Cresty Necks- how to lose them?

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Melms92

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I am looking for some help to get rid of my 14hh New Forest's cresty neck.

He is on a small paddock with restricted grazing, gets 1 small scoop hi Fi lite twice a day, one handful lo cal lite and one scoop Superfix Lamalert morning and evening. He also gets 4lbs of haylage (he is on the low calorie blue HorseHage and unfortunately must stay on this due to allergies). We are only giving him haylage as he only does around 6 poos a day, which I think is quite low?

He isn't fat but has a huge, rock solid cresty neck! He gets hacked for about an hour a day 6/7 times a week.

He also needs to keep his PJs on as he had pneumonia as a foal and as such has very weak lungs (hence the allergies)!

Any tips/advice would be much appreciated.
 
Could you perhaps soak his haylage to make it less rich? Is he in overnight? That would restrict his grass intake - I guess he must be if you are feediing haylage. I have a good doer and I set aside a paddock and will now let the grass grow really long and only put her on a section of this once the grass starts to seed - it will then be of minimal nutritious value.
 
He is out 24/7, I am only giving him haylage in the evening as he only does 3 poos overnight. Can you soak haylage? Thanks for the reply!
 
You can soak haylage, but rinse it throughly before feeding on a warm day. Frankly I wouldn't be too worried with 3 poos overnight - every horse's digestion is different - how many poos a day does your horse produce? I would say between 10 and 12 are normal for mine. Even my piggy mare only produces 3 or 4 overnight and I assume that is because she is sleeping - horses do have rest periods of around 8 hours from feeding.
Personally I would stop the haylage if your horse's neck is cresty. This really is the 'last' fat store and means the horse is overweight and therefore could be at risk of laminitis. Could you not put a call into your vet and just check re the number of poos? As long as your horse has access to some sort of foarge and if he is out at grass he does in any case. If you must feed haylage I would use a slow feeder - so either double net it or use a tiny holed hay net or feed bin affair.

The shorter and sparser the grass is the sweeter and more sugar it contains. People often are lulled thinking that their horse is missing out on a short bowling green paddock, when infact these are the worst.
 
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If you feed pure magnesium it will soften the crest and help to reduce it .it will take a while but it really works. I buy mine from pro earth on ebay
 
Archiepoo said:
If you feed pure magnesium it will soften the crest and help to reduce it .it will take a while but it really works. I buy mine from pro earth on ebay
Click to expand...

A good suggestion, I also feed 2 tablespoons of salt in feed daily to combat any potassium imbalance.
 
I use mag ox as well and get good results. Could u not change to a Timothy haylage instead of rye grass? Even the high fibre one I wouldn't feed to my laminitic. And also the chaff has molasses in, could u swap to a un molassed based chaff?
 
8 poos in a 24hr period is normal. Do not soak haylage it causes bacteria, rather feed hay and soak that. Feed magnesium and exercise is really the one that gets rid of the crest
 
Thank you for the advice, have taken all on board. Thank you, the Lamalert has magnesium in it however I also have pure mag ox, should I feed that as well do you think?

With regards to the Timothy Grass, is that much lower in sugar? Would I be better on that? Also do you know of any ryegrass haylage with a lower sugar content than horsehage? Thanks again, much appreciated!
 
8 poos in 24 hours could mean not enough roughage/forage is going through him, I dont think 8 poos in 24 hours is 'normal' myself from my experience.

ps. Get him tested for EMS and Cushings as well. Sadly the grass will not be helping but if the only other option is stabling then he may be better out with more haylage (to reduce grass intake) if he can't have soaked hay) Add salt to his feed as well, inrcease up to 1-2 tablespoons a day. It may be worth trying switching his Hi fi to fast fibre or kwik/speedibeet to carry supplements.

Can you set up an electric fenced track round the paddock? 12ft wide and wider at corners and feeding/water areas? Put piles of haylage out and seperate water to encourage movement and reduce grass?
 
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Sorry, I see he only does 6 poos in 24 hours, I agree not enough. Remember haylage has a lower dry matter content than hay so you need to feed more.
 
I'd say that for a pony on restricted rations 6 poos is about right, a normal amount is about 10 -12 daily, but this would be when consuming a higher percentage of bodyweight as feed, this article recommends the faecal output should be around half for weight loss:- http://www.liv.ac.uk/equine-practice/Documents/Obesity_Management.pdf

I've also had two ponies of the same breed/weight/height and fed exactly the same, the mare would do fewer larger poos and the gelding lots of little ones!
 
when having to restrict feed intake dramatically for a pony at work the vet advised anything less than 8 poos in 24hrs is cause for concern as it indicates a lack of forage traveling through the gut.

has the pony been tested for cushings and ems? if not that would be a priority for me.

however much/little forage you are feeding i would be giving smaller amounts at least twice per day ideally more often, track system could be a great idea you could feed more bulk because the increased movement requires more calories to be used-personally i just sprinkle the hay around the field
 
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