Redness in white line

Question
Hi!

I have a question regarding a 3 year-old part Arabian mare, who may have early signs of laminitis.  This mare has been going barefoot for the past month, having worn shoes for only a short time prior to that.

She is sound and energetic, but as her feet are still sensitive to our very rocky and dry terrain, she wears Old Macs horse boots for riding.

Since removing her shoes, I have begun to do all of her trimming, as we do not have any barefoot trim practitioners where I live. Her last trim by a farrier was one month ago, when we had her shoes removed.

Thus I did her first routine trim recently--mostly a light rasping, heel roughening, and a mustang roll; no nippers or hoof knife. In the course of this trim, I found that her white line was not white, but red. I'm aware that this can be a sign of laminitis, so I'm quite worried. I have no way of getting hold of a vet at the moment and it may be some days before I can get a specialist to come out to look at her.

I've put her horse boots on her for the time being, just in case (taking them off every six hours to let her feet breath). She has 24 hour a day turnout in a small paddock and moves around on her own -- no sign of any soreness. Right before I discovered the red line, I had ridden her out for about 2 hours -- a liesurely walk with some trotting. There too, I saw no sign of lameness or soreness. In fact, she galloped off toward the paddock on her own as soon as I took her tack off her.

I have no idea how long this red line has been there, as this is the first time I have trimmed this mare--her previous trim was by a farrier, who did not mention seeing any irregularities (then again, he may not have known what he was seeing or may not have thought it important.) Thus, it may be an older condition, or it may be something new that is now developing.

Other things worth mentioning:
The mare's feet in general look good, although she's sensitive to walking on gravel (normal for horses newly introduced to the terrain in our area). She completely ignores sharp stones once the boots go on.

She does have some sign of "rings" on her hooves, but no more than the other horses in our paddock; in other words not excessive.

Recently, the stable owner began introducing white bread into the horses' diets. I've asked him not to feed my mare bread, but I'm sure she did eat some ample portions sometime last week before I intervened. There's no way of knowing whether this red line was there prior to this, so this may not be relevant.

Normally she has free choice hay (roughage hay which has not much leaf) plus a special blend of grain (oats, barely, corn) mixed for horses at our local granary. I've cut down the grain to almost zero since discovering the red line, just in case.

Needless to say I'll begin the process of getting a vet our here as soon as their offices reopen Sunday morning. My question is: How panicked should I be about this? In my reading I'm learned that many horses have a pink red line for awhile (up to a year) after removing shoes, but in this mare's case the line is definitely red, rather than pink. What other conditions might this red line indicate?  Does such a red line automatically indicate laminitis, even where no lameness or soreness is present?

Any advice or help you can give would be greatly appreciated!

- Yael


Answer
Hi Yael.
  It's been my experience that a little redness in the white line is normal; it indicates a good blood supply. Since she's sound and in no distress, I wouldn't worry about it.
  If you feel the need to start her on a product, I highly recommend Antiflam. If you can't find it at your local tack shop, contact  www.macleod-equine.com. or pattihanco@aol.com.
  I wouldn't worry too much about the white bread, although it is unusual. My biggest concern was if the bread was fresh it might be difficult for the horses to digest. I personally have fed my horses eggs and cream (as a tonic to make them stronger), and know another trainer who used to feed coffee grounds! (Not sure what his reasoning was.)
  Another question is why you are keeping her barefoot. With your terrain it sounds like a shoe would be more protective than a riding boot. With the race horses they are seldom without shoes---even if they are glued on rather than nailed. If by chance they race barefoot, it's rarely more than one or two starts, and even rarer that the horse is barefoot all the way around.
  I know many people think barefoot is the healthier way to go....that just hasn't been my experience. Here's a couple sites for you to check out though:

http://www.thenakedhoof.com.au/

http://www.naturalhorsetrim.com/Strassercasesfullversion.htm
If I can be of further assistance, please let me know.
Best of luck with your filly!
Anne Stepien