Laminitis Overview and Anatomy

It’s important to have at least an understanding of the structures in play during a laminitic episode.
Share
Favorite
Close

No account yet? Register

ADVERTISEMENT

Laminitis, also referred to as "founder," is an often devastating disease of the hoof that can cripple or kill afflicted horses. It’s such an important equine disease that each year veterinarians, farriers, and horse owners from throughout the United States gather at the International Equine Conference of Laminitis and the Equine Foot.

At the 2012 conference, held Nov. 2-3 in Monterey, Calif., Nora Grenager, VMD, Dipl. ACVIM, of Grenager Equine Consulting in Middleburg, Va., presented an overview of laminitis and the anatomical structures of the hoof and lower leg that it affects.

The equine hoof is a complex anatomical feature that plays a critical role in horse health. "Hooves carry all the weight of the horse, yet are relatively small," Grenager said. "That means hooves need to be flexible, strong, and resilient."

And, in the healthy horse, a hoof is all of those things–the perfect structure to support and propel an athletic quadruped prey animal. However, when things go wrong in the hoof, they tend to go very wrong due to the complexity of the structure within the restrictive hoof capsule, Grenager said. Laminitis is one of those very big problems. It’s so big, in fact, laminitis is a leading cause of death in horses, second only to colic. And while not always fatal, 15% of all horses will suffer a bout of laminitis in their lifetimes

Create a free account with TheHorse.com to view this content.

TheHorse.com is home to thousands of free articles about horse health care. In order to access some of our exclusive free content, you must be signed into TheHorse.com.

Start your free account today!

Already have an account?
and continue reading.

Share

Written by:

Michelle Anderson is the former digital managing editor at The Horse. A lifelong horse owner, Anderson competes in dressage and enjoys trail riding. She’s a Washington State University graduate and holds a bachelor’s degree in communications with a minor in business administration and extensive coursework in animal sciences. She has worked in equine publishing since 1998. She currently lives with her husband on a small horse property in Central Oregon.

Related Articles

Stay on top of the most recent Horse Health news with

FREE weekly newsletters from TheHorse.com

Sponsored Content

Weekly Poll

sponsored by:

How much time do you usually spend grooming your horse?
439 votes · 439 answers

Readers’ Most Popular

Sign In

Don’t have an account? Register for a FREE account here.

Need to update your account?

You need to be logged in to fill out this form

Create a free account with TheHorse.com!