Well, years and years of dealing with laminitis and founder (with clients’ horses; not my own)  with the ‘old ways’ of treatment embedded in my brain, I fell into the old trap from years ago of  ‘what to do for a laminitic pony’. Well,  not completely – but enough that I seemingly had lost my short term memory from the last few years.

I don’t feed any processed grain on a regular basis. I feed fresh ‘salads’ to the horses, the donkey, the goat, the chickens (well, they get layer pellet, too, during the winter time for egg production) and the ponies. And I feed a good quality Timothy/Grass/Alfalfa/Clover hay. At least this year I’ve been feeding it cause I CAN finally get it! Prior years its mostly been Timothy/Grass. I found an excellent source for good, heavy weight bales. They aren’t inexpensive by any means but because I don’t feed calories from ‘grain’, I want to make sure my guys all get good quality hay and not just chewing filler.

Anyway, they were all getting a bit TOO chunky for my liking so I cut back on the salads. Instead of every day, they got it 3 times a week, then 2 and then a month ago, just one day a week.  They get all the hay they want. It’s available 24/7 to them. I was thinking in terms of keeping them warm in the onslaught of New England winter temperatures. And this year, weekly Blizzards. I wanted to be sure they always had their ‘heater’ in front of them at any time.

About 2 weeks ago one of the ponies went down with severe laminitis. A solid 4 on the Obel scale. Didn’t want to walk, laying down much of the time BUT, the odd thing was his hooves were/are in good condition, there are no ‘founder rings’, no heat, no bounding pulse, no temp – none of the regular clinical symptoms of laminitis except for the stance and the unwillingless to get up and move. He was sore in all 4 hooves. So, out came the Bute, away went everything but hay. I also treated with a combination of Homeopathic Remedies (NOT ‘classical’ homeopathic treatment but I was going to ‘fix’ him one way or the other and loaded him with those remedies that seemd to fit him the best. Not good to treat your own family sometimes in acute situations. The normal judgement is so skewed with concern and worry! Classical homeopathy, which I teach, is to find ONE remedy to ‘fit the total picture’ and wait).  The 2nd day after ‘treatment’ there was *some* improvement. From a 4 on the Obel scale to m-a-y-b-e a 3.2.  Not at all acceptable improvement to me.

His appetite was ravenous! He was eating while lying down; he was eating when he got up. He didn’t travel far away from the hay piles when he did get up and move.  I continued to give him his remedies and Bute. For 3 days he got 1 gm of Bute (he’s a little guy) a day. I vowed not to use it more than that as I didn’t want him to get issues in his gut on top of his hooves issues. I then switched to Turmeric — 1 tsp 2X a day. That helped but again, not to the extent I wanted to see. I also was locking him in a stall at night with lots of cushiony bedding. The ground was hard from all the snow melt turned ice and it was hard navigating for him. During the day he chose to stand in snow piles (smart pony! — no need for icing as it was available self-treatment).  The improvement was painfully slow, no pun intended. Every morning I dreaded going out to the stall to find him lying down.

Well, the other early, early morning, about maybe 4 am., I woke straight up with one word shouting in my head — SALADS!  Fresh vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, herbs … what I was feeding once a week. And I thought well, for stupidity’s sake, Gwen — what would you tell anyone else with a little lame pony?  That he would need all the nutrients possible to help his body stay strong to recover!  Get some fresh nutrients into him!

And what had I done?

Taken those nutrients AWAY from him!

When I cut back to once a week for everyone, he wasn’t getting his nutrients. I had fallen back into the old way of thinking re: laminitis treatment. … take away everything but hay and water. Lock up in a cushiony stall, make sure hooves are trimmed correctly, give pain reliever (Bute) and wait.

GOOD GRIEF!!!  See what happens when healers try to ‘fix’ their own? What kind of skewed thinking occurs?

Panic!

So that morning of the ‘wake up call’ I got up and cut up veggies and fruits … mostly all specific for anti-inflammatory properties, gave him some MSM mixed in with the salad. Just a small salad — maybe 2 cups worth. I also added Turmeric, Rosa canina and 6 drops of Cinnamon/Olive Oil and 6 drops of Thyme/Olive Oil mixtures.

He stood outside all day. Not lying down once. He stayed up! All day!

By that night he was a solid 3 on the Obel lameness scale.

The following morning I found him standing and whinneying to me in his stall. Ravenous as always. I gave him his salad and then watched as he walked out of the stall for his hay.

A 2 !!! on the lameness scale. A 2 !!!  And right now, this morning,  he’s busy wither nibbling with another pony in a perfectly ‘normal’ stance, weighting all 4 hooves equally and solidly.

Was it the veggies all by themselves? Was it the oils? The MSM? Or the combination. Well, break it down — I HAD given the oils prior; the homeopathics prior; and the MSM. The only addition was the salad.

Everyone’s going back on their DAILY salads — if they start to get too chunky again? I’ll cut them back on the hay a bit. Not much, but a bit.

Poor pony — what WAS I thinking???  What was I thinking?

While the herbs (oils), the MSM, the Homeopathics may have been working, it is stark that the huge difference was after adding back the fresh nutrients from the salad.

NOTHING is going to help an animal (or ourselves) heal or cure without the proper FOOD for the body. Vitamins A, B, C, D, … minerals and glyconutrients for overall cell health — we can use medicines, we can use homeopathy or herbs or other palliatives and additives but if the body is not getting the NUTRIENTS needed, the others can only do so much.

We are what we eat.

I was so wrong in forgetting this simple, simple concept. And because of it I feel my pony may have endured a longer period of stress and discomfort than he should have.  For that I’ve asked his forgiveness but on the other hand thanked God for waking me up that morning and also thanked my pony for being so, so very patient with me.

This is a lesson that won’t ever be forgotten.

(UPDATE: 4th day of salads ::  up ALL DAY yesterday, did not lie down once. Even traveled a bit ‘down back’ with the other ponies. This morning was standing again, whinneying for his breakfast and very lively!  Standing equally weighted on all 4’s. Walking is still a 2 but probably closer to a 1.5.  Woo hoo! )