I was contacted by a concerned owner regarding her mare who had come down with laminitis, she was 13 years old, always carried some weight but this had never had laminitis before. Luckily for the mare the owner noticed very quickly that her horse had gone stiff in her legs coming out of her stable in the morning and immediately suspected laminitis, so the Vet was called. The mare was put onto a deep bed and the owner advised box rest for 6 weeks, and a course of bute as well as Sedazine - all quiet standard for treating laminitis. 

I was emailed by the owner and asked if there was anything I could do to help the mare with a speedy recovery.  As this mare was over 80 miles away from me we did the consultation over the phone and herbs were couriered to be with the horse within a few days.

When we discussed the mares case history, it was obvious the mare was well looked after and precautions taken on the spring grass by strip grazing, but as we went further into diet and routine I was advised that the mare was retired due to COPD, so no work, fed haylage plus 2 hard feeds a day containing medication for COPD and out at grass about 10 hours a day.

I suggested stopping the haylage, moving back onto good quality hay which had been soaked and reducing the hard feed and maybe trying some herbs for the COPD.  I sent the lady a blend to help with the COPD as well as another blend to help with the laminitis.

I had an email about 10 days later to say the mare was totally sound and back out on limited grazing for a few hours a day, also the coughing seemed to be OK.  After about a month I had another call to order more herbs, but only for the COPD, the mare was now out 10 to 12 hours a day, still on hay and with no sign of laminitis - the COPD was now at a point where the mare only coughed in the morning when she came out and was let loose in the field, after the gallop across the paddock she would cough a couple of times and then that was it.

The horse no longer takes medication for the COPD, no longer needing the excess hard feed nor the haylage which probably built up the levels within the body and caused the laminitis.

A happy horse and a happy owner!