The Things You Forget When Your Horse Has Laminitis
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When your horse is first diagnosed with laminitis, you probably think you’ll remember everything.
Of course you will. How could you possibly forget?
You’ll remember exactly when they last had their medication. You’ll remember what the vet said about their blood results. You’ll know whether that digital pulse feels stronger than it did yesterday, when the farrier last visited, how much your horse weighed and precisely when they first started looking a little more comfortable.
And then the days turn into weeks. Suddenly you’re standing in the stable wondering whether they were actually moving better last Tuesday, or whether you’ve imagined it.
Was the digital pulse stronger yesterday? When did you reduce that medication? What did the vet say that blood result was? And was that little bit of heat in the hoof there this morning?
Welcome to one of the less talked-about parts of caring for a horse with laminitis: the sheer amount of information you somehow have to carry around in your head. Laminitis can become a blur
Laminitis rarely fits neatly into a simple sequence of diagnosis, treatment and recovery. There can be better days followed by disappointing ones. Medication may change. Management may change. Your vet and farrier may make adjustments as your horse progresses. There may be blood tests, X-rays, weight changes, changes in movement, pulses to check, feed to monitor and appointments to remember.
Then there are all the ordinary observations that don't seem particularly important until later. Perhaps your horse walked across the stable a little more freely one morning. Perhaps they started lying down less. Maybe they seemed unusually reluctant to turn. Did their appetite change?
None of these observations necessarily tells you very much in isolation. But over time they can become part of a much bigger picture. The trouble is that human memory isn't particularly good at keeping an accurate record of dozens of small changes. Especially when we're worried.
“I'm sure they were better than this last week…” This is something many horse owners will recognise. When you see your horse several times every day, gradual change can be surprisingly difficult to spot. It's rather like watching a foal grow. You don't necessarily notice the difference from Monday to Tuesday but look at a photograph from three months ago and suddenly the change is enormous. Recovery can be similar.
Without something concrete to compare today with, we're relying on our memory of how the horse looked or behaved previously. Our memories aren't measurements. A difficult morning can make it feel as though you've gone backwards enormously. Likewise, one particularly good afternoon can make things seem further ahead than they really are.A simple written record gives you something more reliable to look back on. Record your horse's normal, too
It's tempting only to write something down when there's a problem. But the ordinary days can be just as useful. What does your horse's normal digital pulse feel like? What's their usual weight or body condition? How comfortably are they moving today? How much time are they spending lying down? What are they eating? What medication are they currently receiving?What did you change about their management, and when?
You don't need to turn yourself into a full-time data analyst armed with seventeen spreadsheets and a clipboard every time you enter the stable. The aim isn't to document every flick of an ear. It's simply to create enough of a record that, when something does change, you have something meaningful to compare it with.
The details your vet asks for:
There is another reason keeping records can be useful. Your vet asks: “When did you first notice that?” And your brain immediately replies: Thursday. Except... was it Thursday? Perhaps it was Wednesday evening. Or was that when you first noticed something else?
When you've been dealing with a condition for weeks or months, dates have an irritating habit of merging together. Writing down appointments, blood tests, medication changes, weight, observations and complications can give you a chronology to refer to rather than trying to reconstruct everything from memory. It doesn't replace veterinary advice, and your notes aren't intended to diagnose your horse. They're simply another source of information that can help you communicate what you've observed between professional visits.
The things you don't think you'll forget
Some information is obvious. Vet appointments. Medication. Farrier visits. Other things are surprisingly easy to lose track of. When was the last blood test, and what was being tested? What were the results? When did you first notice that stronger pulse? When was the horse last weighed? When did you change the forage? When did the abscess appear? When did they start looking more comfortable when turning? What did the farrier change at the last visit? Which hoof seemed worse? What was happening immediately before that particularly bad day?
At the time, each event feels significant enough that you're certain you'll remember it. Three months later, you may be very glad you wrote it down.
Records aren't only about spotting problems
This may actually be the most important part. When you're caring for a horse with laminitis, it's very easy to measure progress against the horse you had before laminitis and viewed from that perspective, progress can feel painfully slow. But look backwards through a record and you may find yourself making a different comparison.
Not:
“Why aren't we back to normal yet?”
But:
“Look where we were four weeks ago.”
Perhaps their weight has gradually moved in the right direction. Perhaps medication has been reduced under veterinary guidance. Maybe they're standing more comfortably. Maybe there are fewer bad days and something that seemed enormously important six weeks ago hasn't been mentioned in your notes for a fortnight. Those small changes can disappear from memory because each new day replaces the one before it. Written down, they don't disappear.
You don't need a perfect record
There will be days when you forget to write anything. There will be entries consisting of three words because you're exhausted. There will probably be something important that you remember two days later and write in the wrong place and that's fine.
The purpose of keeping a record isn't to produce a flawless medical document. It's to make life a little easier. To take some of those dates, observations, questions and changes out of your head and put them somewhere you can find them again.
And then, on one of the difficult days, to give yourself the opportunity to look backwards and realise that although today's progress may seem tiny, you aren't necessarily standing in the same place you were a month ago.
Laminitis can be a long and uncertain journey. Sometimes it's only when you look back that you realise just how far you and your horse have travelled.