Overload inflammatory and metabolic.
Main causes of laminitis.
This sometimes leads to static laminitis particularly if the animal is confined in a stall.
In addition any infection in the body can produce enough toxins to damage the sensitive blood vessels and cause laminitis.
Horses especially ponies allowed unrestricted access to pasture particularly lush spring grass before the digestive system has had time to adapt are at extremely high risk.
Horses that pound their feet can sometimes cause sufficient damage to the laminae to cause concussion laminitis.
There are 3 main causes of laminitis.
Horses and ponies are heavy creatures.
A horse favoring an injured leg will both severely limit its movement and place greater weight on the other legs.
The causes vary and may include the following.
Lack of sufficient movement alone or in combination with other factors can cause stagnant anoxia which in turn can cause laminitis.
An increasingly common cause of the disease is a hormonal imbalance called cushings disease and womb infections after foaling are a well known cause of laminitis.
From diarrhea and colic to black walnut toxicity to a horse that has binged on feed to a mare with a retained placenta or even a horse with a fever.
Digestive upsets due to grain overload such as excess grain fruit or snacks or abrupt changes in diet.
Blood poisoning or toxaemia can also be a cause.
Relatively less commonly horses can get laminitis from overload typically associated with non weight bearing conditions in one limb thereby overloading the opposite limb.
Laminitis caused by overload.
Another common cause is nutritionally induced laminitis through carbohydrate overload.
Overload metabolic and inflammatory.
This includes many seemingly unrelated situations.
Essentially there are three main causes of laminitis.
Inflammation can also be a cause of laminitis.
Systemic diseases that have a septic or toxic focus can cause laminitis.
The main cause of laminitis in horses in australia and in most parts of the developed world is from allowing horses to overeat and become obese.
This includes pneumonia pleurisy diarrhea colic and purulent metritis.
Anytime they have an injury and must bear weight unevenly there is a huge risk of laminitis due to overload in that weight bearing limb.
The horse is designed to digest carbohydrates starches and sugars in the small intestine and fibre in the hindgut.
Although laminitis occurs in the feet the underlying cause is often a disturbance elsewhere in the horse s body.