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Founder
Where to start here? I could write a book, but it would probably be better if people with foundered horses read some books, most notably Jaime Jackson’s Founder, Prevention and Cure.
First of all I guess I should tackle the definition of founder. When I use the term founder, I am referring to rotation or displacement, verified by x-rays, of the coffin bone. The coffin bone is rotated in relation to the hoof capsule. I do think many horses seem foundered, but lack this rotation – I call them, and any sore horse in general, without known, cause laminitic. Some horses also have coffin bone displacement, it is just not rotated as much as sunk straight down in the hoof capsule – these horses are often called thin soled after x-ray examination. I include many of them in my personal definition of founder. Because I feel their coffin bones are displaced and they are often very sore. To me that is founder – verifiable coffin bone displacement and obvious hoof pain, to me the rest is pretty much laminitis – not that I think distinguishing between the 2 is highly important in many cases, the treatment is often the same.
It is my personal belief that some horses just tend to rotate their coffin bones forward when they “founder” – others tend to sink. The problem with the latter is the pain is often not as acute (though often very chronic) and it is often overlooked by the vet. For instance I have seen my share of Thoroughbreds with the latter. They are often diagnosed with pedal osteitis or thin soles or just prone to abscesses– those things may be true – but the founder goes seemingly unnoticed. “Oh, he just has bad feet” we say – and we never treat the underlying problem, much less cause…
I guess the main thing I have to say about founder – what is most important for clients to know – is something is or has caused it. That seems like a really obvious thing to say, but it is not. Something caused that founder and if you just lock the horse up in a stall on bute and slap shoes on… you likely have not treated it at all.
There are tons of things important in treating founder – but most importantly, removing the causative factor. As an owner of a foundered horse, you really need to be your own detective. I personally believe, once a horse is in an acute founder state, anything wrong in his routine could set him back again – he is in a state of hyper sensitivity. I will not get into the details, I will just summarize it with an analogy – imagine someone you know passing out at the dinner table after desert – and learning they have adult onset diabetes. They can probably, with a lot of medical help and personal determination, overcome a lot of their illness and continue on with a happy life… but it is gonna take time. When a horse founders, he has gone into a state of metabolic dysfunction. He may return to a pretty normal, happy life with care… but getting out of the woods can be tricky. And REALLY keep that in mind in treating him. Yes, ONE day, he may be able to go back to this or that with some level of risk, but right now in treating this acute metabolic dysfunction, you need to be oh so careful with diet.
So this brings me to what I really have to say about founder…. Diet, diet, diet…. We need to get the horse as comfortable as possible, encourage as much movement as possible, and we need to watch that diet and really make sure we get rid of all offending factors. In all likelihood, this all probably started cause of his management routine in the first place, most importantly, including his diet.
One day I will add on another page with a lot of personal and client experiences with founder cases – I think they are really the best help of all. It is just really hard to drive that point home to people – the horse foundered for a reason and until we consistently address that cause, he is not gonna recover from the founder. I have personally owned and worked with foundered horses and I know what a roller coaster it can be and in all likelihood this did not happen overnight (though it may have seemed to) and it is not gonna get fixed overnight. But founder CAN, in most cases, be treated. But you got to really be serious in treating it.
My favorite story is telling folks of the mare I had boarded here who continued to founder and be in pain on ONE hour of grass a day… and she was never even that bad off, actually had no known rotation… she was only 6 years old… Imagine if she was 16 years old and had severe rotation, how ANY LITTLE thing in her diet could set her back…
But in the meanwhile, if your horse just foundered, please call the vet!!!!!!! This is a red alert situation and often the immediate veterinary treatment can really help with a much faster recovery.