adapt to how much load/strain is put on them and, over time, bone density will increase to account for increased load or activity whereas, bone that does not have a significant load placed on it will begin to breakdown (Wolff's Law for those of you that may be familiar with it). Similarly, if we don't use our muscles we lose them, right? Same deal with the soft tissue in a horse's hoof, if they are not able to use it, it will breakdown and will no longer be able to perform it's ever important functions.
Here's the cool stuff that I got to see. This horse who had severe lameness after becoming a lawn ornament (not being worked) for several years was being asked to work again. The owners hadn't realized he was so lame because he was fine just hanging out in the pasture and such. So when they wanted to ride him again and realized the issue, they brought him to Auburn. Today, he was outfitted with a bunch of cool little dots on all the major joints of his limbs and three little balls stuck on his front hooves. A slow motion camera was used to record his foot fall before a hoof trimming, after a hoof trimming and with special boots on. The other dots were used while filming his full body movement at each stage. The full body film will use the dots on the horse to create a digital image that, I am guessing, can be analyzed with some crazy computer something. They will use it to evaluate the horse's gait and hoof position as it relates to soft tissue structures like tendons that play a large role in lameness issues. The angles at which the horse's hooves are trimmed will be evaluated to see if it helps with the horse's issues or not. There is a lot more to the anatomy and science of the study but, basically, this is a major study that incorporates some cutting edge information on the treatment of laminitis in horses. Here are a few links about the study if you care to know more...
Hopefully, I didn't just severely disappoint my large animal instructors or bore the mess out of anyone. I thought it was cool so I felt like sharing, that's kind of how this whole blog deal works I suppose. One more week of internship left! Unbelievable!
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