Cold Therapy For Laminitis

Standing the horse in ice water is an old time remedy but now veterinarians have ramped up the treatment and discovered how helpful cryotherapy can be.

Cold therapy for laminitis.

Your veterinarian may be able to advise you on new therapies that may include standing your horse in ice water to prevent the onset of laminitis after a predisposing cause such as a retained placenta or a known grain overload. Some horses that develop laminitis make uneventful recoveries and go on to lead long useful lives. Cold therapy is much the same as it is in humans. Scientists and veterinarians disagree about the actual effect the physiological reactions the correct application method and minimum temperature.

With the heat treatment the soft tissue perfusion was 25 1 percent above the pre heated values. You can either use a muck tub with ice and water or use ice boots to apply the ice to the horse. You ice down the horse s feet just as you would an injured knee or ankle in a human. Cold has an anti inflammatory effect causes vasoconstriction narrowing of blood vessels provides pain relief and lowers the metabolism of the tissues.

For safety a 2 c 35 f minimum needs to be respected and a cooling period not exceeding 72 hours. Buckets or therapy boots filled with ice water. The cold treatment decreased soft tissue perfusion in the hoof to 80 5 percent of pre cooled values. Apply cold therapy icing the feet applying cold therapy cryotherapy has been shown to prevent or reduce the progress of sepsis related laminitis.

Cold is thought to act by reducing enzymatic activity in the laminar tissue of the foot thereby reducing some of the destructive processes that take place in laminitis. It is not yet known whether applying cold therapy in cases of endocrinopathic laminitis is helpful. Cryotherapy or cold therapy has been shown to prevent laminitis in the at risk equine patient and is often recommended for relieving pain and inflammation in the acutely laminitic horse. Apply cold therapy to the feet to reduce inflammation and pain but not if cold induced laminitis feet cold management of laminitis feed low nsc 10 diet based on grass hay protein minerals vitamins linseed do not starve.