What’s the truth about laminitis?
by Annemaree Woodward © When one of my donkeys, Sergeant Pepper, succumbed to laminitis in the spring of 2006, I was shocked. Although I’ve kept donkeys for 30 years, I’d always been told donkeys don’t get laminitis – fallacy number one. I’ve spent time with horses since my early childhood. The Welsh pony that taught me to ride was a stock horse on one of the dairy farms of my extended family in north eastern Victoria. Shorty always went a little lame on his near-side-front after a couple of hour’s work. My cousin told me Shorty had foundered a few years ago and pretended to be lame so he wouldn’t have to work too hard – fallacy number two. When I worked weekends at a racing stable in my early teens I heard of the dreaded founder. Horses were said to never recover – fallacy number three. The six months after Pepper was diagnosed were a long road back to health for him and a steep learning curve of discovery for me. Pepper was always a bit touchy about his feet. He often seemed a bit la
