Laminitis can be a devastating and career-ending condition for a horse and therefore has attracted a great attention in efforts to both treat and prevent the disease. Laminitis is usually refers to the early stages of the disease.
Inflammation is the body's response to an insult or injury.
It causes the affected tissues to swell, develop heat and redness, become painful and possibly lose function. This can be compared to accidentally striking your thumb while using a hammer. There are hundreds of tissue laminae present within the foot. When the disease is in it's early stages, it involves, in part at least, these laminar tissues. The terms foundering or foundered usually refer to the more chronic or long term consequences of laminitis.