Welcome to Laminitis Help, a site for horse owners whose animals have developed laminitis or founder.

As of January 2026, I am taking care of one chronically laminitic horse, Kurt, now 30.

I have been battling laminitis since 1998 and caring for laminitic horses every day for all 28 years.

I will summarize the most important things I have learned below, but there are still many unknowns.

In 1997, I moved six healthy performance horses to a new farm in Missouri, and all of them foundered over time. My first case of laminitis started in 1998.

Also, my 8-year-old dog died in 2005 of liver disease so advanced that the university vets who treated her asked if I gave her alcohol. No.

Water became my main suspect.

By 2015, I was convinced that an extremely high level of iron in my well water caused the laminitis and the dog’s death.

Many people said I was crazy.

I mentioned in 2025 to a veterinarian who had just graduated from vet school that I was certain the excess iron caused the laminitis. I also noted that people made fun of me. Her exact words were, “That’s established science now.”

News to me!

It took me years to try to confirm the cause because prevailing thinking in water testing is that iron is beneficial.

One state’s Department of Natural Resources website says today of iron levels in water: “Iron is not considered hazardous to health. In fact, iron is essential for good health because it transports oxygen in your blood.”

The website goes on to say: “The present recommended limit for iron in water, 0.3 mg/l (ppm), is based on taste and appearance rather than on any detrimental health effect.”

Do a Google search on iron and cancer and you’ll get very different results.

We need the correct amount of iron, much like anything else. Too much is not a good thing.

What I have learned about treating a new case of laminitis

Anytime a horse develops a new case of laminitis, it’s an emergency (think heart attack in humans), and it’s one that the owner should tackle immediately, because that’s the most critical time. Don’t wait for someone to tell you what to do or to show up with a miracle cure.

The horse’s feet will be hot. You absolutely have to get the heat out of those feet and keep it out by whatever means possible immediately. It’s probably your only chance for your horse to be usable again. If you don’t, you may wind up with a very expensive lawn ornament.

Bute will mask the pain, and it may reduce the heat a little, but it’s not the total solution. You don’t want the horse to feel good and move around at this point. Bute combined with all-out war on the heat in the foot is the approach I would take.

Putting the feet in ice water is a top recommendation by many laminitis researchers. A lot of people don’t have four soaking boots lying around. I don’t have enough ice in my freezer to fill four soaking boots, and I only have two soaking boots).

I would put ice and water in freezer bags, held onto the ankle by scrunchies. Lots of people can come up with that combination in two minutes. You might need soaking boots if the leg is swollen higher, or even all the way up to the knee. I had that happen once in a new case of laminitis in a stallion. I cold hosed those legs for more than a half-hour each when I found them swollen after I got home from work one spring night. That was at midnight because I worked second shift. I kept doing it four times a day until there was no heat for a full day. That horse returned to soundness faster than any of my others. I’d give up that sleep again in a heartbeat.

Laminitis translates to inflammation.

Inflammation is the co-conspirator with heat in hoof damage.

Once the horse’s feet have cooled down with cold water therapy, I would apply some sort of anti-inflammatory cream (if you’re using cream meant for humans, use the whole tube and go get more) and keep the horse on soft bedding (probably shavings) for a few days. You don’t want the heat to come back. And I would repeat the cold hosing often.

What about comfort boots?

I’m a fan of comfort boots, so consider my comments in that light.

You initially need to keep knocking down the heat. The feet are going to be wet or covered in cream for several hours a day.

Don’t put a wet or cream-lathered foot into a comfort boot. That will create ulcers on the heels.

Also, comfort boots trap heat. So, I would save the boots for the recovery period when you do want the horse to move around to get circulation moving. Boot makers may give you different advice.

Any product that fights inflammation is on my list of things I would try.

If you can put your life on hold for a few days and do nothing but attack the heat and inflammation, you might come out of the laminitis bout with a usable horse. You really only get one chance.

If I have scared you into action, then this website has served its purpose.

Also, document your horse’s condition every few hours with video. If you can get a vet to arrive within a day or week, that documentation will be useful.

I launched this site in 2009 by saying: If you own a laminitic horse, I don’t need to tell you that you live in a world unlike any other — one filled with frustration, desperation and guilt, and one where you’re only as happy as your laminitic horse each day.

That was me for decades. I hadn’t reacted quickly enough for some of my cases because I didn’t know I was looking at laminitis, and I didn’t realize how urgent it was to reduce the heat instantly.

You don’t want to be me.

This website

Going forward, I am going to go back through this site and weed out information that no longer seems relevant. At some point, I may take down the website because the answers we all seek remain elusive.