Confuddled! laminitis prone horses and snow...

0ldmare

0ldmare

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This is probably a v silly question, but...

Finally my old mare is totally sound and getting 1-2 hours grazing per day and I'm going to up it to 2-3 over the weekend with a view to getting her in the field during the day.

Needless to say she is absolutely living for the brief time eating grass :)

But what do I do if it snows? :confused: ? Is it OK to turn out very recently recovered laminitic horse in the snow and give it some hay out there? I am quite sure she will dig through 6ft snow drifts to reach a blade of grass and so am not sure if thats OK (given the 'thou must not eat frosty grass' rule!)

I did tell you it was a silly question, but what will you do with your laminitis prone ponies? I'm new to all this!
 
my old mare is prone to laminitis, and was turned out every day in the snow last year.
i made sure she had plenty of hay to eat while been out.
not got got any snow yet this year, but she will go out.
 
Me too I'll be keeping an eye on this thread.
The reason I'm unsure is because, when it normally snows here we are well into the winter grazing which is actually more turnout than grazing so the amount of grass available would be minimal if they dig to it.
But the horses only went on the winter grazing last week so there is quite a lot of grass at the moment.
 
I have been doing alot of research lately about sugars/nutriuents in grass and apparenly over the course of severe and consistent frosts and cold weather the grass will go dormant meaning all reserves are stored in the roots and base. Its good to research on sites that have done research on the growth stages of grass etc rather than just the lammy sites where it seems no grass is safe. For the record mine will go out in the snow with hay and the amount of grass that they can actually consume from digging around probably wont be enough to tip them over the edge by where their guts gets a sugar overload from eating vasts amounts because it wont be possible. However do what you think best for your horse always, I know is hard.
 
slinkyunicorn said:
Glad to hear she is mending:D

I turn my laminitic out with a haystack and then bring her in when she has finished - luckily she adores hay and will eat instead of digging for grass but at least by going out she gets to stretch her legs and roll etc:D
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This/\/\

As much as my laminitic mare loves grass she will sooner go for the easy to eat hay and not dig for any frosty grass. Its tough as you know your mare best and I worry relentlessly about what my mare is eating! Its hard work.
Do you have the option of turning out in a school with hay if you are very worried?
 
Thanks (and phew thank goodness I'm not the only one pondering on it!)

I think if it snows I'll put her in the summer paddock which has been grazed hard and so the grass is very short. That way even if she digs she won't get much!

Its so nerve wracking as she's only been sound for 2 weeks and I'm terrified something will tip her back.
 
0ldmare said:
Thanks (and phew thank goodness I'm not the only one pondering on it!)

I think if it snows I'll put her in the summer paddock which has been grazed hard and so the grass is very short. That way even if she digs she won't get much!

Its so nerve wracking as she's only been sound for 2 weeks and I'm terrified something will tip her back.
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I'd go along with this approach too. Moved my laminitic off the winter grass a week ago as I noticed he was a bit doddery and lying down more than usual after a couple of frosty mornings. I had taken a chance with him on old grass which is long, yellowed and coarse as he's not carrying extra weight and, at the time, wasn't even rugged. He is now on hard grazed summer paddock, rugged up and on hay twice a day with a chaff feed thrown in to fill him up. After a week he's looking fine so looks like we caught it in time. You just can't relax with laminitus.
 
Your horse is clearly very prone to lami as it's only allowed 2-3 hours max atm, but I am pretty certain that almost no horse is a proficient enough digger to get laminitus from short grass under snow at the this time of year so I think this could be a great opportunity to give her plenty of turnout. (Though would be interested to hear from anyone who could correct my assumption! Anything's possible with rotten old lami!) My fairly prone lami has been out on a massive field for the past week before the snow and has been fine.

As others have said plenty of hay should help too. And if you hide a few nuts or apple pieces etc in the hay it should tempt them to keep at the hay rather than dig for grass!
 
Thanks, looks like my mare will get to go in the field :) :)

The only reason she's just getting 1-2 hours grazing is that she has only just recovered from a bad bout of cushings related laminitis. So I've been very gradually reintroducing her to grass after being in the school for literally months (she went down with it on the 1st sept and just didn't get better. It wasn't until she was tested for cushings that we realised why she was getting worse not better!

I'm just completely paranoid about her at the moment I think!
 
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