reillyshoe wrote:Then you would presumably be in favor of wedging the front feet in an extreme manner during an acute laminitis episode? This would reduce DDFT tension and (following your logic) limit displacement?
Home now. Before narcolepsy grabs hold, I will retract and/or clarify. In the acute phase I am not for localizing weight distribution to the frog by itself. I am all for supporting the caudal aspect of the foot with something that will distribute pressures, as evenly as possible, across all the ground surface structures of caudal aspect of the foot. To what degree this supportive redistribution acts as mechanical inhibition of rotation, I would have to say either it depends or I don't know. Does it mechanically prevent rotation? I don't think so. Does it dampen the degree thereof? It's quite possible, but to what degree, I am not sure. I do think, if nothing else, it makes the horse more comfortable as it attempts to stand on the caudal half of the foot while waiting on the feedback loop to reestablish itself. In my limited experience, nailing a heart bar to an acute laminitic not only causes more pain because of the process, it is not as effective as sticking foam, impression material, or other deformable 'support' under the back of the foot. If one wants to use the heart bar in combination with impression material, it can be taped/vet wrapped on...but at this point, the shoe itself may just be redundant. I am not sure what you would consider "extreme", but I do think elevation can reduce the tension in the ddft, which in turn can reduce laminar tension as can unloading the wall at the toe. I do like the heart bar and think it has beneficial and multiple applications. I don't like it in the acute phase.
My statement of "...anything that attempts to mechanically prevent distal migration compromises the prognosis" would be better and a more correct conveyance of my thought process here as "...anything that attempts to mechanically prevent distal migration, by localizing the support instead of dispersing it, compromises the prognosis."
Since you are our resident expert and probably deal with more of these in one year than most of us will see in our career, what is your protocol and thought process for the acute phase?