Inducing Laminitis

[stillonly1wu]

Bought one of my occasional copies of Horse & Hound this week and Veterinary Clinic (on pages 22/23) was all about Laminitis. It reported two studies, one in Australia and one in Texas where horses were overloaded with carbohydrate to induce laminitis. And, yay, all the horses got it.

Some were treated with new treatments and some (the control group) were not. It did not say what was done to alleviate the agony of the untreated horses, or what happened to any of the horses after the experiments were over.

I discussed this with OH, who is a scientist. He said that this was good science. All the horses got lami under the same conditions. The knowledge gained would help the treatment of many other horses. The suffering of the horses was regrettable, but the horse is the only animal who gets laminitis, so scientists can't do their test the usual way, which is on rats.

I understand, but still feel sick, and wonder if inflicting the agony of lami on any horse can even remotely be justified.

Wu

[solomon]

That is so sad these animals trust us and what do we do to them? I know they need to find new ways as the disease is still very misunderstood but this is cruel.

[haffyfan]

I understand what your husband is saying/what the people doing this are saying about this in general and also having a control group but it's just VERY wrong...at least humans who decide to take part in medical trials etc choose to do so willingly and for monetary gain.

Those poor horses. Having, like you Wu, had one go though this harrowing experience even if it means better knowledge/treatment in the long run I would not want to put others through it in the name of science and as as for not treating...surely this is up there with strausser!

After all advancements are being made without unnessacary suffering being caused through the work of Robert Eustace and others (who you will no doubt tell me now were involved )

[duckles]

I don't think that was ethical science. It would be different if they were treating animals already infected by laminitis (although I would still balk at not treating a suffering creature) but to deliberately induce it is completely unethical and wrong. I often have this argument with my sister who is also a scientist (so I know the way they are trained to think). I do not think there is ever a justification for directly causing pain in any creature and I don't believe it is good science. There are loads and loads of existing laminitis cases that could have been used. I don't even believe that having an untreated control group will necessarily mean better treatment for anyone, after all this new treatment may not be much good- in which case no one benefits(which must be obvious). If it is excellent, can not vets/scientists see that improvement for themselves -

[zoe]

Noo deliberately inducing lamin is awful - as duckles said there are plenty of horses already suffering from it who could try new treatments, surely this would show if they worked without causing unnecessary suffering to otherwise healthy animals

[ceej]

Using horses who already ahve lami I guess would not confirm why they got it although I am sure they could ccase study 100 differnt horses and find out exactly what they ate and did say a week before they came down with it to determine that so I dont belive that really helps. Also, many horses get lami wihtout a massive OD of carb so it doesnt exactly come up with an outstanding conclusion. I see very little ethical point in not treating a group of the horses - having two friends who are scientists I understadn that they will say that they need to be able to assess the treatment against those who have not been treated just to make the experiment accepted, but I just dont go with that - lami has far too many variables for such a scientific experiment to justify the suffering (if indeed you ever can). They may have shown that 1) an OD in carb can induce lami (but that doesnt explain the many other factors that lead to it) and 2) treating an OD carb case with one specifica treatment works better than not treating it at all -

well done.

However, I may change my tune if a radical cure was found...but I still think the suffering unecessary - lets hope they at least got bute and werent left to have rotated pedal bones.

[scattymare]

Those poor horses. As you said Ceej, just hope they were at least given some bute to keep the pain away slightly.

[maximum]

sees a very cruel way to carry out the experiment - surely in this day and age we can do this some other way?

still they still keep mares in awful conditions just to help women with menopausal problems so who knows with scientists.