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How Horses Handle Laminitis
During the Fifth International Equine Conference on Laminitis and Diseases of the Foot, Christopher Pollitt, the veterinarian and researcher from the Australian Equine Laminitis Research Unit at The University of Queensland, joined Scott Morrison, the equine veterinarian from Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital in 
Lexington, Ky., for a discussion on dealing with contra-lateral limb laminitis.
They agreed that the psychology of a horse seems to be a factor in how it reacts to various treatments for laminitis.
“Some horses handle it better than others,” Morrison says. “We often want a horse to lie down to prevent further tearing of the laminae, but some will lay down and some won’t. Some you can sling and some you can’t.”
Pollitt suggested that contra-lateral limb laminitis is caused in part by an interruption of alternate loading of limbs, as the horse tries to keep it’s weight off the painful foot that was first inflicted with laminitis.
“Alternate loading is part of the normal lifestyle of the horse and is part of the circulatory system of the horse,” he says. “When a horse has to restrict loading to one foot, it interferes with this.”
