This message is from: " Dave McWethy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> I wrote this for the CD-L and had a request to put it here also.
One of the cases Gene Ovenicek used to explain the success of his methods of founder repair showed a picture of a Fjord horse, who went from disastrous feet to sound. I wondered if it might be one Nancy Lehnert owned (she and Gene live not too far apart, and he had done farrier work for her). This was a horse Nancy had bought in a bunch - not a problem she caused. She was ready to give up on the horse, but said to Gene that she would give him the horse, and if he could fix it, she would buy him back. The short version of the story is that Nancy did buy the horse (a twice-bought horse), following Gene's successful work. If you're online, Nancy, and have more to add to this (or corrections!), let us know. I asked Gene after the presentation if this was the same horse, and he said yes. Here's the copy: I've been putting off writing about a super good conference I went to in early December. It was organized by Rochester (NH) Vet Clinic and held at the Univ of NH. The main speaker were Dr Chris Pollitt, a prominent researcher in laminitis from Australia, and Gene Ovenicek, a farrier from Montana who has created the Equine Digital Support System for treating founder. Gene also is one of the principal proponents of four point trims. I guess for the first time I started to understand how the lamellae work to connect hoof ultimately with bone. Turns out the actual connection is a molecule called laminin 5. With Dr Pollitt's excellent projected pictures, we could see how the lamellae are incredible shock absorbers for the foot. He has worked long and hard to try to understand the actual mechanics of laminitis. I can't by any means reconstruct the lecture for you, but I remember two principal causes were bovine streptococcus in the caecum which flourish in the presence of high carbohydrates, like a big load of grain. Also causative were sugars called fructans, which occur in some plants in early high growth in spring and early summer. "Quack grass" was something that caused laminitis because of fructans. I'm a little hazy on what happens between the intestine and the foot, but recall that interference with normal levels of glucose in the foot was what set up the sequence of chemical events that cause the actual laminitis. Before I get any deeper into what I barely understand, I'll tell of some research he mentioned. He said they had done testing of hoof temperature at the outer surface of the lamina. Try to follow these numbers which are easier in graph form: outside temps were -10C. Horse body temps were 40C. In several horses they monitored temps for 48 hours. Almost all of the time the foot temps were 1 or 2 degrees C, barely over freezing. Then approximately 12 hours apart, the temps would spike to 25-30C, and drop back to just above freezing. They were unable to correlate the spikes to anything (thought the time interval looked almost consistent). The horse can stand with its hooves just over freezing most of the time, for months at a time. Amazing! I was curious to find if super elevated temperatures of horses caused lamina damage. He said no. Gene Ovinicek's presentation on treating laminitis was also impressive. The essence of it is to get the horse's weight on the back of its foot and to elevate the angle a little. I sat through the conference with my farrier. He said 10 years ago he lost 75% of his founder cases, and now he saves 75%. I believe there is an article in a current or recent Horse Illustrated about Dr Pollitt and his discoveries.
