Founder Disease in Horses

Even after intensive research, founder disease still eludes us. It is simple enough to diagnose, and can be treated, but it has the ability to cause permanent lameness in a pony, and euthanasia is the most humane option.

Signs and Symptoms

The signs are easy to recognize. The first symptom is soreness in the pony’s front feet. This is because, initially, the front feet bear the most weight. Once the pony tries to shift its weight to the back feet, they may also become affected. Another clear sign is the pony walks more slowly and with shorter steps, or prefers to lie down more frequently.

Causes of Founder

Founder disease affects a pony’s laminae, which suspend the foot bone from the hoof wall. The pony’s weight is transferred to the hoof wall before the hoof hits the ground; this reduces the impact on its sensitive sole. When the laminae weaken, founder sets in, and stretches the laminae, pushing the toe bone to the ground. In adverse cases, the toe bone can come through the sole.

Certain blood vessels shunt the flow of blood from the laminae, causing damage and inflammation to the tissue. The shunts’ function is to keep the foot warm during cold weather, by opening to reroute the blood from the laminae. Founder may be caused by an aggregation of the blood platelet, forming clots that impede the blood flow.

Causes of Acute and chronic founder

Acute founder comes on suddenly, with varying degrees of severity, depending on the extent of the laminae damage. Experts suggest that acute founder is caused by extensive damage in its first occurrence. This damage can occur within a matter of hours. Chronic founder commonly recurs in obese horses and ponies that are not exercised regularly. Treatment is easy with good management of diet and exercise; otherwise, damage increases over time. X-rays are used to monitor the toe bone rotations to assess the extent of the damage.

Some common causes of this disease include overeating, obesity, bacterial infections with endotoxemia, adverse concussion to the feet, excessive and fast cold water intake by a hot horse, and extensive standing on black walnut shavings.

Treatment

Professional treatment, from a veterinarian, is necessary for acute founder. If the horse is cooperative, gentle walking may help ease the pain. If the vet is not immediately available, you can administer aspirin. There are various anti-inflammatory drugs, which are non-steroidal, that can also be used. The dosage will be dependent on the amount of damage incurred. NSAID drugs, for example, Bute, Arquel and Banamine, can also be administered under the guidance of a veterinarian.

Horses may be re-shoed with softer footing or go shoe-less in an effort to ease the pressure on the toe and make the horse more comfortable. You can also soak the pony’s feet in warm or cold water.
Negative recovery

If the rotation continues and exceeds 12 degrees, it is possible that this condition cannot be treated successfully and the horse may not recover. Similarly, when the coffin bone sinks down causing pain so intense that the horse will lie down frequently, recovery is expected to be very slow. Abscesses may appear on painful areas of the sole; these should be immediately cleaned and treated.

If, after all treatment efforts have been tried, the horse shows no signs of recovery, the only option left is euthanasia. It is more humane to put the animal down than let it continue suffering.