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Plants can cause reactions ranging from laminitis (found in horses bedded on shavings from black walnut trees), anemia, kidney disease and kidney failure (from eating the wilted leaves of red maples), to cyanide poisoning (from the ingestion of plant matter from members of the genus Prunus) and other symptoms.
This sometimes leads to static laminitis, particularly if the animal is confined in a stall. [10] A notable example is the 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro. [11] Transport laminitis sometimes occurs in horses confined in a trailer or other transportation for long periods of time. Historically, the most extreme instances were of horses shipped ...
Grass sickness, alternatively termed equine dysautonomia, is a rare but predominantly fatal illness in horses. Grass sickness may affect all types of horse, pony and donkey , and has affected some well known horses including the thoroughbred stallions Dubai Millennium , Moorestyle and Mister Baileys .
Hoof or horseshoe wear can indicate breakover and if the horse is dragging its toes. Change in shape of the hoof wall is also common in horses with laminitis. "Founder rings," or thickened concentric rings in the hoof wall, indicate a past episode of laminitis. Concavity of the dorsal (front) surface of the hoof can indicate chronic laminitis.
Horses are best managed by only allowing short grazing periods—less than 1 hour since they can rapidly ingest grass, [18] or confining them to a limited turn-out area or by use of a grazing muzzle. Horses with severe IR, that have recurrent laminitis, are not recommended to return to pasture. Hay low in NSC is provided in place of pasture.
To lower the risk of laminitis, horses also may need to be removed from lush, rapidly changing grass for short periods in the spring and fall (autumn), when the grass is particularly high in non-structural carbohydrates such as fructans. Horses turned out to pasture full-time still need to be checked frequently for evidence of injury, parasites ...
Even hay/grass may be high enough in sugar to cause laminitis. A healthy diet for horses currently with or prone to laminitis is based on free access to hay that has been tested for carbohydrate content and found to be less than 10% WSC + starch, appropriate mineral supplementation, and no grain.
Horses are also susceptible to laminitis, a disease of the lamina of the hoof. Laminitis has many causes, but the most common is related to a sugar and starch overload from a horse overeating certain types of food, particularly too much pasture grass high in fructan in early spring and late fall, or by consuming excessive quantities of grain. [60]