Some all too common scenarios

A horse becomes laminitic. The most obvious thing about laminitis and founder is the pain it causes. So pain killers are prescribed. The vet tells the owner about how difficult laminitis and founder are to treat and not to expect too much for their horse. The drugs help the horse a little at first. But the disease process continues (virtually untreated). The horse begins to worsen. The dose is increased. The owner is very concerned but does not challenge the vet because after all the vet did predict that this would happen. The horse is put down when the kidneys fail.

A horse becomes laminitic. Treatment is primarily palliative (mitigating the symptoms of a disease without effecting the disease itself). The horse "recovers" in time and the owner is overjoyed because the vet had made it clear that there are many different ways that people treat laminitis and founder and that no single treatment works for all horses (if any really work for any horse). So aren't we lucky that the treatment we used saved this horse. The owner is so happy and quite content to support this chronically foundered horse the rest of its life using an array of drugs, special diets and special shoes and pads just to keep this horse "trail sound."

There are thousands of similar stories out there. Look for them on the founder bulletin boards. I have been collecting laminitis and founder stories for nearly 25 years. These stories fall into two categories. The first and by far the largest is the dead or chronic category. The second is the fully recovered or nearly fully recovered category. The tenor of the stories in the first category may range from greatly discouraged to very content but the fact remains that the horse is either dead or significantly impaired. Stories from the second category tend to be mostly upbeat as the horses recovered very well. But the important distinction between the two categories is that in the first "reduce and immobilize" therapies were not employed and in the second category they were.