I wanted to follow up on the article I posted about ‘double cream’ being a potential cure for laminitis.  If you missed that post, click here.

Well, the author of that article wrote to me with a follow up that I thought was interesting – so I’ve attached it below.

If Mama Tess were alive… or if anyone here shows signs of laminitis, aside from all the normal immediate actions to take (reduce sugars, no grain, no stress, ice, boots, antiflam…), I would also add the double cream.  Couldn’t hurt, could help.

MORE ABOUT DOUBLE CREAM

FROM:  Susan Rogerson

Hi Dawn,

Lovely to hear from you! Someone else in the US asked me about this recently too, so I’ve  already done a bit of research. I was really surprised when I found out that you don’t have fresh cream in the US. What do you put on your strawberries?! In England it only costs around £1.20 per pot, but that’s not much help to you!

I have found out that double cream can be bought on Amazon, imported from England, in glass jars. However, the reviews for the product are mixed – some people love it, but there have also been bad reviews citing spoilt (sometimes seemingly unrefrigerated) product. It’s also really expensive buying it that way.  One person did say that they could buy it “locally” at a cheaper price, but I don’t know where they were from!

Amazon also sell what they call “Heavy cream powder”. It looks like it might be roughly equivalent to our “double cream” (albeit a dried version), with a high butterfat content, so it might be worth trying – although it also contains some additives. There is a hormone-free one advertised (see below) – there may be others (be wary of non-organic US milk as I believe the cows are all fed growth hormone, and I don’t know what effect that would have on a horse – especially a sick one (growth hormone is banned in Britain so we don’t have that problem)). It’s still expensive but has a long shelf-life. I don’t know whether it will be as good as fresh, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t be, if it’s reconstituted properly – it’s the high fat content that’s important.

https://www.amazon.com/Hoosier-Hill-Farm/b/ref=bl_dp_s_web_5583893011?ie=UTF8&node=5583893011&field-lbr_brands_browse-bin=Hoosier+Hill+Farm

The only other thing I can think of as a substitute is ghee – if you have that in the US. Unless you can find a local farmer that would start producing fresh cream – there’s definitely a gap in the market!

I hope that is of some help. If you can find anything else that I can recommend to other people in the US, then I’d love to hear from you.

I’d be so happy if other people tried it and it worked. I tried to get a proper trial going in England, in conjunction with a vet, but the Home Office wouldn’t give us a licence. They said that there wasn’t enough proof that it worked. Which was a bit mad, as the whole point of doing the trial was to prove that it works!! But that’s governments for you! I can’t even get articles in British magazines, as they won’t take them without veterinary approval, which I can’t get! Any other success stories would really help the cause. Hopefully there would be a snowball effect, and the establishment would start to take me seriously. More importantly, horses and their owners might be spared the agonies and devastation that laminitis brings.

There is one other success story in the comments section of my paper: http://dx.doi.org/10.7392/openaccess.70081971

The milk fat, double cream, as an effective anti-inflammatory in acute laminitis
dx.doi.org
Abstract: This study indicates that the milk fat, double cream, is an effective anti-inflammatory in the treatment of acute laminitis…

If that pony can get better, then there is hope for all.

Please let me know how people get on, and if you have any other questions, or just want to chat about it, please don’t hesitate to get in touch again (although I only have intermittent email access, so it may take me a few days to reply!).

Thanks for your interest.

Kind regards,

HORSES TOP THREE FAVORITE FLAVORS

I was a little surprised by this list… I would have thought apples or carrots would be up there – maybe even melon.

But no… here they are:

1.  Banana
2.  Anise  (Licorice)
3.  Maple Syrup flavor

I was also told that if a horse is refusing supplement or medicine, you could try banana pudding powder.

I had never thought of that!

NOVEMBER BUCKET FUND HORSES:  BONNIE AND CLYDE – Perfectly trained, sweet, polite – AND STARVED.  Click  here to read their story!

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