24/7 Turnout after 2.5 weeks of box rest?

B

Blondie1

Well-Known Member
Joined
12 May 2009
Messages
164
Visit site
Hi,

My 4 year old has been on box rest for 2.5weeks due to her reopening up an old wound (2months old) due to pratting around on the lunge!

She has been turned out into a very small pen (only slightly bigger than stable) for about half hour per day.

My question is now that she is fully healed and ready to be turned out would you turn her out 24/7? I've read that there could be a high risk of her getting Colic due to the new grass.

I only ask as last time she was on box rest and i turned her out during the day and stabled her at night she was a nightmare to bring in and turnout. Her normal routine would be 24/7 turnout.

Thanks in advance
xxx
 
Is there any way you could hand graze her for a couple of days to allow a short adjustment period to build up tolerance of the new grass? After this I'd put her out 24/7 and maybe bring in for a couple of hours each day to allow her to 'deflate' lol.
 
saddlesore said:
Is there any way you could hand graze her for a couple of days to allow a short adjustment period to build up tolerance of the new grass? After this I'd put her out 24/7 and maybe bring in for a couple of hours each day to allow her to 'deflate' lol.
Click to expand...

Hi, Thanks.

The small pen that she has pen put in daily has had nice lush grass so would that cover the hand grazing for a couple of days part?

She would come in for few hours in the evening every night whilst i work my other horse to deflate lol.

I just dont want to do the wrong thing xxx
 
I personally would try and introduce her back to grass slowly. A couple of days with a couple of hours, then half a day, a full day and then she should be fine to go 24 hours...
 
yes there is a high chance of colic ( happened to me twice now!) i would turnout on a grazed down paddock and strip graze for a few days. (move the fence a small amount for fresh grazing) or turnout over night and bring in during the day with some hay (but still on a fairly small paddock) the reason mine has colicked is she stuffs her face with grass then it sits in her gut furmenting like a compost bin! she gets filled up with gas and starts to colic. i have to strip graze her all year round, a regular feed of mash to keep it moving with fennel seeds to reduce the gassy gut.
if you horse has been out on grass before the box rest i wouldnt worry to much, if he hasnt been out since before the winter then be carefull.
 
Blondie1 said:
Hi, Thanks.

The small pen that she has pen put in daily has had nice lush grass so would that cover the hand grazing for a couple of days part?

She would come in for few hours in the evening every night whilst i work my other horse to deflate lol.

I just dont want to do the wrong thing xxx
Click to expand...

This is what I would do as unless you are at your own yard it can be very difficult to talk YO into moving fences about etc. Plus if she has already been in the small pen for half an hour or so each day she will already be developing a tolerance to the sugars. I would increase the amount of time she has in there over the next 2 or 3 days, then turn out and bring in for a few hours each day like you already suggested. I'm sure she'll be fine and delighted to be back out :)
 
It is not really tolerance of spring grass, over time the grass will become less lush and less in volume, horses are better in a grazed field, grazed by other animals, you could think about a grazing muzzle so she has to work for her grub
 
MrsD123 said:
It is not really tolerance of spring grass, over time the grass will become less lush and less in volume, horses are better in a grazed field, grazed by other animals, you could think about a grazing muzzle so she has to work for her grub
Click to expand...

Her field was grazed on 2.5 weeks ago by her before she had to come in. At that point i was having to put hay out for her as she had very little grass.

Does that make any difference? Sorry i just want to understand this whole grass malarky : )

xxx
 
Agree with all the above about being very careful, but give her a small area to graze and make sure she has plenty of hay inside her to start with and continue to feed quite a lot of hay and then gradually reduce it as the grass area increases.

As the experts say, make changes to feed gradually.
 
It really hasn't got much to do with the grass itself. More to do with the sudden change in diet. The equine digestive system is pretty delicate in it's nature and as such it is advised that ANY dietary changes should be made GRADUALLY to prevent conditions such as colic.

That said Grass itself does pose extra problems in that the digestion of it tends to produce copious ammounts of gas which can become trapped and cause gassy colic or 'trapped wind'... introduce horse back to grass gradually.

The other thing to bare in mind that after being in for two and a half weeks the horse may have lost a certain degree of fitness in that muscles, tendons and ligaments may have slackened and you want to be careful that sudden increase in exercise doesn't cause injury.
 
After my horse had been in for 9 months box rest with a tendon injury the vet said we had to sedate him, turn him out and leave him out. She didn't want him loonying about going back out every day. I was a bit worried so I gradually introduced some super whizzy horse hage into his diet to get him more used to digesting more high energy stuff. He went out by himself in a small field that had been previously grazed so wasn't loads of grass and he was ok.

If there was no worry about your horse going loopy day in day out (like there was with my boy) then I would do it gradually over a week or so
 
Thanks for all your replies.

I will do it gradually then. As i dont want her coming in on box rest again. Twice in 3 months is enough for me and her! : )

xxx
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top