The very first thing one should do if he or she is sure that their horse has been foundered is to call a good equine veterinarian and ask for his or her assistance. Often the vet cannot be at your place immediately so there are a few things you can do before the veterinarian’s arrival, which will greatly benefit the stricken animal.

Founder is a layman’s term for laminitis, which is simply defined as an inflammation of the sensitive laminae of the feet. Two forms of laminitis occur; acute and chronic.

How can we recognize the acutely foundered horse? The animal so affected, will usually stand with his front feet forward and its hind legs and feet placed forward up under the body. Two-thirds of the body weight is carried on the front feet and legs of the horse. In a founder the animal has much pain in the feet and it will adapt the above stance to try and take some of the weight off its front feet, and put more of the body weight on the hinds.

The foundered horse standing in this fashion will refuse to move without being urged. They appear to move with a very stiff gait and some affected horses will refuse to move at all. Their feet are so painful that many of these horses can hardly move one foot at a time and upon being urged forward will hop on the front feet and legs. Sometimes the horse with this acute phase of laminitis will have a stiff shuffling gait and stumble as it moves forward.

In the acute phase of laminitis, the hoof head or feet will be quite hot to the touch and if one is adept at feeling for the digital arteries, one can feel them pulsating very strongly. This is referred to as the “digital pulse.”

The diagnosis of the chronic form of laminitis is more difficult but really quite easily done. The affected animal will be lame in both front feet. Most horsemen will state that their animal is “peggy in the front” especially when used on gravel. This symptom along with a dropped sole and a diverging line around the hoof wall indicating more heel growth than toe growth are the more easily recognized symptoms of chronic founder.

When the foot is examined the sole will be flat and not concaved as in the normal horse. The white line at the toe will be much wider than at the side of the hoof or the heel. This line often will be so wide at the toe that it is non-existent and the condition is often known as “seedy toe.”

We have then a wide range of severity when talking about founder or laminitis. The most severe cases appear suddenly, presenting an animal with extreme pain in all four feet and the hoof walls and soles may slough from the bone of the foot. The most chronic forms I believe are seen in the old foundered ponies that have the heavy crest and “sled runner” feet.

Some mild cases of laminitis will recover if nothing is done in the way of treatment, but more severe cases require more aggressive treatment to save the animal and restore it to a good quality of life and usefulness.

So how does this whole business of founder happen and what are some of the predisposing causes of the condition?

The actual cause of laminitis within the foot of the horse is the effect of endotoxins which are produced by the growth and death of cells, especially bacteria; on the living laminae in the foot. These endotoxins cause the blood vessels to constrict thereby depleting the blood supply to the sensitive laminae cells resulting in death of these tissues. When these cells die within the hoof walls, the attachments to the hoof wall and sole become less and less according to the amount of endotoxin present in the blood supply. With the death of tissue, fluid and swelling is produced along with pain. The more laminae cells that die, the more severe the pain and the greater the risk of losing the whole hoof and sole.

Endotoxins are always being produced in the intestinal tracts of horses as well as man. However the body can handle a certain amount of endotoxin as it is being produced. It is only when a large amount is produced in a short time that the animal gets in trouble.

Some predisposing factors for the production of endotoxins and therefore leading to laminitis in the horse are:

Now let’s take a look at each of the five categories of pre-disposing factors of founder and see how each contributed to the production of endotoxins.

Number 1 is the ingestion of too much carbohydrate and protein. Often called the grain overload. Here’s how it works. In the normal intestinal tract of the horse we will say there are a zillion bacteria living, reproducing and dying. Their job is mainly to work on the ingested forage as it passes through the large intestines, breaking down the cellulose into the useable products of nutrition, which can be absorbed through the intestinal wall. The numbers stay relatively constant and as they live, reproduce and die they produce a constant supply of endotoxin, which is handled by the body.

Now introduce some extra carbohydrate and protein in massive amounts. It’s like a Thanksgiving meal and everyone is invited. The numbers of bacteria go from a zillion to a zillion zillion in 12 to 24 hours. The increase in the amount of endotoxin is massive and the bodies detoxifying system is overrun and simply cannot handle the situation.

These carbohydrate and protein founders occur usually in 12 to 24 hours after ingestion of the feed and often are quite severe.

The same thing happens many times when horses are switched from grass hay to good alfalfa hay. The carbohydrate and protein content being much higher in the alfalfa forage. Horses should always be changed from one feed, either grain or roughage, rather slowly.

Number 2 is the ingestion of too much cold water especially by a hot, thirsty horse after working. How, you might say, would that cause the production of an above normal level of endotoxins?

It’s real easy if you understand that the inside temperature of the large intestine stays relatively the same winter and summer. The Ph of the contents remains very constant. Now allow that drafter to tank up, when it’s hot and thirsty, on cold water. The horse has a small stomach. It can drink up to 5 or 10 gallons at one time if you let it. The water goes from the stomach into the intestines immediately. The Ph and temperature in the gut lumen changes and bacteria die by the carload with the resulting production of more endotoxin than the bodies detoxifying system can handle. So we have the so-called water founder, which generally is rather mild.

Number 3, the “road founder” is an interesting one.

I see them and treat them here each summer occurring in horses used for wagon train rides usually in July and August.

About that time of the year in this locality it is very hot and humid. It’s vacation time and when the hay is in, the farm work is done until the fall harvest. Old May and George have been hanging around since manure hauling last winter and haven’t done anything but eat and grow fat.

So all of a sudden we are going to hitch ‘em up and go on a 3, 4 or 5 day wagon train ride. Now, the wagon master sets the course. Instead of 5 miles a day the first day, it’s 10 or 12. The second day a little more and finally the last day could be 15-17 or even 20 miles.

Old George and May get hitched to the wagon loaded with all the provisions that make a family like to be outdoors on such an excursion. Like bed rolls, groceries, ice boxes filed with pop and beer, cooking utensils and feed for the horses. Oh yes, we’ll throw in a tent and a tarp and the barbeque.

It’s 90 to 104 degrees and down the road they go over hill and dale to the promised campground. George and May pound along and lose a lot of fat and water. They are tired and done in when they hit that first campground at night.

They are unhitched, unharnessed, rubbed down, watered and fed and put away for the evening.

Next morning, up at 5 and low and behold old George is as stiff as a poker and May acts like she’s walking on hot coals. Diagnosis is road founder.

What happened? These horses lost a tremendous amount of cells containing fat and some other tissue cells from the pounding they underwent especially in the heat.

Death of tissue results in production of endotoxin. Enough produced and the result will be laminitis. Fortunately these founders are also light to mild and are quickly cured if treated properly and as soon as possible.

Overheating of the horse and heat prostration will also result in a mild founder occasionally after the animal recovers.

Number 4 is very easy to understand where extensive surgery, colics and open untreated wounds will be a factor in the production of endotoxin.

I have seen a few horses with large barbed wire wounds of the chest and hip areas which were already foundered when they were first treated. These were animals that were wounded and went three to five days before the owner found them. By that time the destruction of tissue plus the growth of bacteria in the wounds produced enough endotoxin to cause the founder. In fact, I remember some being so stiff I first was worried about tetanus and had to distinguish between the two conditions.

Founder after extensive surgery and colic is known to happen due to the death of tissue in the patient.

Number 5 is a very common cause of laminitis in the mare. The metritis is caused by a retained piece of placenta or the fact that not all of the blood and fluids were expelled from the uterine cavity. With these predisposing factors it is easy to understand the very fast and rapid growth of bacteria within the uterus. To make matters worse the bacteria gain an entrance into the blood stream and one finds he must deal with a septicemia, metritis and a founder all present at the same time in the patient.

I believe this three pronged disease entity to be the single biggest problem in the draft mare as well as the greatest cause of death in these post-parturient animals.

Now that you know how the endotoxins work in their role of a cause for laminites in the horse you can understand what you can do for the affected animal before the veterinarian arrives or even after the vet is gone.

The first thing we are going to do is place the horse in some comfortable surroundings such as a box stall or covered pen or corral. Do not move him anymore than you have to!! If it is in a pasture, go get it with the horse trailer if possible. Bed down the area with sand, sawdust, wood shavings or straw, so as to take the strain off the feet and tendons of the legs.

Place all hay, grain and water where the animal can reach it with minimal movement.

If it happens to be very hot, put a fan on the horse. Likewise if it is cold, blanket the animal.

Why don’t we want to move him? Remember the sensitive or live laminae are dying and the hoof wall and sole are separating from the bone in the foot. The area of the greatest stress when old George moves is the toe. Every step he takes he is tearing the toe area loose from the coffin bone causing the coffin bone to “rotate” down where the front of the bone in certain cases will “rotate” so far down it will come through the sole of the foot about one inch ahead of the point of the frog. SO DO NOT MOVE HIM ANYMORE THAN YOU MUST!

I have actually known of veterinarians telling clients to force exercise the foundered animal to relieve its stiffness and get more circulation into the feet!

Old Mother Nature is telling George to stand still and put the weight on the heels of his feet thereby relieving toe pressure. George knows a darn sight more about treating himself than some professional people with an eight year college education including a B.S. degree in something or another.

The next thing you want to do is soak the feet of old George in hot water or pour hot water on cloths that are wrapped around the coronary band and hooves. Make this water as warm as you can hold your hand in it. I learned long ago that women can hold their hands in warmer water than men!

Do this as often as you can for 3 days.

Do not stand the horse in cold water! Remember I said you may have all degrees of founder from those who recover if you do nothing, to those whose hooves will come off in spite of all that can be done.

In a mild case, a foundered horse standing in cold water will experience some swelling and pain relief, but it will do nothing to enhance circulation but may in fact impede circulation to the hooves. It is the hot or warm water which will improve the circulation and the swelling will recede with the resumption of normal blood flow through the area.

While you are making your foundered patient comfortable and soaking his feet in hot water, you probably are wondering if you can give him some shots or something in the line of medicine. We are all uncomfortable if we cannot dose the horse with some kind of drugs be it a shot, pills or just a smear-on medication.

Fortunately almost every horse person has two drugs in the medicine chest which should be used on the foundered animal as soon as possible.

One of course is the good old standby almost every horse person can reach from his or her arm chair and that’s Phenylbutazone or often nicknamed by horse personnel, “Bute.”

You may have it in the pill form, paste or as a liquid injection. Which ever form you possess, it makes no difference. Administer the drug in the dose prescribed on the container whether it be oral or otherwise. Give enough of this drug and as often as you must in order to keep the patient on his feet.

A down horse with founder will not eat or drink, cannot urinate or defecate properly and often will fight itself to death. “Bute” works very well to relieve pain and swelling in the feet of the foundered horse.

The other drug which you probably have and which is extremely useful in the treatment of founder is aspirin. Good old Bayer aspirin to mention one brand. To the draft animal I give 75 grains twice a day for 5 days. So start right away with the aspirin treatment as soon as you know it’s a founder.

Now you are going to ask how many aspirin pills? Look on the bottle. I am holding a bottle of them in my hand at the moment and it reads “each tablet is 325mg (stands for milligrams) or 5gr (stands for grains).”

So 15 of 5gr tablets will equal 75 grains. This is not the maximum dose for aspirin in the horse but it has worked for me.

The next question you would ask me is “how do you give the pills?” Of course put them in a cup, pour hot water on them and they will dissolve enough so you can use a plastic syringe to suck it up out of the cup. Place the syringe in the corner of the mouth, shove it way in and shoot the aspirin into the throat region.

Aspirin is a very important drug to use and is often overlooked in the treatment of the acute founder. It has two desirable actions in that, it thins the blood thus improving the circulation in the foot and second it is one of the best detoxifiers available to use against the endotoxins which are causing the problem in the first place.

There are three forces which cause the coffin bone to “rotate” or to be pulled so that the forward part of the bone is literally pulled through the sole of the foot. As soon as the founder is visible the bone is already rotating.

We have stopped the first two forces by not moving the foundered animal. The third force is caused by the “pull” of the big flexor tendons located on the rear of the leg. There are two of them and they exert a great deal of force on the rear of the coffin bone. If the bone is becoming loose in front of the hoof, due to the forces exerted on the toe of the foot, when the horse moves, the coffin bone will then be pulled back and down.

To stop this action of rotation one must elevate the heel of the foot thus relieving the pull or strain on the coffin bone which is exerted by the tendons in the rear of the leg.

Here’s a little experiment. Place your foot flat on the floor. Now raise your heel about 1 inch while keeping your toes on the floor. You can feel the large tendon on your heel relax. It’s the same with the foundered horse.

Take a piece of wood about 3/8 inch thick and 1 1/2 inches wide by as long as you need to go across the bottom of the foot at the heels. Tape this in place with duct tape. Be careful and do not tape over the coronary band above the hoof wall as this would hinder the circulation in the foot. This will give old George immediate relief as the rotation of the coffin bone is very. very painful.

Leave this on for only 3 days and then remove it and have the foundered animal properly shod by a competent farrier to stop further rotation and to actually rotate the coffin bone back into position.

There you have it. It’s what you can do for your foundered horse long before the vet gets there or even after the veterinarian is gone. Be sure to tell him you have George, May, Nellie or Pedro on Bute and aspirin. If he disagrees, keep the animal on the treatment and do the soaking and raise the heels of the feet anyway for the prescribed time.

Your veterinarian will have drugs and methods to treat the cause as well as the founder process itself. On the third day you should use the services of an excellent farrier who can properly trim and shoe the foundered horse. The aftercare of these affected animals is a whole different story.

Remember it’s you that should work on old George or May when you first find them in this predicament and you should not have to lose them even to founder.