Feed advice for a horse on box rest

[SirBrastias]

I was hoping you lovely people would be able to offer a bit of advice regarding feeding a horse on box rest. Unfortunately have had some devastating news over the weekend. My gorgeous, genuine, honest TB has suffer a small but very real fracture to his humerus bone near his elbow. When I say fracture it is more a chip or splint of bone that appears to have come from his humerus and is now sitting around the elbow joint. The surgeons at my practice have decided due to its location that they do not want to operate if they don't have too, unfortunately noone at the practice has seen this type of fracture before and neither have any of the specialists they have been in contact with. As you can imagine, it has not been a good start to the year! I am feeling a bit more positive today as his prognosis has gone from bad to much better (the vet who came and took the first x rays was, quite rightly so, very concerned), so fingers crossed he recovers enough to live a normal, happy, sound life but thats not the purpose of this thread.

He needs to be on 6-8 weeks box rest (after which they will reasses). My questions is related to what I should be doing feed wise. The only other livery at the yard (who I have known since I was little) frequently quotes that horses who are stabled should be fed much less hard feed; in fact, hers who have been in due to flooding, weren't given any hard feed at all this morning. Can anyone explain the reasoning behind this?

Before the injury he was being fed;
1 x scoop topspec calm and condition
topspec balancer
sugar beet (half a scoop-ish)
Pro Hoof supplement

He also has a big pink treat ball which he LOVES (he neighs at it) with about a handful of calm and condition nuts and 2-3 carrots in.

Obviously I would like to keep giving him the feed ball and now I have to try and get him to eat a sachet full of bute and antibiotics I feel I'm going to struggle to cut his feed down much.

I was thinking of dropping the sugar beet and calm and condition cubes by half and maybe replacing the cubes in his ball with fibre nuts? Would it be possible to supplement his feed with fibre nuts as well? He is really picky with the antibiotics but I'm hoping with some apple juice and a few days getting used to it he'll be alright. Any advice re feed would be much appreciated and infact any advice for keeping a horse on box rest sane would be welcome! My poor horse has done nothing wrong in the 2.5 years I've had him and although I know the outcome maybe that PTS is the best option for him I feel his deserves every opportunity he can get (plus I'm insured). The vets were very positive today about the possibilty of him coming fully sound (and perhaps even rideable) with rest and time to heal.

Thanks, Emma.

 

[TandD]

I'd be giving 1 large scoop of mollichaff or hifi morning and/or evening
If looses weight a yearling/youngstock cube.
Can give a balancer if wanted to.

In the treat ball just put in a basic nut....pony nuts would do! If doing this I wouldn't bother with nuts in the feed.

Most importantly make sure that there is enough forage/fibre as digestive problems will be an issue!

 

[windand rain]

it really rather depends on how good a doer he is you dont want him gaining a lot of weight and putting pressure on his leg on the other hand if he stresses and looses weight it would be a different kettle of fish
As a good doer I would try a very palatable feed my choice is grass nuts and linseed in small quantities which will hold the bute but not put a huge amount of weight on and loads of hay or haylage but not ad lib
a poor does would have a lot more of the same with grass nuts, speedibeet and micronised linseed forming the base with an alfalfa chaff to add bulk and ad lib hay or haylage but as I say it is really dependent on what type of tb he is
Would cut sugar ie mollichaff and cereal from his diet altogether

 

[cellie]

I have young tb who injured himself within 10 days of picking him up ,hes fed calm and condition and fast fibre and has added 60 kilos he was very poor condition.Whilst he was on box rest I fed 3 times a day but mainly fast fibre and some calm and condition.I used carrots in his treat ball as they took longer to drop out.I gave him little readi grass but had to be careful as it was a little bit heating whilst he was resting.To keep my boy sane an with vet permission I taped up stable size paddock so he could graze for hour each day whilst I mucked out.For a rising 5 yr old he was absolute saint and behaved impeccably in his paddock.He cut his leg to bone so needed to keep very quiet.It also helped when he was allowed out as he had never missed complete turnout and was happy to just graze.I didnt have problem with pain killers he had danilon and ate all his food. Good luck with your boy

 

[tallyho!]

Just give him as much hay as he can eat. You don't want to give a horse on box rest more energy than he can expend as that defeats the object if they have extra unwanted energy. They will just get into trouble box walking or being fretful. Keep up your vitamin supplement in some unmollassed chaff with a bit of soaked speedibeet so he thinks he is getting his fair share of buckets a day. Add some succulent peelings for interest if you like. Horses on box rest inevitably lose condition and it can look like its weight that is being lost but its just muscle that has gone soft. Our mare looked ribby after her 6 month box rest but weighing her at the vets showed that she had lost a tiny amount, its just that she had changed shape.

 

[SirBrastias]

Thanks for the replies so far! He used to be on chaff (can't remember which one) but I cut it out as he went barefoot at the back and I wanted to keep his sugar intact as low as possible, he also used to cough more when on chaff. I'd prefer not to go back to it if I don't have too.

He's not a particularly good doer, although the vet said he was looking fantastic for the time of year I fear that's because he's been fed well for a long time (he had a ropey month or two in the summer when I dropped his feed down to early). He also is a bit of a 'cow splatter' so I'm not convinced he always gets the best out of his feed (this has been looked at by a vet previously) though he is better on hay.

Regarding hay; he is on a big hay net full morning and night (3 big wedges maybe four smaller ones?). Sometimes he eats most of it sometimes he leaves most of eat, I normally just top it up (and the farmer usually chucks him an extra slice in during the night). I was thinking of maybe getting some ready grass; when he first arrived he had to be stabled for a few days and stopped eating his hay but he took such a long time to settle into his new home he was a bit of a anxious wreck for the first 6 months I had him (he would never have coped with being stabled for this long). However, now he is a much more rounded, relaxed horse so hopefully he will cope better, might still skip the ready grass if it could be heating.

He is also allowed out for short walks for some grass and can wonder loose (enclosed) on the yard so he will be moving around a little bit. He's just not allowed to be turned out where he may move too quickly or do something daft.

I guess the consensus at the moment is to cut back on the topspec and get him some grass/fibre nuts.

 

[Goldenstar]

I feed ,haylage , hay bloks , chopped oat straw and sometimes unmolassed alfalfa lots of different forages to keep them occupied and eating .
I feed speedibeet and some linseed with a tiny amount of something they like to get drugs down them ( usually oats with mine ).
I don't give toys my experiance is they wind them up .
They have a horse in the box next door all the time .
And the radio on all days so they can't hear horses going in and out on the top yard.

 

[SirBrastias]

Is probably worth noting when I say sugar beet I mean Kwikbeet

 

[L&M]

You do not need as much hard feed as the horse will not be requiring the energy.

When one of ours was on box rest we just fed ad lib hay and Baileys lo cal balancer to ensure he got all his vits and mins. We also hung up a swede every few days to keep the horse amused.

 

[Maesfen]

You do not need as much hard feed as the horse will not be requiring the energy.

When one of ours was on box rest we just fed ad lib hay and Baileys lo cal balancer to ensure he got all his vits and mins. We also hung up a swede every few days to keep the horse amused.

This. The worst thing you can do is stuff him full of feed that he cannot use the energy from and that includes any hard feed at all, even just chaff. Yes, he'll lose muscle and tone and possibly get a bit of a belly but better that than be hyper from energy he can't use when he needs to be quiet and it will soon go once you can lead him out again. Always make sure he has hay and has company and possibly leave a radio on for him, Radio 4 seems to be favourite as the voices are continuous.

 

[MadBlackLab]

I would give soaked grass nuts so he can 'graze' and get the goodness he would usually get from the grass

 

[SirBrastias]

I managed to get him to eat all his antibiotics/bute this morning by just using a small handful of hard feed (though a scoop of kwikbeet, 3 carrots and 2 apples chopped up and for some reason me stood right next to him - even I even moved a few feet away he would stop and just look at me like I was feeding him poison), so hopefully will be able to reduce/eliminate the hard feed.

Will replace the top spec with just a grass/fibre/pony nut and save it for his ball and a handful every now and again if he's looking miserable. Anyone got any recommendations on brands that are palatable?

Will keep with a small amount if kwikbeet so he can have his supplements and feel like he's having a feed still.

Regarding chaff, as I want to keep his sugar intact low, would something like happy hoof be suitable?

He's only shod at the front at the moment, but always said I would take the fronts off and try and get him fully barefoot if he was on rest so want to take this into account regarding feed.

Will get some swedes and maybe some parsnips although I haven't had much luck in the past. Unfortunately he also seems to hate likits but as they are full off sugar that's probably not a bad thing.

Thanks everyone for taking the time to explain and sharing your stories/advice.

Emma

 

[vam]

My boy fractured his knee in August and was on full box rest for several weeks and is still on limited turnout for about 2 to 4 hours a day depending on the weather. He is currently on a mix of hay and haylege through the day plus a large bucket of ready grass out in his paddock in the morning and a smaller one in the afternoon, he gets haylege in the paddock as well (not really any grass with this weather) plus a big net to come into, a large section of hay in the afternoon and then another load of hay in the evening with the last section going in at 9pm.
He is not the best doer and I was ok until he stressed a load of weight off when the horses changed fields to the one opposite his stable, understandably he was a bit miffed!
Feed wise he gets non molassed chaff, fibre nuts, linseed and brewer’s yeast. It’s mostly chaff (about a scoop) in each feed and a just under a scoop of nuts between the 2 feeds. So far he is looking ok but certainly not the weight I would like, then again I'm not worried as he has lost a lot of muscle and I don’t like him fat even without a dodgy leg.
Oh and he is really fussy and has now decided that he isn’t as keen on the haylege I used after having someone else’s instead :rolleyes3: plus the fact he is fed up with being in means he picks a lot hence the lots of different types of forage during the day.
I didn’t give him a ball as I was worried about him kicking it with his bad leg. Can’t give him grass nuts as he doesn’t like mushy feeds and I wouldn’t want to feed them in large quantities dry which I why I feed ready grass instead.
He hasn’t got excited or stupid (bar the box walking when the horses moved but that was nothing to do with feed) and I have been leading him out even in all this wind and he has been fine, on his toes but not trying to cart me into the next county.

 

[Merrymoles]

My boy had six weeks' box rest and had ad lib hay and his normal feed, which is only unmollassed chaff and low-cal balancer anyway. However, I also used Baileys High Fibre Nuggets (which I give as a treat generally) as I was concerned about keeping his gut working well. I soaked them overnight to make a sort of sloppy porridge which he loved and which disguised his bute well. I was also lucky enough to be able to make a box-sized paddock and that definitely kept him sane. He also got a handful of soggy Readigrass at lunchtime.

 

[SirBrastias]

He's not allowed unsupervised but as our yard is enclosed he is now allowed a wonder around morning and evening while he's being mucked out. He's also allowed to be walked out in hand for some grass (will have to be weekend). So he will be moving around alittle. He's not allowed out on his own incase he rolls or jumps/runs around.