How to Prevent Founder in a Horse

Founder is a devastating and far too common disease in horses. It is sad because most, if not all, cases of founder could have been avoided. This article will give you some important steps to prevent this crippling, and sometimes fatal, disease.

Things You'll Need

  • Ability to do research
  • Knowledge of horses and their feet
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Instructions

  1. Preventing Founder in a Horse

    • 1

      Preventing founder is hugely important when you own or care for horses. The old saying - "no hoof, no horse" is painfully accurate. If your horse founders badly enough, it will have to be euthanized. The first, most important, and simplest step is to take great care not to allow your horse to become obese.

    • 2

      By becoming too fat, the horse's system becomes glucose intolerant, just like a diabetic human. If you overload a fat horse's gut with too many starches, it WILL founder. Founder occurs when the "coffin bone" of the foot (aptly named as all the horse's weight is narrowed into this tiny little bone) rotates inside the horse's foot causing the laminae of the hoof to disconnect; the hoof will, essentially, come off. That is the worst case scenario and it is a death sentence for the horse.

    • 3

      Next, you want to make sure that your horse is not exposed to too many carbohydrates and starches in one unexpected load. Feed instructions always come with the warning to make changes gradually. Horses intestines can be incredibly delicate, and if you throw an imbalance to them, especially in times of added stress, you are asking for colic and or founder. If you change your horse's feed, do it gradually.

    • 4

      Monitor the pasture your horse is grazing in. If the grasses are too rich (containing too much green clover, natural alfalfa, or mature grasses), they are filled with starches, sugars, and carbohydrates than can overwhelm your horse's gut action and cause it to founder. Only allow your horse to graze a few hours a day if the pastures are very lush.

    • 5

      Nearly all founder is feed related. Only in very rare cases does founder come from a secondary infection, injury, or stress related incident. Your best bet, if worried about foundering your horse, is to err on the side of caution. Better to pull the horse off all feed except simple grass hay and consult a vet if you have any doubts about the possibility of your horse foundering.