Laminitis Dietary Causes

The causes vary and may include the following.

Laminitis dietary causes. This is often seen when a horse breaks into a sweet feed bin and gorges himself or a pony is given free reign on a young spring pasture. There are several causes of laminitis but the primary cause is a sudden increase in carbohydrates in the horse s diet. Although laminitis occurs in the feet the underlying cause is often a disturbance elsewhere in the horse s body. It can also increase the hay s bacterial load.

The horse is designed to digest carbohydrates starches and sugars in the small intestine and fibre in the hindgut. Laminitis in horses is caused by the number of different factors acting alone or in combination. Although laminitis is a disease of the feet the cause is often found in other parts of the horse s body. A typical form of laminitis caused by inflammatory disease is grain overload horses usually have to eat at least 4 kg of straight starch rich grain in one go with the amount required to cause disease lower in horses that are not accustomed to eating a lot of grain.

Retained placenta in post foaling mares. Over feeding grain or grain engorgement when a horse gets into a feed shed bin. Digestive upsets due to grain overload such as excess grain fruit or snacks or abrupt changes in diet. Over the years a huge amount of research has built up to demonstrate the consequences of such an overload on firstly the microbial balance in the hindgut and ultimately the weakening of the support given to the pedal bone in the foot by the laminae.

When we think about the nutritional causes of laminitis our first thought is to an overload of carbohydrate mainly starch into the hindgut. Diets for horses with laminitis ems ppid will usually be based on low energy low sugar starch high fibre forage with nutrients targeted to meet deficiencies in the forage identified by forage analysis or typical values. A survey has reported that grain overload and grazing lush pasture caused 50 of reported cases of laminitis. The classical one and one area that has been investigated in greater detail is an excessive intake of carbohydrates in the diet.

Another common cause is nutritionally induced laminitis through carbohydrate overload. The diet for your horse will depend primarily on whether. Soaking can cause nutrient and even dry matter loss which is important for laminitis prone horses and or those in a weight loss program.