Feed help needed please!!

J

jstanbury

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Hi everyone

I have a 16 yr old 12hh Dartmoor who has Cushings, COPD and Metabolic Syndrome. She is very prone to laminitis but since being diagnosed with the above and on the correct drugs, has been sound for a year now. I'm having trouble feeding her as she coughs on soaked/steamed hay and she can't have haylage because it's too rich. She used to have Timothy but the vet advised me to stop that, so as she is out on a fairly bare strip of grass I have been feeding her Hi-fi Lite as a hay replacer. In a conversation with the vet yesterday he said that Hi-fi lite is too rich, probably twice as bad as hay, but the Hi-fi Lite bag says it's better than hay for laminitics. Another vet has told me it might be an idea to feed her just high fibre cubes instead, but I'm really not sure that's the right thing to do. I'm sooo confused. Can anybody give me some advice on any alternatives please???

Thanks very much. J.
 
A lot of Laminitics can stay footy on alfalfa based products; but Hi Fi Lite, rich?!!! never heard that before!

I would buy a bag of Dodson and Horrell Fast Fibre, very low in sugar and starch and soaks in 30 seconds into a much; both my natives are fed this with magnesium oxide, one is 18 the other 20 and both look fab :) You can use it as a hay replacer.

Other than that Mollichaff's High Fibre chaff is very low in sugar and starch too if you want her to chew!

Spillers High Fibre Cubes are alfalfa free and I suppose you could soak them too
 
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Try getting in touch with the Laminintis Clinic. They are experts in Lami & Cushings horses and can recommend suitable diets.

If your pony coughs even on soaked hay perhaps you could try one of the Global Herbs supplements like Airwayplus which we used very successfully on our pony.

Both the above have websites.
 
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