Vital Signs
Acute laminitis must be treated as a veterinary emergency - your prompt actions in the first few hours can make a significant difference to the prognosis and future life of your pony
Finding the Digital Pulse
Many horse owners struggle to find the digital pulse - so this section is here to help you to find that elusive pulse!
The pulse measures the strength of your horse's heartbeat. Normally, a resting horse has a pulse of 38 to 40 beats per minute. When exercising, a horse's maximum heart rate can exceed 180 beats per minute. However, in resting horses, a heart rate over 80 can be a sign of a serious problem. If a calm horse has a pulse that is consistently over 60, it can indicate that they are in pain or afraid. A very strong "bounding" digital pulse indicates that there is an inflamatory response in the feet..
The digital arteries run down each side of the leg, in the groove between the suspensory ligament and the flexor tendons (toward the back of the leg). They are easiest to feel as they run beside the sesamoid bones, toward the back of the fetlock. (It is very difficult to feel a pulse unless the artery can be pressed against a bony surface.
To locate the arteries, cup the back of the fetlock, placing the thumb on one side and the first two fingers on the other. Slowly move the fingers and thumb toward the back of the fetlock, pressing lightly until the pulses are felt.
These arteries are quite small in diameter (about 1/8 inch, or 3 mm), and too much pressure blocks them, making it impossible to feel a pulse. However, too little pressure makes it difficult to find the arteries, so the pressure should begin lightly, and gradually increase until the pulse is felt.
As a guide, it takes about the same amount of finger pressure as that needed to feel a pulse at a person's wrist.
If you don't know what a pulse feels like then try finding your own pulse first on the inside of your wrist in the groove between the bone and the tendon on the thumb side of your forearm just above your wrist.
You cannot feel a pulse with you thumb - your own pulse gets in the way Also a horse's resting heart rate is much lower than ours - so be patient - it will be along in a few seconds!
Practice being able to find the digital pulse - so that you can check it regularly. Once you've found it a couple of times then it is easy to find subsequently.
Most horses won't stand still long enough for you to count the pulse for a full minute. To simplify things, you can count for fifteen seconds and then multiply the result by four.
Breathing
When checking your horse's respiration rate, note whether your horse's inhalations should take roughly the same amount of time as its exhalations. A horse that is inhaling quickly and exhaling slowly with a wheeze has a level of pulmonary obstruction.
The horse's respirations can be counted in three ways--watching the horse's nostrils move as it breathes, watching the horse's torso for the movement of the ribcage and belly, or by listening at its trachea or windpipe. This is called auscultation and is normally done wiht a stethoscope but you can do it by putting your ear against the horse's neck.
Again, you can listen for fifteen seconds and multiply the number of respirations by four to achieve the number of breaths per minute. Normally, a horse will breathe between 8 and 10 times per minute.
If your horse shows a high respiratory rate, it can indicate several things. Pain, excitement, stress, fever (which you can now check for), or infection can all cause an increase in the respiratory rate.