Dr. Judith L. Mulholland

The symptoms of laminitis may be mild and last for less than 1 - 2 days, and often the horse will return to normal activity in weeks with few if any chronic effects. If the symptoms are initially severe and decrease steadily over 2 - 4 days or even a week or more, then a return to normal soundness may take months. Acutely painful feet for more than a week can lead to a very long recovery.

The aim is steady improvement in soundness and no setbacks. There are no two horses with laminitis which are exactly the same. Horses with mild symptoms may surprise you with the severity of the hoof changes. Therefore, the best advice I can give you on likely outcomes is that the longer and more severe the clinical signs are, the slower the recovery and the less likely the horse is to be sound in the short term. After 2 or 3 annual episodes of laminitis some horses are never 100% sound.

I recommend that while you have an acute case in your care that you think in months not weeks, so that you do not get disappointed. It will take 8 - 12 months to regrow the hoof completely so that the crisis line (the groove in the hoof where the laminitis occurred) should serve as a time guide. When this line is more than a third of the way down the wall there should be significant improvement, and therapeutic farriery should restore normal hoof shape and angles.

Steady improvement is a good sign. Intermittent or ongoing lameness is a bad sign and should prompt you to talk to your farrier and vet. At this time, reassess all factors, including daily management, feeding etc. For most owners laminitis is a big learning curve and a few setbacks may occur.

Laminitis should be viewed as a preventable disease, and not just "bad luck'.