Stella is a former circus pony and she is about 30 or 40 years old. She is now living with two other ponies in an open stable
Stella had chronic laminitis which caused problems even when she was only standing
Stella's hooves were treated on Feb. 26, 2005 by a hoof orthopaedic for the first time
although a soft rubber mat was laid under her hooves, it often took some minutes before the hoof orthopaedic could lift up her hoof
more than half of the walls of both fore hooves were bent upwards, the load was mostly on the outside of the hooves
Furthermore, the hooves also developed thrush
Treatment success
in the beginning Stella was treated every 2 or 3 weeks, but it was soon obvious that it had to be done more often. The hoof orthopaedic then treated her at least every 2 weeks, sometimes even more often
in the meantime Stella's treatment intervals could be extended to 5 weeks
Stella enjoys being active again; she trots and gallops according to the condition of the ground but still avoids hard surfaces when necessary.
she is still not completely healthy and unfortunately never will be, most probably due to changes in the distal edge of the coffin bone which occurred inevitably because her condition had been hidden for such a long time.
Stella no langer has problems in standing, and also the rubber mat has not been needed for quite a long time
