Founder Chronicles: Encouragement, more remedies

Founder Chronicles 1: Killer lameness strikes
Founder Chronicles 2: We fight back
A few days later, the veterinarian took radiographs of Bonnie’s feet. Bonnie’s coffin bone had moved one to two degrees, but she showed no sensitivity to hoof testers. The situation could have been worse. Our farrier removed Bonnie’s shoes and said he had worked on horses with much more coffin bone movement than Bonnie’s, horses with truly dire outlooks, and those horses had beat the odds. We were puzzled about what caused the attack. Bonnie was not exposed to any of the storybook causes of laminitis: a long time on fresh, green grass or a sudden influx of grain. However, Bonnie was overweight and had developed a heavy crest. Our veterinarian guessed Bonnie could be pre-Cushings (tumor on the pituitary; common in older horses; not life threatening), which would make it easier for a horse to founder.  Bonnie had always been sensitive. You could hardly use the rubber curry comb on her. This foot pain was killing her, possibly literally, according the veterinarian. The anxiety caused by pain can affect a horse’s metabolism and make laminitis worse. It was critical that we break the vicious pain cycle. We put Bonnie on Banamine twice a day and the sedative Acepromazine every eight hours. I canceled Bonnie’s Reining entry at our saddle club’s upcoming Saturday horse show.
Next: Battle of the bulge